2026/07/02 by Walmir Estima · 1 voice
Social Sciences · #Digital Economy and Work Transformation #Labor Movements and Unions #Emotional Labor in Professions
paper · pdf · doi:10.1007/s44206-026-00266-2
openalex publication_date 2026/07/02 · openalex created_date 2026/07/03 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/23
Abstract This article examines how the concept of popular digital sovereignty, as developed by the Technology Front of the Homeless Workers’ Movement (NT-MTST), is materially enacted through Contrate Quem Luta (CQL), a project that connects workers with clients via a WhatsApp-based chatbot. It also examines how infrastructural dependencies influence the forms of autonomy that can emerge through CQL’s operation. The study maps the sociotechnical network supporting the project, highlighting both its dependence on global digital infrastructures and the agency of a grassroots organization. The analysis shows that while CQL depends on infrastructural platforms owned by major technology corporations, it also promotes worker autonomy by enhancing human coordination, fostering solidarity, and creating alternative circuits of labor intermediation. By analyzing the interaction between infrastructural dependence and grassroots agency, the article contributes to discussions about the possibilities and limits of digital sovereignty from a non–state-centered perspective in areas marked by infrastructural dependence. It argues that, in this case, popular digital sovereignty primarily functions as a political, programmatic, and performative concept that guides collective efforts to gain organizational and political power for organized workers while navigating the constraints and affordances of a digital economy dependent on foreign technologies.