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THE FIGHT AGAINST PLATFORM CAPITALISM JAMIE WOODCOCK Uwestminsterpress.Co.Uk (2019) and the Gig Economy (2019), Marx at the Arcade

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THE FIGHT AGAINST PLATFORM CAPITALISM JAMIE WOODCOCK Uwestminsterpress.Co.Uk (2019) and the Gig Economy (2019), Marx at the Arcade THE FIGHT AGAINST PLATFORM CAPITALISM PLATFORM AGAINST FIGHT THE THE FIGHT AGAINST PLATFORM CAPITALISM CDSMS o far, platform work has been an important laboratory for capital. Management techniques, like the use of algorithms, are being tested Swith a view to exporting across the global economy and it is argued that automation is undermining workers’ agency. Although the contractual trick of self-employment has allowed platforms to grow quickly and keep JAMIE WOODCOCK their costs down, yet it has also been the case also that workers have also found they can strike without following the existing regulations. This book develops a critique of platforms and platform capitalism from the perspective of workers and contributes to the ongoing debates about the future of work and worker organising. It presents an alternative portrait THE FIGHT AGAINST returning to a focus on workers’ experience, focusing on solidarity, drawing out a global picture of new forms of agency. In particular, the book focuses on three dynamics that are driving struggles in the platform economy: PLATFORM CAPITALISM the increasing connections between workers who are no longer isolated; the lack of communication and negotiation from platforms, leading to escalating worker action around shared issues; and the internationalisation of platforms, which has laid the basis for new transnational solidarity. An Inquiry into the Global Focusing on transport and courier workers, online workers and freelancers, author Jamie Woodcock concludes by considering how Struggles of the Gig Economy workers build power in different situations. Rather than undermining worker agency, platforms have instead provided the technical basis for the emergence of new global struggles against capitalism. JAMIE WOODCOCK JAMIE SOCIOLOGY OF WORK | DIGITAL SOCIOLOGY | INTERNET STUDIES CDSMS CRITICAL DIGITAL AND SOCIAL MEDIA STUDIES THE AUTHOR JAMIE WOODCOCK is a senior lecturer at the Open University and a researcher based in London. He is the author of The Gig Economy (2019), Marx at the Arcade (2019) and Working the Phones (2017), also serving on the editorial boards of Notes from Below and Historical Materialism. uwestminsterpress.co.uk The Fight Against Platform Capitalism: An Inquiry into the Global Struggles of the Gig Economy Jamie Woodcock Critical, Digital and Social Media Studies Series Editor: Christian Fuchs The peer-reviewed book series edited by Christian Fuchs publishes books that critically study the role of the internet and digital and social media in society. Titles analyse how power structures, digital capitalism, ideology and social struggles shape and are shaped by digital and social media. They use and develop critical theory discussing the political relevance and implications of studied topics. The series is a theoretical forum for internet and social media research for books using methods and theories that challenge digital positivism; it also seeks to explore digi- tal media ethics grounded in critical social theories and philosophy. Editorial Board Thomas Allmer, Mark Andrejevic, Miriyam Aouragh, Charles Brown, Melanie Dulong De Rosnay, Eran Fisher, Peter Goodwin, Jonathan Hardy, Kylie Jarrett, Anastasia Kavada, Arwid Lund, Maria Michalis, Stefania Milan, Vincent Mosco, Safiya Noble, Jack Qiu, Jernej Amon Prodnik, Sarah Roberts, Marisol Sandoval, Sebastian Sevignani, Pieter Verdegem, Bingqing Xia, Mariano Zukerfeld Published Critical Theory of Communication: New Readings of Lukács, Adorno, Marcuse, Honneth and Habermas in the Age of the Internet Christian Fuchs https://doi.org/10.16997/book1 Knowledge in The Age of Digital Capitalism: An Introduction to Cognitive Materialism Mariano Zukerfeld https://doi.org/10.16997/book3 Politicizing Digital Space: Theory, the Internet, and Renewing Democracy Trevor Garrison Smith https://doi.org/10.16997/book5 Capital, State, Empire: The New American Way of Digital Warfare Scott Timcke https://doi.org/10.16997/book6 The Spectacle 2.0: Reading Debord in the Context of Digital Capitalism Edited by Marco Briziarelli and Emiliana Armano https://doi.org/10.16997/book11 The Big Data Agenda: Data Ethics and Critical Data Studies Annika Richterich https://doi.org/10.16997/book14 Social Capital Online: Alienation and Accumulation Kane X. Faucher https://doi.org/10.16997/book16 The Propaganda Model Today: Filtering Perception and Awareness Edited by Joan Pedro-Carañana, Daniel Broudy and Jeffery Klaehn https://doi.org/10.16997/book27 Critical Theory and Authoritarian Populism Edited by Jeremiah Morelock https://doi.org/10.16997/book30 Peer to Peer: The Commons Manifesto Michel Bauwens, Vasilis Kostakis and Alex Pazaitis https://doi.org/10.16997/book33 Bubbles and Machines: Gender, Information and Financial Crises Micky Lee https://doi.org/10.16997/book34 Cultural Crowdfunding: Platform Capitalism, Labour and Globalization Edited by Vincent Rouzé https://doi.org/10.16997/book38 The Condition of Digitality: A Post-Modern Marxism for the Practice Of Digital Life Robert Hassan https://doi.org/10.16997/book44 Incorporating the Digital Commons: Corporate Involvement in Free and Open Source Software Benjamin J. Birkinbine https://doi.org/10.16997/book39 The Internet Myth: From the Internet Imaginary to Network Ideologies Paolo Bory https://doi.org/10.16997/book48 Communication and Capitalism: A Critical Theory Christian Fuchs https://doi.org/10.16997/book45 Marx and Digital Machines: Alienation, Technology, Capitalism Mike Healy https://doi.org/10.16997/book47 The Commons: Economic Alternatives in the Digital Age Vangelis Papadimitropoulos https://doi.org/10.16997/book46 Intellectual Commons and the Law: A Normative Theory for Commons-Based Peer Production Antonios Broumas https://doi.org/10.16997/book49 The Fight Against Platform Capitalism: An Inquiry into the Global Struggles of the Gig Economy Jamie Woodcock University of Westminster Press www.uwestminsterpress.co.uk Published By University of Westminster Press 115 New Cavendish Street London W1W 6UW www.uwestminsterpress.co.uk Text © Jamie Woodcock 2021 First published 2021 Cover design: www.ketchup-productions.co.uk Series cover concept: Mina Bach (minabach.co.uk) Print and digital versions typeset by Siliconchips Services Ltd. ISBN (Paperback): 978-1-912656-94-3 ISBN (PDF): 978-1-912656-95-0 ISBN (EPUB): 978-1-912656-96-7 ISBN (Kindle): 978-912656-97-4 DOI: https://doi.org/10.16997/book51 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 444 Castro Street, Suite 900, Mountain View, California, 94041, USA. This license allows for copying and distributing the work, providing author attribution is clearly stated, that you are not using the material for commercial purposes, and that modified versions are not distributed. The full text of this book has been peer-reviewed to ensure high academic standards. For full review policies, see: http://www.uwestminsterpress.co.uk/site/publish. Competing interests: The author has no competing interests to declare. Suggested Citation: Woodcock, J. 2021. The Fight Against Platform Capitalism: An Inquiry into the Global Struggles of the Gig Economy. London: University of Westminster Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.16997/book51. License: CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 To read the free, open access version of this book online, visit https://doi.org/10.16997/book51 or scan this QR code with your mobile device: Contents Acknowledgements ix 1. Introduction 1 Understanding Platforms 5 Structure of the Book 9 2. Digital Workerism, a Framework 11 Workers’ Inquiry 12 Workerism and Class Composition 15 For a Digital Workerism 19 The Practice of Digital Workerism 23 3. Transport Platform Workers 27 Food Transport Workers 29 Technical Composition 31 Social Composition 38 Political Recomposition 41 Private Hire Drivers 44 4. Online Workers 53 Origins of Online Work 53 Automation 55 Technical Composition 57 New Forms of Political Composition 60 5. Understanding Platform Resistance 67 Forms of Resistance 69 Solidarity and Organising 70 Building Worker Power 75 Making Sense of Platform Struggles 80 viii Contents 6. Conclusion: Why Struggles Against Platform Capitalism Matter 85 Why Does This Matter? 88 Where Next? 91 Notes 95 References 97 Index 111 Acknowledgements The ideas for this book were developed through my involvement inNotes from Below. Through our engagement in struggles with platform workers, support- ing platform workers to describe and analyse their own conditions, as well as trying to make sense of platform capitalism ourselves, Notes from Below pro- vided the theoretical and practical framework that made this book possible. Research, writing, and organising are not solitary activities, and I could not have written this book without my editorial comrades Callum Cant, Lorenza Monaco, Lydia Hughes, Sai Englert, and Wendy Liu. In particular, the ideas of digital workerism were first developed in a jointly written article with Sai and Callum: ‘Digital Workerism: Technology, Platforms, and the Circulation of Workers’ Struggles’ (Englert et al. 2020) and the argument developed here is indebted to both of them. I would like to thank Lydia for her support with another book. The world has changed around us during the writing of this book – including a pandemic and multiple lockdowns – and you have encouraged me throughout. Christian Fuchs supported the publication of the ‘digital workerism’
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