Based on an ethnographic study in the Paris region, this article analyzes digital platforms’ multidimensional control over vehicle for hire drivers. The organizational model of these firms is characterized by the externalization of production to an independent workforce and by a dematerialized control over work. The mobile application implements a system of incitement, gamification, and evaluation, which naturalizes the economic and organizational control over workers, which is legitimized by an entrepreneurial ideology. In response, drivers resort to various strategies to gain agency and even resist control: tax fraud in order to loosen the financial constraints; rejection of quality standards in order to challenge subordination; refusal of exclusivity to a platform; and gaining client loyalty in order to reduce economic dependence.
Keywords
- Platform capitalism
- digital organization of work
- independent work
- control over work
- disengagement
- resistance