Thrown under the bus and outrunning it! The logic of Didi and taxi drivers’ labour and activism in the on-demand economy

Abstract

This article examines how taxi drivers adapt to, manipulate and fight against the rise of ride-hailing platforms like Didi Chuxing in China (which purchased Uber China). Chinese taxi drivers entered the on-demand labour platforms before private car drivers. Based on a nationwide data survey, the article argues that the technological power of Didi took shape by reinforcing inequalities facing informally employed taxi drivers prior to the emergence of ride-hailing apps. Drivers, far from being passive app users, have counteracted the changes in the work environment that resulted from platformisation in new and evolving ways, from strikes to algorithmic activism. This study suggests that online platforms are contested spaces where digital labour politics penetrate beyond the purported algorithmic power of the technology. The article enriches researches on on-demand labour by deconstructing the distinction between taxi drivers and private gig drivers and by pointing to the unfolding new grounds for digital labour activism.

The organisation and experience of work in the gig economy

“…In some contexts, the conditions are such that the job quality, as perceived by workers, is very low. For instance, Chen (2018) shows how the work conditions of app-based taxi drivers in China lead workers to qualify their job as a 'life struggle, creating exhaustion and health problems. Wood et al (2019) present a more nuanced picture of the work of online workers in Asia and Africa in the form of a trade-off.…”

Collective action and provider classification in the sharing economy

“…Online communities can also be leveraged to enable grass‐roots forms of activism (Stephenson and Wray, ; Salehi et al ., ). Chen's () study on labour activism among Didi Taxi Drivers demonstrates that online communication, in this case through mobile social media sites, can help to transmit information about strikes. Research on online‐driven activism, however, has shown that collective action must navigate the unique social dynamics of the internet (Fitzgerald et al ., ; Earl and Kimport, ) and that online communities are liable to fail, particularly when the political stakes are high (Beyer, ).…”

Labour geographies of the platform economy: Understanding collective organizing strategies in the context of digitally mediated work

“…While both crowdworkers and place-based platform workers demonstrate labour solidarity, the geographies of their collective expressions are distinct. On the one hand, this is attributed to the fact that workers tend to voice their collective claims where they work and using their tools of the trade; crowdwork-ers frequently use computers to gather online in forums and on social media, while place-based workers frequently meet in airport parking lots, city parks and on street corners, connecting through word of mouth or via mobile phones (Chen, 2018;Wood, Lehdonvirta and Graham, 2018). The scale of expressions of solidarity also mirrors labour market patterns; place-based workers are predominately engaged locally or nationally, while crowdworkers attempt to build more geographically expansive forms of solidarity.…”