Gamification and Uberized Work in Application Companies

Abstract

GAMIFICATION AND UBERIZED WORK IN APPLICATION COMPANIESUberization, the gig economy, on-demand economy, platform economy, and crowdsourcing are examples of terms used in several academic works to refer to the large number of transformations promoted by information and communication technologies (hereinafter abbreviated as "ICT") in the universes of organizations and work, although there is no consensus on their meanings (Filgueiras & Antunes, 2020, p. 30). The term "uberization" (Slee, 2017) refers directly to Uber, but is not restricted to it, since it is used in a broad sense as a global trend that affects occupations with different qualifications and incomes, materializing the processes and subjectivities associated with a new neoliberal way of the world (Dardot & Laval, 2016). Sociologist Ana Claudia Moreira coined the expression "uberism" to refer to a model of work organization and management, akin to Taylorism, Fordism and Toyotism, which emerged from the foundation of ICT and digital platforms (Santos, 2020). Like Uber, Loggi, iFood, Rappi, and Lyft are also examples of "application companies" (Abílio, 2019).Initially, the transformations promoted by ICTs offered workers countless opportunities for overcoming the rigidity of traditional jobs, for example, and allowing people to accumulate activities and generate extra income.Income generation supposedly happens in a fun way and in the free time of the service provider (Stefano, 2017), or when the provider so wishes (Valenduc, 2019), by way of their performance as a creator or a partner of the application company. Another advantage of the platform model is the reduction in distance between income opportunities and workers, who can carry out their activities regardless of their geographical location (Kittur et al., 2013), as in the case of the Amazon Mechanical Turk micro-work platform (Moreschi, Pereira, & Cozman, 2020). Distance has also become smaller between service providers and consumers thanks to digital platforms and applications that reduce prices and speed up the provision of a huge range of services (Manyika et al., 2016), from transportation, esthetics and cleaning to general services and deliveries. More advantages appear in this list, such as the democratization of the means of production, and the promotion of neo-entrepreneurship (with opportunities for small businesses, as mentioned by Filgueiras & Antunes, 2020).Despite the initial enthusiasm associated with the autonomy, economic opportunities and equity (Schor & Eddy, 2020) that are promoted by digital platforms, the current context, especially considering the COVID-19 pandemic, points to a dependence on some services, such as deliveries, in addition to showing that, despite some positive results, many who work under such conditions suffer the negative consequences of the platform economy. This new economy is led by startups that define themselves as technology companies and intermediaries between consumers and producers/service providers (Filgueiras & Antunes, 2020), and that structure t...

New tech, old exploitation: Gig economy, algorithmic control and migrant labour

“…This method allows for platforms to retain the power within the employment relationship, with workers having very little bargaining power. Platform companies are concealed behind algorithms, as they position themselves as apolitical empty spaces, to move the sites of production to the workers and away from the company (De Oliveira, 2021).…”

“…This strategically curbs collective organising against platform companies and reinforces the work harder and smarter, get paid better which is fundamental to a continuance of platform companies' economic growth. De Oliveira (2021) makes the distinction between gamification from above, which utilises similar processes of information and feedback of games, without the fun and gamification from below, which utilises games to make work easier and can be utilised by workers as resistance (De Oliveria, 2021, p. 3). The use of gamification within ‘Uberised’ workforces creates conditions of exploitative labour and intensification of labour processes.…”