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uva.nl
Global Digital Cultures GDC

Global Boss, Local Workers?

How context influences food delivery riders’ relation to platforms (GLOBLOW)

This project explores dynamics within platform capitalism from the workers’ perspective, investigating a number of dimensions associated with workers' relation towards the platform in a global comparative fashion. It focuses on the food delivery sector, investigating workers’ relation towards the same global platform (UberEats) in different local contexts (Amsterdam, Milan, and Buenos Aires). The relation between riders and platform/algorithms is operationalized along three dimensions: 1) algorithmic imaginaries; 2) algorithmic resistance; 3) labor conditions. We plan to conduct a two-steps research based on surveys and in-depth interviews. This project aims at unraveling the entanglement between how riders relate to their global platform and the local context in which their work is embedded. The research combines insights from urban sociology and media studies and brings into the picture aspects of political economy and social movements studies.

Davide Beraldo is a postdoc in the DATACTIVE and ALEX projects, and lecturer in New Media and Digital Culture (UvA). Main research interests: digitally-mediated movements; algorithms; irony politics.

Letizia Chiappini is a PhD candidate in Urban Studies at the University of Amsterdam and University of Milano-Bicocca. Her research revolves around urban and societal transformations in relation to digital platforms.

 

Blogposts: 

As part of this GDC-funded project, Davide Beraldo, Letizia Chiappini and Giovanni Rossetti have published the blogpost "Global boss, local workers? Investigating algorithmic imaginaries and practices of UberEats workers in Amsterdam, Milan and Buenos Aires". Read the full text here.