Brothers and broken dreams: Men, masculinity, and emotions in platform capitalism

Abstract

How platform companies act as intermediaries between precarious workers and consumers has received critical attention in terms of the way companies exploit those who work for them and the ambiguity they create in the labor market. We study how male drivers, or “brothers,” in an intermediary platform that provides ride‐hailing services in Vietnam discuss their work and lives on social media. We analyze how men experience getting stuck, not achieving their desired dignity, and being exploited, and how they enact masculinity through sharing emotions such as despair, anger, and shame in dealing with their experiences. We argue that this extends understanding of how platform capitalism is experienced by men in the Global South where many low‐skilled jobs have always been precarious, but platform companies offer hope and dreams of freedom and prosperity. How men cope with broken dreams, grapple with challenges to their sense of masculinity, and seek to retain a sense of agency are important questions today.

Forum: The Case for Reflexive Writing Practices in Management Communication and Organization Studies

“…Studying the experiences of these people and writing about them with respect—not categorizing them but recognizing them on their own terms—was a learning journey for me, guided by one of the co-authors who did the ethnographic study and represents a minority themselves. Engaging in a study about male drivers in an online ride-hailing company in an Asian country that was unfamiliar to me (Dinh & Tienari, 2022) was another humbling experience. Together with a native of that country who collected the materials, we explored how men in dire circumstances interacted on social media.…”

Platform work‐lives in the gig economy: Recentering work–family research

“…Studies have identified constrained “independent” worker autonomy over work volumes and scheduling (Lehdonvirta, 2018); problems of night working, overwork, sleep deprivation, and exhaustion among crowdworkers (D'Cruz & Noronha, 2016; Wood et al., 2018); and multiple anxieties among “independent” gig workers untethered from a formal employer (Petriglieri et al., 2019). Studies also identify the requirement of constant availability as discriminating against crowdworkers with childcare responsibilities (Piasna & Drahokoupil, 2017) and how platform capitalism “breaks the dreams” of gig workers seeking to provide for their families while being in charge of their time (Dinh & Tienari, 2022). These are important contributions but have typically developed in isolation from an expansive, feminist WLB research agenda, which predates platform research and has much to offer.…”