An Introduction to Platform Work 1
Carlos A. Scolari, Mar Guerrero-Pico, and Martina Piña
1 From Platforms to Platformisation 1
1.1 Platform Work 3
1.2 Researching Platform Work 5
2 The Book 6
2.1 The Sections and Chapters 7
3 Emerging Trends and Challenges 10
3.1 Emerging Trends 10
3.2 Challenges to Platform Work 12
3.3 Challenges to Platform Work Research 12
Funding 14
References 14
SECTION I 17
CHAPTER 1 From Quotidian Resistance to Collective Power: Gig Workers' Everyday Labs of Rebellion and Their Fight Against Platform Power 19
Tiziano Bonini and Emiliano Treré
1.1 Riots or Strikes? 22
1.2 Tactics of Everyday Resistance 24
1.3 Everyday Resistance at the Core of the Platform Economy 26
1.4 Concluding Remarks: From Micro-Resistance to Collective Power 28
Funding acknowledgement 31
References 31
CHAPTER 2 Informality in the Brazilian's Platform Labour: Data Workers, Tech Workers, and Game Developers 36
Guilherme Guilherme, Andre Campos, and Rocha Rafael Grohmann
2.1 Methodology 37
2.2 Informality as a Core Feature in Brazil: Before "Gig" there was "Viração" 38
2.3 Data Workers for Click Farms 40
2.4 Tech Workers and the Platformisation of Software Development 43
2.5 Game Developers 46
2.6 Divergent Pathways of Platform Labour in Brazil 49
2.7 Conclusion 52
References 53
CHAPTER 3 Creolised Platforms and Digital Defiance: Crafting Autonomy in Bogotá's Ride-Hailing 57
Luis Lozano Paredes
3.1 A Creolised Platform in Bogotá 59
3.1.1 Multi-homing and Flexible Work Strategies 61
3.1.2 Trust, Solidarity, and Strong Ties 62
3.2 Heterarchical Governance: Flexibility with Structure 64
3.3 Resisting Corporate and Government Power 66
3.4 Conclusion 68
References 69
SECTION II 73
CHAPTER 4 Gendered Encounters of Women Couriers in Platform-Based Delivery Work in Turkey 75
Tüçe Bidav and Funda Ustek Spilda
4.1 The Case of Women in Delivery and Ride-Hailing Platforms 77
4.2 Research Method and Access to Women Delivery Workers 78
4.3 Navigating the Gendered Encounters in the Delivery Sector 80
4.3.1 Platforms as Gender-Blind Designs 80
4.3.2 Co-worker Relations 83
4.3.3 Customer Interactions 85
4.4 Conclusion 87
Acknowledgements 88
References 88
CHAPTER 5 Labours of Layered Care Work in the Remote Platform Economy 92
Cheryll Ruth Soriano
5.1 Platform Labour and Gendered Paradoxes 95
5.2 Trajectory of Labour Outsourcing and Care Work by Filipino Women 96
5.2.1 Colonial and Cultural Imaginaries of Mothering and Women's Roles 98
5.3 Layered Care Work, Nested Precarities? 99
5.3.1 Calibrated Servitude: Care, Client Management, and Postcolonial Continuities 100
5.3.2 "Managing the Client's Needs While Managing My Home"-Women Freelancers' Domestic Obligations and Infrastructuring Practices 102
5.3.3 Care of Nurturing the Freelance Community 104
5.4 Conclusion: Towards a Politics of Layered Care in Platform Work 106
References 108
CHAPTER 6 Beyond Algorithmic Bias: Women and LGBTQ+ Content Creators Facing Platform Culture 112
Ona Anglada-Pujol, Maria Castellví-Lloveras, Isabel Villegas-Simón, and Mercè Oliva
6.1 Discourses and Perceptions about Platforms and Visibility 116
6.2 Responding to Hostility: Strategies and Defensive Mechanisms 120
6.3 Conclusion 125
References 128
SECTION III 131
CHAPTER 7 Personal Branding and Venture Labour in Platform Work: The Case of Mercado Libre Sellers in Chile 133
Arturo Arriagada
7.1 Personal Branding in the Platform Economy 134
7.2 Case and Methods: Mercado Libre in Chile 136
7.3 Everyday Branding Practices Among Platform Sellers 137
7.3.1 Reputation as Core Capital: Branding as Risk Management 137
7.3.2 Multiplatform Branding: Extending Visibility Beyond Mercado Libre 138
7.3.3 Niche Alignment and Authenticity: Personal Passion as Credibility 139
7.3.4 Networking and Symbolic Endorsements: Social Capital as Brand Amplification 139
7.3.5 Self-Training and Skill Accumulation 140
7.3.6 The Moralisation of Risk and Entrepreneurial Identity 141
7.4 Discussion 141
7.5 Conclusion 142
References 143
CHAPTER 8 Reputation and Self-Branding Practices of Gig Workers in Spain to Find their Own Match 147
Martina Piña
8.1 The Platform, the Audience, and the Self for Reputation Management and Personal Branding 149
8.2 Workers' Practices to Create their Profile and Find their Own Match 152
8.2.1 Dealing with the Reputation Systems 153
8.2.2 Anticipating Customer Expectations 154
8.2.3 Promoting the "Best" and MostDevoted Worker 156
8.3 Workers as their Own Matchmakers 157
Funding 158
References 158
CHAPTER 9 Evocative Narratives: Intimate and Sensorial Neo-craft Reels 163
Gaia Casagrande and Alessandro Gandini
9.1 Social Media Platforms as Cultural Environments 165
9.1.1 Digital Intimacy as Social Capital 165
9.1.2 Reels as an Aesthetic and Narrative Medium 166
9.2 Methodology 167
9.3 Neo-Crafters' Content Strategies for Evocative Narratives 169
9.3.1 Digital Intimacy 170
9.3.2 Building a "Community Feeling" 172
9.3.3 Craftsmanship and Sensorial Storytelling 173
9.3.4 Reels 175
9.4 Conclusion 176
References 177
SECTION IV 181
CHAPTER 10 New Labour Imaginaries in Platform Capitalism: The Case of Jose Elías's YouTube Channel 183
José Tomasena and Júlia Vilasís-Pamos
10.1 Digital Labour, Ideological Production, And Reactionary Discourses 185
10.2 Eliseo Verón's "Reading Contract" 187
10.3 Methodology 188
10.4 Jose Elías's Youtube Channel Discourse 188
10.4.1 José Elías as "Entrepreneurship Guru" 189
10.4.2 Emerging Themes 192
10.4.2.1 Entrepreneurship 193
10.4.2.2 Social Class Identity Construction and Discourse 194
10.4.2.3 The State as Antagonist 194
10.4.2.4 Gender: The Masculinised Universe of Work 195
10.4.2.5 Social Media and Business Opportunities 196
10.5 Conclusions 196
References 197
CHAPTER 11 Cultural Platform Labour 201
Thomas Poell, David B. Nieborg, and Hanne Stegeman
11.1 Theorising Platform-Based Cultural Labour 203
11.2 An Institutional Perspective 206
11.2.1 Markets 207
11.2.2 Infrastructures 209
11.2.3 Governance 210
11.3 Conclusion 213
References 214
CHAPTER 12 From Feed to Book: How Cultural Creators Navigate Platforms and Prestige 221
Gabriella Taddeo
12.1 Cultural Creators Versus Traditional Influencers: Between Education and Entertainment 223
12.2 Beyond the Feed: Hybrid Strategies for the Legitimacy of Cultural Content Creators 226
12.2.1 "Platform-Driven" Approaches 226
12.2.2 "Legacy-Driven" Approaches 228
12.3 Hybrid Labour and the Redefinition of Cultural Value 232
References 234
SECTION V 237
CHAPTER 13 Tensions and Contradictions in the Discourse of Spanish Last-Mile Platform Workers 239
Carlos A. Scolari, Jon Dornaleteche, and María Cristina San José de la Rosa
13.1 Corporate Discourses 241
13.1.1 Life, Freedom, and Work 242
13.1.2 Corporate Lexicon and Technical Language 243
13.1.3 Internal Branding 244
13.1.4 Contradictions 245
13.2 The Discourse of Platform Workers 246
13.2.1 Entities 247
13.2.2 Metaphors 248
13.2.3 An Ambivalent Discourse 249
13.3 Conclusion: A World of Slaverty 250
Funding 252
References 252
CHAPTER 14 All-Rounders: Mapping Platform Workers' Labour Competences 255
Mar Guerrero-Pico, María-José Establés, and Ruth S. Contreras Espinosa
14.1 The Many Literacies of Platform Work 257
14.2 A Competence Taxonomy for Platform Labour 259
14.2.1 Technology 260
14.2.2 Content Creation 261
14.2.3 Resource Management 262
14.2.4 Service Delivery 264
14.2.5 Social Management 266
14.2.6 Platform Framework 266
14.2.7 Legal Framework Competence 269
14.3 Beyond the Digital and the Service 270
Funding 272
ReferenceS 272
CHAPTER 15 Understanding the Ambivalence of Platform Work Through a Moral Economy Approach: Narratives from Food Delivery and Ride-Hailing Workers in Hong Kong and Taiwan 276
Ngai Keung Chan
15.1 Platform-Mediated Gig Work as a Contested Moral Terrain 278
15.2 Methodology 281
15.3 Workers' Narratives of Changes: James, Daniel, and Christine 283
15.3.1 The Narrative of James 283
15.3.2 The Narrative of Daniel 285
15.3.3 The Narrative of Christine 287
15.4 Conclusion 288
Funding 289
References 289
Index 000
