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Cited by 9Digital Economy and Work TransformationLegal and Labor StudiesEmployment, Labor, and Gender Studies

From discreet resistances to Yellow Vests protests in platform capitalism? An ethnographic survey among bicycle delivery workers

Open access
Rubert, Aldo·2023·European Journal of Cultural and Political Sociology
DOI 10.1080/23254823.2022.2110510
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Abstract

Based on ethnographic fieldwork with Parisian food delivery riders during 2018–2019, this article describes how these gig economy workers appropriate their own work to collectively resist the more restrictive dimensions of digital application control. These forms of resistance are often expressed as the refusal to ‘accept everything’. I show that domination is thus rejected by modelling a sense of labour respectability. These silenced resistances make it possible to recode an otherwise unpleasant job. Furthermore, I highlight how psychotropic substances appear to riders as a means of coping and escaping total capture. In a group composed mostly of men who claim a virile self-image, competition combines with peer solidarity in order to numb suffering while involuntary mystifying exploitation. Finally, I explore resistances against the State and the tax system, by introducing some riders who joined the Yellow Vests movement.

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Crossref · 10.1080/23254823.2022.2110510

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58 of 58 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

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  • Resistance behaviors can range from mild forms, such as gaming of the system, to more severe forms, such as protests and strikes.

    “The resistance behaviors can range from mild forms, such as gaming of the system, to more severe forms, such as protests and strikes (Pregenzer et al., 2021; Rubert, 2022; Scholz, 2017).”

    From Socio‐technical issues in the platform‐mediated gig economy: A systematic literature review: An Annual Review of Information Science and Technology (ARIST) paper (2024) · cites this paper as Rubert, 2022

    Section 3.3 (p. 13) describes delivery workers gaming the platform, and section 5.2 (p. 22) discusses how discreet tactics can lead to open protest. The paper supports that range of resistance behaviors among bicycle delivery workers, but the passages do not establish strikes as an example. (LLM, conf=0.86)

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Cites

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1 of the 59 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Research works printed but not linked: 7

  1. Bourgois, P. (1995). In search of respect . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  2. Connell, R. W. (1987). Gender and power: Sexuality, the person and sexual politics . Cambridge: Polity Press.
  3. Hochschild, A. (1983). The managed heart . University of California Press.
  4. Kidder, J. (2011). Urban flow, bike messengers and the city , (p. 256). New York: Cornell University Press.
  5. Schwartz, O. (2011). The In fi ltration of the ' Pop Psychology Culture ' in a Workingclass Group: The Speech of Bus Drivers. Sociologie , 2 , 345 -361. https://doi.org/10. 3917/socio.024.0345
  6. Srnicek, N. (2017). Platform capitalism . Paris: Polity Press.
  7. Thompson, E. P. (1959). Agency and choice - 1. A reply to criticism, The New reasoner . A Quarterly Journal of Socialist Humanism (5), 89 -106.

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Authors
Rubert, A.
Affiliations
Université de Bourgogne (FR)
Corresponding author
Rubert, Aldo
ORCID
Rubert, Aldo
Venue
European Journal of Cultural and Political Sociology
Publisher
MIT Press
Published
2023-01-02
Volume
10
Issue
1
Pages
68-97
ISSN
  • 2325-4815 (ISSN-L)
  • 2325-4823
DOI
10.1080/23254823.2022.2110510
OpenAlex
W4296703013
Cited by
9
References
59
Citations by year
2026: 1 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 3
FWCI
2.88
Type
journal article
Language
en
Update notices
correction (2023-10-02)
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • European Journal of Cultural and Political Sociology (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • SERVAL (Université de Lausanne) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • IRIS (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Digital Economy and Work Transformation
  • Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Industrial relations › Legal and Labor Studies
  • Social Sciences › Safety Research › Employment, Labor, and Gender Studies
Keywords
Yellow Vests movement, gig workers, food delivery workers, platform capitalism, resistance, psychotropic drugs, coping, peer solidarity, tax resistance, gig economy regulation, Paris

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