Neoliberal Platform Capitalism and Subjectivity

Bibliographic Data

ID4436886
AuthorsFábio Luís Franco (corresponding author), Fábio Luís Ferreira Nóbrega Franco
Year2021
Volume120
Issue4
Pages795-808
Publication date2021-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueSouth Atlantic Quarterly (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0038-2876 • E-ISSN: 1527-8026
PublisherDuke University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1215/00382876-9443350
OpenAlexW4200466604
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited19

Across the globe, algorithmic technologies have undeniably altered the way labor relations are governed. The purpose of this article is to investigate a particular manifestation of that phenomenon: how, in Brazil, platform capitalism consists in a hybrid rationality whose control over the sphere of work combines new mechanisms of governance with structural characteristics that are particular to a type of precarious work commonly found in peripheral areas of Brazil, known as viração. While such a scenario presents us with a multitude of aspects worthy of consideration, this article focusese on the apparatuses for the psychic management of workers deployed by platform capitalism in Brazil. Within this scope, the article develops a double analysis: first, it examines the forms of subjectivity and the libidinal economy of Brazilian peripheral workers, with a particular emphasis on how certain of their characteristics have been subordinated, controlled, exploited, and ultimately disseminated by application software companies in Brazil; second, and conversely, it evaluates how the form of subjectivity associated with platform capitalism has, through the neoliberal discourse of self-entrepreneurship, impacted viração

Capitalism · Corporate governance · Economic system · Economics · Entrepreneurship · Epistemology · Globe · Management · Managerialism · Neoliberalism (international relations) · Phenomenon · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Scope (computer science) · Sociology · Subjectivity · Computer Science · Digital Economy and Work Transformation · Philosophy · Public Administration · Sharing Economy and Platforms

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