Regulating Flexibility: Uber’s Platform as a Technological Work Arrangement

Abstract


 
 
 When initiating its Norwegian operations, the transportation platform Uber adjusted its business model to the Norwegian regulation of the taxi market by focusing on its high-end offering, Uber Black, organized through limousine companies who employ the drivers and own the cars. The Uber Black drivers in Oslo are classified as employees and endowed with a substantially flexible work arrangement. Based on a ‘traveling ethnography’ among Uber Black drivers in Oslo, this article conceptualizes Uber’s digital platform as a technological work arrangement. The analysis shows that while the platform is experienced as an opaque form of management that limits the drivers’ formal flexibility, the effects of the technological work arrangement is contingent on the drivers’ formal work arrangement and the characteristics of the Uber Black market in Oslo.
 
 

Employees’ Relational Work on Social Media

“…Previous studies have provided interesting insights on how employer-employee relationships are constituted through talk (Uhl-Bien & Ospina 2012), continuously changing and shaped by developing information and communication technology (Backman & Hedenus, 2019;Cortini 2009;Wilner et al 2017). Exploring how employers talked about relational work, our analysis adds to previous research foregrounding the role played by technology in labor market changes (Oppegaard 2020).…”

A Tailspin for Taxi Drivers: Platform Labor, Deregulations, and a Migrant Occupation

“…There is limited Norwegian research on TNC work specifically, as Uber X was illegal in Norway until recently. However, a study on Uber Black, Uber's high end limousine service that remained legal in Norway throughout, indicates that challenges may arrive (Oppegaard , 2021. This research shows that drivers experience a high degree of insecurity and external control, imposed on them through Uber's algorithms and the technological work arrangement (Oppegaard , 2021.…”

Smith, Jason E. 2020. Smart Machines and Service Work. Automation in an Age of Stagnation. London: Reaktion Books.

“…Instead of replacing circulation labor, Smith argues, technology replaces managers and supervisors. These 'unproductive' activities are increasingly carried out by algorithms of digital platforms in the gig economy (Oppegaard 2021), wearable devices promoting efficiency and disciplinary surveillance.…”