2021/03/04 by Fabian Ferrari, Mark Graham · 5 citations
Business, Management and Accounting · Health Professions · Social Sciences · #Digital Economy and Work Transformation #Employment and Welfare Studies #Sharing Economy and Platforms
paper · doi:10.1080/09502386.2021.1895250
openalex publication_date 2021/03/04 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
Digital labour platforms do not attempt to build trust between worker, client, and platform on the basis of strong and durable ties. Instead, platforms utilize a double articulation of algorithmic power to govern spatially dispersed workforces in both material and discursive ways. However, algorithms do not have hegemonic outcomes, and they do not entirely strip away agency from platform workers. Through manipulation, subversion, and disruption, workers bring fissures in algorithmic power into being. Fissures in algorithmic power are moments in which algorithms do not govern as intended. While these moments do not simply result in positive outcomes for workers, they show that algorithmic power is inherently only ever partial.