The Brazilian Workers in Amazon Mechanical Turk

Dreams and realities of ghost workers

Bibliographic Data

ID8075728
AuthorsBruno Moreschi (0000-0001-8938-5004, corresponding author), Gabriel Pereira (0000-0002-7189-4529), Fabio Gagliardi Cozman (0000-0003-4077-4935)
Year2020
Volume39
Issue1
Publication date2020-04-17
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueRevista Contracampo (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1414-7483 • E-ISSN: 2238-2577
PublisherPro Reitoria de Pesquisa, Pos Graduacao e Inovacao - UFF (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.22409/contracampo.v39i1.38252
OpenAlexW3022758359
LanguageEN
Citations received15
References cited2

Contributing to research on digital platform labor in the Global South, this research surveyed 149 Brazilian workers in the Amazon Mechanical Turk (AMT) platform. We begin by offering a demographic overview of the Brazilian turkers and their relation with work in general. In line with previous studies of turkers in the USA and India, AMT offers poor working conditions for Brazilian turkers. Other findings we discuss include: how a large amount of the respondents affirmed they have been formally unemployed for a long period of time; the relative importance of the pay they receive to their financial subsistence; and how Brazilian turkers cannot receive their pay directly into their bank accounts due to Amazon restrictions, making them resort to creative circumventions of the system. Importantly, these “ghost workers” (Gray & Suri, 2019) find ways to support each other and self-organize through the WhatsApp group, where they also mobilize to fight for changes on the platform. As this type of work is still in formation in Brazil, and potentially will grow in the coming years, we argue this is a matter of concern

Amazon rainforest · Business · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Geographies of human-animal interactions · Nostalgia and Consumer Behavior

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