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
Tuğçe 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