In the Grip of the Algos: Stories of a Precarious Worker of Platform Capitalism
Research Article
How to Cite
Abramov R.N. In the Grip of the Algos: Stories of a Precarious Worker of Platform Capitalism. Interaction. Interview. Interpretation. 2022. Vol. 14. No. 3. P. 35-54. DOI: https://doi.org/10.19181/inter.2022.14.3.2 (in Russ.).
Abstract
Marketplaces and e-commerce are at the forefront of changes associated with the development of platform and digital capitalism. Changes in the nature of hiring and the status of workers in platform capitalist companies reflect general employment trends. At the same time, the work of hundreds of thousands of workers in this segment is poorly studied, and explanations of its nature are mainly theoretical. This article is based on an analysis of an array of diary entries by Russian social ethnographer Andrey Starovoitenko, who worked for several months in the distribution center of one of the leading Russian marketplaces. The article is part of a column devoted to the analysis of materials from an ethnographic study of labor in the marketplace. The article draws attention to the role of anonymized marketplace spaces in the desubjectivization of workers who feel like a simple continuation of a complex digitalized socio-technical system. The text talks about the place of digital surveillance and control and the role of special equipment in integrating unskilled personnel into the complex algorithmic system of the marketplace. Separately, the issue of desubjectivization of marketplace workers and the limitations of professional socialization is considered. The conclusion is made about the place of precarious wage labor in e-commerce, taking into account the desire to transfer unskilled labor into the state of digital day laborers deprived of contractual relations with the company. To reveal the main plots, the Amazon research by A. Delfanti, the theoretical resources of Roth's neo-Marxist interpretations of the labor sphere, Z. Bauman's concepts of light capitalism, and selected theses of the actor-network theory are involved. In addition, the article refers to examples of social criticism of labor in the factories of platform capitalism, reflected in modern cinema.
Keywords:
platform labor, digital capitalism, precariat, day laborers, labor space, e-commerce, marketplace
References
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Srnichek N. (2019) Kapitalizm platform [Platform Capitalism]. М.: HSE Publishing House. (In Russ.)
Strebkov D.O., Shevchuk A.V. (2022) Chto my` znaem o frilanserax? Sociologiya svobodnoj zanyatosti [What Do We Know about Freelancers? Sociology of Free Employment]. Moscow: HSE Publishing House. (In Russ.) DOI: https://doi.org/10.17323/978-5-7598-2722-1. EDN: GYGZLX
Toshchenko Zh.T. (ed.) (2021) Prekarnaya zanyatost: istoki, kriterii, osobennosti [Precarious Employment: Origins, Criteria, Features]. Moscow: Ves’ Mir publ. (In Russ.) EDN: RPZDHJ
Xajdegger M. (2003) By`tie i vremya [Being and Time]. Transl. from German by V.V. Bibixina. Kharkov: “Folio”. (In Russ.)
Xumaryan D.G. (2021) Rezhimy` organizacii truda v gibkix firmax: sociologicheskij analiz praktik menedzhmenta (na primere IKT i kreativny`x industrij) [Regimes of Work Organization in Flexible Firms: a Sociological Analysis of Management Practice (on the Case of ICT and Creative Industries)]. Dis. kand. nauk. M.: HSE University. (In Russ.)
Zhizhek S., Ruda F., Xamza A. (2020) Chitat` Marksa [Reading Marx]. М.: HSE Publishing House. (In Russ.)
Bergvall-Kåreborn B., Howcroft D. (2014) Amazon Mechanical Turk and the commodification of labour. New Technology, Work and Employment. Vol. 29. No. 3. P. 213—223. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/ntwe.12038
Boltanski L, Chiapello E (2011) Novy`j duh kapitalizma [The New Spirit of Capitalism]. Ed. by S. Fokina. Мoscow: NLO. (In Russ.)
Crouch C. (2020) Pobediteli gig-e`konomika [Will the Gig Economy Prevail]. Мoscow: HSE Publishing House. (In Russ.)
Delfanti A. (2021) The Warehouse: Workers and Robots at Amazon. London: Pluto Press.
Fernández-Macías E. (2018) Automation, digitalisation and platforms: Implications for work and employment. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union.
Ford G. (2013) Moya zhizn`, moi dostizheniya [My life and work]. Мoscow: “Mann-Ivanov-Feber”. (In Russ.)
George E. Marcus (2006) Where have all the tales of fieldwork gone? Ethnos. Journal of Anthropology. Vol. 71. No. 1. P. 113—122. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00141840600603244
Gudova E.A. (2018) “Nu, e`to zhe Pochta!”: kak proisxodyat istorii v organizaciyax, a organizacii v istoriyax [“Well, That`s the Postal Service!”: How Organizations Produce Stories and Stories Shape Organizing]. Etnograficheskoe Obozrenie [Ethnographic Review]. No. 3. P. 151—167. (In Russ.) DOI: https://doi.org/10.7868/S0869541518030119. EDN: XQLCFN
Hoyle E, John P. (1995) Professional Knowledge and Professional Practice. London: Cassel. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/3121708
Jackson J. (1970) Professions and professionalization e editorial introduction. In: Jackson J. (ed.) Professions and professionalization. London: Cambridge University Press. P. 1—15.
Maanen J. Van. (1988) Tales of the field: On writing ethnography. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/590904
Maksimova A.S. (2012) Analiz polevy`x dnevnikov v kontekste proizvodstva e`tnograficheskix tekstov [Analysis of Field Diaries in the Context of the Production of Ethnographic Texts]. Monitoring obshhestvennogo mneniya: e`konomicheskie i social`ny`e peremeny` [Monitoring of Public Opinion: Economic and Social Change]. No. 1 (107). P. 128—140. EDN: OQMGKB
Marks K. (1972) E`konomiko-filosofskie rukopisi 1844 g. [The Economical & Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844]. Vol. 42. Мoscow: Politizdat.
Ozhe M. (2017) Ne-mesta. Vvedenie v antropologiyu gipermoderna [No-places. Introduction to the Anthropology of Hypermodernity]. Мoscow: NLO.
Pinchuk O.V. (2021) Kak vozmozhno e`tnograficheskoe issledovanie truda v Rossii? Demarginalizaciya e`tnografii v pole prikladnogo issledovaniya [How is Ethnography of Work Possible in Russia? Demarginalization of Ethnography in the Field of Business Research]. Sociologiya vlasti [Sociology of Power]. Vol. 33. No. 3. P. 109—130. (In Russ.) DOI: https://doi.org/10.22394/2074-0492-2021-3-109-130. EDN: CBZYRL
Sardan J.-P. O. (2015) Epistemology, Fieldwork, and Anthropology. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. P. 83—103. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137477880
Shevchuk A.V., Chizhova D.A., Demina D.E., Chugunkova V.A. (2021) Trud voditelej taksi v usloviyax algoritmicheskogo upravleniya [The Work of Taxi Drivers Under Algorithmic Control]. Monitoring obshhestvennogo mneniya: e`konomicheskie i social`ny`e peremeny` [Monitoring of Public Opinion: Economic and Social Changes]. No. 3. P. 356—381. (In Russ.) DOI: https://doi.org/10.14515/monitoring.2021.3.1934. EDN: TFWRXS
Shevchuk A.V. (2020) Ot fabriki k platforme: avtonomiya i kontrol` v cifrovoj e`konomike [From Factory to Platform: Autonomy and Control in the Digital Economy]. Sociologiy vlasti [Sociology of Power]. Vol. 32. No. 1. P. 30—54 (In Russ.) DOI: https://doi.org/10.22394/2074-0492-2020-1-30-54. EDN: XHQTOI
Shevchuk A.V. (2002) Postfordistskie koncepcii kak issledovatel`skaya programma [Post-Fordist Concepts as a Research program]. Economicheskay sociologiy [Economical Sociology]. Vol. 3. No. 2. P. 46—61. (In Russ.) EDN: OYUWOP
Srnichek N. (2019) Kapitalizm platform [Platform Capitalism]. М.: HSE Publishing House. (In Russ.)
Strebkov D.O., Shevchuk A.V. (2022) Chto my` znaem o frilanserax? Sociologiya svobodnoj zanyatosti [What Do We Know about Freelancers? Sociology of Free Employment]. Moscow: HSE Publishing House. (In Russ.) DOI: https://doi.org/10.17323/978-5-7598-2722-1. EDN: GYGZLX
Toshchenko Zh.T. (ed.) (2021) Prekarnaya zanyatost: istoki, kriterii, osobennosti [Precarious Employment: Origins, Criteria, Features]. Moscow: Ves’ Mir publ. (In Russ.) EDN: RPZDHJ
Xajdegger M. (2003) By`tie i vremya [Being and Time]. Transl. from German by V.V. Bibixina. Kharkov: “Folio”. (In Russ.)
Xumaryan D.G. (2021) Rezhimy` organizacii truda v gibkix firmax: sociologicheskij analiz praktik menedzhmenta (na primere IKT i kreativny`x industrij) [Regimes of Work Organization in Flexible Firms: a Sociological Analysis of Management Practice (on the Case of ICT and Creative Industries)]. Dis. kand. nauk. M.: HSE University. (In Russ.)
Zhizhek S., Ruda F., Xamza A. (2020) Chitat` Marksa [Reading Marx]. М.: HSE Publishing House. (In Russ.)
Article
Received: 03.08.2022
Accepted: 28.09.2022
Citation Formats
Other cite formats:
APA
Abramov, R. N. (2022). In the Grip of the Algos: Stories of a Precarious Worker of Platform Capitalism. Interaction. Interview. Interpretation, 14(3), 35-54. https://doi.org/10.19181/inter.2022.14.3.2
Section
Research discourses: professional work, employment, ethnography
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