Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Negotiating Dependencies and Precarity in the On-Demand Economy

dc.contributor.authorMuralidhar, Srihari Hulikal
dc.contributor.authorBossen, Claus
dc.contributor.authorO’Neill, Jacki
dc.date44805
dc.date.accessioned2023-09-21T04:45:12Z
dc.date.available2023-09-21T04:45:12Z
dc.date.issued2022
dc.description.abstractThere is growing evidence of ride-hailing platforms’ adverse impact on drivers. Nonetheless, hundreds of thousands of drivers continue to work on these platforms. Why? The key contribution of this paper is to show that workers in technology-mediated labour markets come to be increasingly dependent on the technology-provider in order to connect with the customers. As more and more customers choose to get various tasks done via intermediary platforms, for workers who perform such tasks for a living, this translates into growing dependencies on these infrastructuralized platforms for their livelihoods and thus increased vulnerabilities to the impact of platform design and policies. These ‘new dependencies’, therefore, make it critical for us not to conflate workers’ continued use of platforms with their experiencing benefits. By drawing upon a qualitative study with auto-rickshaw drivers using Ola, a ride-hailing platform similar to Uber in India, the paper shows that a consequence of ‘new dependencies’ for drivers is that they are stuck ‘between a rock and a hard place’ whereby: a) on the one hand, the platform design heightens their precarity, provides them with little benefit, and often leads to tensions with customers, b) on the other, a shift of more and more customers from street-hailing to app-based hailing over time exacerbates dependencies for drivers on these very platforms, leaving them with little choice but to continue to use them for work.de
dc.identifier.doi10.1007/s10606-022-09434-7
dc.identifier.issn1573-7551
dc.identifier.urihttp://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10606-022-09434-7
dc.identifier.urihttps://dl.eusset.eu/handle/20.500.12015/5047
dc.publisherSpringer
dc.relation.ispartofComputer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW): Vol. 31, No. 3
dc.relation.ispartofseriesComputer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW)
dc.subjectAutonomy
dc.subjectControl
dc.subjectDependencies
dc.subjectDevelopment
dc.subjectOn-demand labour
dc.subjectPlatform Economy
dc.subjectPrecarity
dc.subjectRide-hailing
dc.subjectSocial Interactions
dc.subjectUncertainty
dc.subjectWellbeing
dc.subjectWork
dc.titleBetween a Rock and a Hard Place: Negotiating Dependencies and Precarity in the On-Demand Economyde
dc.typeText/Journal Article
gi.citation.startPage443-486
gi.citations.count5
gi.citations.elementChristopher A. Le Dantec, Meichen Wei (2025): Demanding Labor: Workplace Conditions in On-Demand Transit, In: ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction 2(32), doi:10.1145/3711921
gi.citations.elementLindsey D. Cameron (2024): The Making of the “Good Bad” Job: How Algorithmic Management Manufactures Consent Through Constant and Confined Choices, In: Administrative Science Quarterly 2(69), doi:10.1177/00018392241236163
gi.citations.elementAshique Ali Thuppilikkat, Dipsita Dhar, Priyank Chandra (2024): Union Makes Us Strong: Space, Technology, and On-Demand Ridesourcing Digital Labour Platforms, In: Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction CSCW2(8), doi:10.1145/3687002
gi.citations.elementNiilo Noponen, Polina Feshchenko, Tommi Auvinen, Vilma Luoma-aho, Pekka Abrahamsson (2023): Taylorism on steroids or enabling autonomy? A systematic review of algorithmic management, In: Management Review Quarterly 3(74), doi:10.1007/s11301-023-00345-5
gi.citations.elementRiyaj Shaikh, Moira McGregor, Barry Brown, Airi Lampinen (2024): Fleeting Alliances and Frugal Collaboration in Piecework: A Video-Analysis of Food Delivery Work in India, In: Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) 4(33), doi:10.1007/s10606-024-09501-1

Files