What is so funny about platform labour in Brazil? Ride-hailing drivers’ use of humour and memes on Facebook groups

Abstract

In this article, we focused on data drawn from two Brazilian Facebook groups that discuss on-demand driving (Uber and 99Pop). We focus particularly on the use of humour in the stories that on-demand drivers (ride-hailing) share, as it was identified that humour is widely used within these groups. This article has three objectives: (1) to detect the types of stories shared by on-demand drivers in the Facebook groups; (2) to determine the relationships these stories have with the work of on-demand driving; and (3) to understand the dimensions of professional identity and negotiation of platform labour conditions. Therefore, three dimensions of the stories shared by on-demand drivers were identified: the relationships they establish with their clients, their relationships with the platforms (the affordances and limitations the platforms provide and represent), and the everyday work relationships among the drivers developed by establishing Facebook as a digital workspace. These dimensions lead to the formation and negotiation of their professional identity and reveal how they deal with precarity through humour.

Social media and platform work: Stories, practices, and workers’ organisation

“…Concerning socialisation, the work of Pires et al (2023) analyses the practices of humorous content sharing between Brazilian on-demand drivers in two Facebook groups across. The authors observed across a year different types of stories that are shared and how memes and humorous content are related to on-demand driving and the dimensions of professional identity and negotiation of platform labour conditions.…”