Introduction

Abstract

Platforms are a novel organisational form in the modern global economy. This introduction highlights the book’s focus on one actor in particular: the platform worker, whether Deliveroo riders or online workers, whether on the streets of London or across the world. It starts with a critical analysis of the organisation of platforms and platform work yet also draws attention to moments of solidarity in the struggle against platform capitalism and to the new ways that workers are finding to resist and organise. The aim is to try and better understand the struggles of workers against platforms. The introduction concludes with an outline of the book’s purpose and structure, chapter by chapter.

At Least I’m My Own Boss! Explaining Consent, Coercion and Resistance in Platform Work

“…This contradictory tension is commonly acknowledged within both academic studies (Sutherland et al, 2020) and in the field of public policy (Broughten et al, 2018). These seemingly contradictory beliefs are also found to co-exist on the gig ‘shop-floor’ (Wood et al, 2018a; Woodcock and Graham, 2020).…”

Beyond Uberization: The co-constitution of technology and organizing

“…Currently, organizational theorists are only peripherally involved in the growing regulatory, societal, economic and political debates surrounding technology developments such as digital platforms, AI and work, the gig economy, and surveillance capitalism (e.g. Frey, 2019; US Congress, 2020; Woodcock & Graham, 2019; Zuboff, 2019).…”

“…These all-encompassing algorithms are consequential as they bring about a new organizational reality where previously considered complex tasks get broken up, allocated, evaluated and tightly controlled with little human involvement. Indeed, the increased deployment of algorithms in management is already significantly reducing workers’ role in affecting how work is organized, priced and compensated (see Woodcock & Graham, 2019). Expertise becomes less valued as tasks are broken down into simple activities that are algorithmically assigned to freelancers via the uberized platforms of UpWork or Amazon Mechanical Turk.…”

From Monopoly to Monopsony Capitalism

“…Instead of outsourcing specific tasks, they create the business and then outsource everything, keeping to themselves only the customer interface, or access to customers, which is what allows them to capture much of the value created through the platform economies. “This is a continuation and intensification of the longer process of outsourcing, minimizing the costs and risks to themselves” (Woodcock and Graham 2020 , 44). As a result, Airbnb operates the largest hotel service in the world without owning a single room, while Uber owns no taxis.…”

“…This allows the platforms the power to increase their own share of earnings, literally increasing their own commissions at will, though within limits. When the then-CEO of Uber was asked why commissions were being increased from 25 to 30 per cent, his reply was, “Because we can,” (quoted in Woodcock and Graham, 2020 ). This simple statement is indicative of the enormous monopsony market power of platforms vis-à-vis their workers.…”