Platformization as subsumption? A case study of taxi platforms in Oslo, Norway

Bibliographic Data

ID3832194
AuthorsSigurd M Nordli Oppegaard (0000-0002-2360-5630, University of Oslo, Norway; Fafo Institute for Labour and Social Research, corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume48
Issue3
Pages419-437
Publication date2024-09-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueCapital & Class (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0309-8168 • E-ISSN: 2041-0980
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/03098168231179974
OpenAlexW4383343605
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited39

Based on a case study of taxi platforms in Oslo, Norway comprised of interviews with drivers and an ethnographic fieldwork working a driver, this article explores the platformization of the Norwegian taxi industry and the drivers' working conditions through Marx's concept of subsumption. In Norway, taxi platforms emerged in an already formally subsumed industry. The platforms have developed a new market segment, and also introduced an additional element in the subsumption of labor, whereby the platforms exert control over the market relations (by determining number of rides, earnings, and potential exclusions) through digital technology. While the platforms' 'algorithmic management' is often described as a technology that might reorganize the world of work, the analysis finds that this form of control does not radically transform the drivers' labor processes and cannot be seen as an example of what Marx termed real subsumption. However, the platformization of the industry, wherein the platforms appropriate the social and technological conditions of production, might result in a reorganization and transformation corresponding to a real subsumption in the future. The article concludes that exploring platform work through Marx's notion of subsumption highlights, on one hand, the relation between platforms and workers as characterized by subordination and domination and, on the other, that a detailed and critical assessment of the actual consequences of platform-based control is necessary to capture the contextual dynamics of platformization

Capitalism · Earnings · Economics · Ethnography · Knowledge management · Norwegian · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Sociotechnical system · Computer Science · Digital Economy and Work Transformation · Engineering · Law · Sharing Economy and Platforms · Transportation and Mobility Innovations · Artificial Intelligence

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