Abstract

ORTEGA ERREGUERENA, Joel. Application distributors in Mexico: between the imagined individualism of the platforms and the community resistance of the workers. Espiral (Guadalaj.) [online]. 2023, vol.30, n.88, pp.43-79.  Epub Jan 29, 2024. ISSN 1665-0565.  https://doi.org/10.32870/eees.v30i88.7319.

Digital platforms such as Uber, Rappi or Airbnb impose a labor model where workers are not recognized as such and do not have minimum rights. They are part of platform capitalism, a form of capital that uses digital technologies to impose a precarious employment relationship. However, faced with this model, application workers are beginning to organize and demand rights.

In this article, I examine the ideology that platforms promote and the resistances of app distributors. I argue that, in the face of the imagined individualism of digital platforms, delivery people are recreating forms of community. They have not been passive or totally subaltern but are displaying different forms of antagonism and autonomy. The work is based on qualitative research with interviews of key informants and analysis of the documents of collectives of of groups of Mexican delivery men, both in Mexico City and in New York.

Keywords : precariousness; platform capitalism; delivery; collective action; antagonism.

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