"Performing "digital labor bayanihan

Strategies of Influence and Survival in the Platform Economy

Bibliographic Data

ID4354756
AuthorsCheryll Ruth Soriano (0000-0003-3228-1065, De La Salle University), Earvin Charles Cabalquinto (0000-0001-7269-0184, Deakin University), Joy Hannah Panaligan (0000-0002-7529-3800, De La Salle University)
Year2021
Volume23
Issue57
Pages84-111
Publication date2021-08-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSociologias (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1517-4522 • E-ISSN: 1807-0337
PublisherFapUNIFESP (SciELO) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1590/15174522-113027
OpenAlexW3194058437
SCIELO_PIDS1517-45222021005700084
LanguageEN
Citations received10
References cited25

Drawing from experience of platform labor in one of the largest labor supplying countries, the Philippines, the paper demonstrates the role of an emerging labor category - that of digital labor influencers - who promote the viability of platform labor locally amid its precarious and ambiguous conditions. Through participant observation in Facebook groups, analysis of YouTube channels and videos, and interviews with digital labor influencers and workers, we present insights into the interventions that these influencers use, anchoring their strategies on what we call performing "digital labor bayanihan": (a)coachingworkers on the "possibilities" of the platform economy and on how to navigate its structural ambiguities, (b) by acting as "agencies", they aid workers tospan boundariesand fluidly move across platforms and job types to mitigate labor arbitrage and labor seasonality; and (c)bridging geographically dispersed workers, which allow them to form a supportive space where opportunities for labor are exchanged and debated. We argue that these affective strategies attend to Filipino workers' labor aspirations through a community-oriented strategy encapsulated in a distinct Filipino cultural value bayanihan, which then shapes the collective "anchoring" of platform workers to navigate a precarious market. We explore the transactional nature underlying this "producer-audience" relationship, the activation of trust and influence through personalized practices and mediated encounters, and the power dynamic underlying these engagements. The paper shows that these strategies also set norms and standards in this largely unregulated sector, playing a role in how labor mobility or precarity are organized locally amid "planetary labor markets

Business · Economics · Emotional labor · Influencer marketing · Labor relations · Labour economics · Management · Market economy · Participant observation · Precarity · Sociology · Digital Economy and Work Transformation · Labor Movements and Unions · Sharing Economy and Platforms · Marketing

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