Illusioned and Alienated
Can Gig Workers Organise Collectively
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21187945 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Dragana Mrvos (University of South Florida, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 19 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 262-276 |
| Publication date | 2021-04-07 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | tripleC Communication Capitalism & Critique Open Access Journal for a Global Sustainable Information Society (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1726-670X • E-ISSN: 1726-670X |
| Publisher | Information Society Research (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.31269/triplec.v19i1.1236 |
| OpenAlex | W3147118100 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 10 |
By studying the fraudulent benefits of flexibility in the ride-hailing gig economy, this article explains alienation as a condition in which workers are excluded from the product, estranged, and disadvantaged. Material estrangement, an objective aspect of alienation exemplified by arbitrary distribution of income, capitalists’ exclusive access to data, and robotic communication between Uber and their drivers, has many physiological (subjective) manifestations. Dissatisfaction, powerlessness, and isolation as subjective expressions of alienation prominently shape the prospects of collective labour mobilisation by both sparking and hindering organisational potential. Additionally, the example of workers’ re-appropriation of Uber’s app against Uber explains how modern technologies serve not only as a medium to expand capitalist interests, but enhance possibilities for labour cooperation and liberation. The proposed argumentation uses the Autonomist Marxist concept of “social factory” as a meta-framework, drawing on original ethnographic and interview data on ride-hailing Uber drivers in the gig economy
Alienation · Appropriation · Argumentation theory · Capitalism · Computer security · Disadvantaged · Epistemology · Gig economy · Hacker · Marxist philosophy · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Digital Economy and Work Transformation · Employment and Welfare Studies · Gender Studies · Law · Sharing Economy and Platforms
The Rise of the 'Just-in-Time Workforce'
Cash Burning Machine
Communication and Capitalism
Cyber-Proletariat
Capital’s Artificial Intellect Becoming Uber’s Means of Autonomous Immaterial Production
The Great Refusal
Welcome to the Gig Economy
The Interpretation of Cultures
Class In-Formation
Autonomist Marxism and the Information Society
| Citations per year | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2024 - 2025 (2) |
| Highly cited | No |