Building labour power in the platform economy
A comparative analysis of worker struggles in German and Norwegian food and grocery delivery
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11489755 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Tatiana López (0000-0002-7597-4331, Institute of Geography and Geology University of Würzburg Würzburg Germany), Kristin Jesnes (0000-0002-0758-0445, Fafo Institute for Labour and Social Research Oslo Norway, corresponding author), Oğuz Alyanak (0000-0002-9855-0822, Oxford Internet Institute University of Oxford Oxford UK), Zeynep Karlıdağ (Berlin Social Science Center (WZB) Berlin Germany) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 40 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 242-264 |
| Publication date | 2025-07-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | New Technology Work and Employment (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0268-1072 • E-ISSN: 1468-005X |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/ntwe.12312 |
| OpenAlex | W4403765347 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 8 |
| References cited | 42 |
This study undertakes a comparative analysis of delivery workers’ struggles in Norway and Germany. Through the theoretical lens of the power resources approach, we analyse how delivery workers in Berlin and Oslo combine associational, structural, institutional, coalitional and discursive power resources, responding to different institutionalised frameworks of industrial relations. We make three contributions to debates on worker agency and resistance in the platform economy. First, we show that delivery workers need to actively combine different power resources to overcome barriers to organising and exercising structural power, resulting from platforms’ model of work organisation. Second, we highlight the role of institutional contexts in shaping workers’ collective organising strategies. Finally, our analysis stresses that the power resources that food delivery workers have built are often contested and circumvented by counter‐practices from the platform companies
Business · Economics · Economy · Geography · German · Labour economics · Norwegian · Digital Economy and Work Transformation · Employment and Welfare Studies · Labor Movements and Unions
The Fight Against Platform Capitalism
Forces of Labor
The Power Resources Approach
Will Trade Unions Survive in the Platform Economy? Emerging Patterns of Platform Workerss Collective Voice and Representation in Europe
Power resource theory revisited
Collective wage regulation in northern Europe under strain
Negotiating limits on algorithmic management in digitalised services
Shifting gears
Informalization in gig food delivery in the UK
Do unions care about low‐paid workers? Evidence from Norway
A global analysis of worker protest in digital labour platforms
The Taylor Review
Beyond traditional trade unionism
Making gigs work
Theorising labour unrest and trade unionism in the platform economy
Varieties of Power in Transnational Labor Alliances
Working Class in Welfare Capitalism
Labour process theory and the gig economy
This isn't forever for me
Mobile workers, contingent labour
Stratified pathways into platform work
Qualitative Quality
Advancing Workers' Rights in the Gig Economy through Discursive Power
Migration and Migrant Labour in the Gig Economy
The Worker Capabilities Approach
Riders on the Storm
Working-Class Power, Capitalist-Class Interests, and Class Compromise
| Unique citing works | 8 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 8 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2026 (2) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 8 |