Uber in the Portuguese gig economy: a laboratory for platform capitalism

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Work Organisation, Labour & Globalisation

Volume 14, Issue 2

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Uber in the Portuguese gig economy: a laboratory for platform capitalism

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Author(s): Emanuele Leonardi , Giorgio Pirina

Publication date (Print): 1 January 2020

Journal: Work Organisation, Labour & Globalisation

Publisher: Pluto Journals

Keywords: gig economy, Lisbon, platformisation, Portugal, TVDE, Uber Law, wage-earning society

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Author and article information

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Journal ID (doi): 10.2307/j50010512

Journal ID (jcode): workorgalaboglob

Title: Work Organisation, Labour & Globalisation

Publisher: Pluto Journals

ISSN: 1745-641X

ISSN: 1745-6428

Publication date (Print): 1 January 2020

Volume: 14

Issue: 2 ( doiID: 10.13169/workorgalaboglob.14.issue-2 )

Pages: 46-63

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Publisher ID: workorgalaboglob.14.2.0046

DOI: 10.13169/workorgalaboglob.14.2.0046

SO-VID: 96b68099-3934-4f1b-aa98-074b98d118d8

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lang eng

ScienceOpen disciplines: Sociology,Labor law,Political science,Labor & Demographic economics,Political economics

Keywords: Uber Law,TVDE,gig economy,Lisbon,platformisation,wage-earning society,Portugal

REFERENCES

Ahrendt, D., E. Sándor, A. Revello, J.-M. Jungblut & R. Anderson (2017). In-work poverty in the EU. Dublin: Eurofound. https://www.eurofound.europa.eu/sites/default/files/ef_publication/field_ef_document/ef1725en.pdf
Aloisi, A. (2016) 'Commoditized workers: The rising of on-demand work. A case study research on a set of online platforms and apps. Comparative Labor Law & Policy Journal, 37 (3). https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2637485
Amado, J.L. & T.C. Moreira (2019) ‘A lei portuguesa sobre o transporte de passageiros a partir de plataforma eletrónica: sujeitos, relações e presunções’, Labour & Law Issues, 5(1): 47–81. https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.2421-2695/9629
Andreotti, A., D. Benassi & Y. Kazepov (2018) Western Capitalism in Transition. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Casilli, A.A. (2019) En attendant les robots: Enquête sur le travail du clic. Paris: Seuil.
Castel, R. (2003) From Manual Workers to Wage Laborers: Transformation of the Social Question. New York: Routledge.
Chicchi, F. (2020) ‘Beyond the “salary institution”: On the “society of performance” and the platformisation of the employment relationship’, Work Organisation, Labour & Globalisation, 14 (1):15–31.
Chicchi, F., E. Leonardi & S. Lucarelli (2018) Más allá del salario: Lógicas de la explotación. Madrid: Enclave de Libros.
Coates, D. (2000) Models of Capitalism: Growth and Stagnation in the Modern Era. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Cocola-Gant, A., & A. Gago, (2019). ‘Airbnb, buy-to-let investment and tourism-driven displacement: A case study in Lisbon’, Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space. https://doi.org/10.1177/0308518X19869012
Coval, C., & G. Cutuli (2016). ‘Dinamiche e persistenza della povertà in Italia: un'analisi sui working poor tra il 2002 e il 2012‘, Sociologia del lavoro, 144: 136–155. https://doi.org/10.3280/SL2016-144009.
Crouch, C. (2011) The Strange Non-Death of Neoliberalism. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Crouch, C. (2019) Will the Gig Economy Prevail? Cambridge: Polity Press.
De Stefano, V. (2016) The Rise of the ‘Just-in-Time Workforce’: On-Demand Work, Crowdwork and Labour Protection in the 'Gig-Economy. Conditions of Work and Employment Series, 71. Geneva: International Labour Organisation. https://www.ilo.org/travail/whatwedo/publications/WCMS_443267/lang–en/index.htm
De Stefano, V. & A. Aloisi (2018) ‘European legal framework for “digital labour platforms”‘, European Commission, Luxembourg. https://doi.org/10.2760/78590
EC (2016) Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions. A European Agenda for the Collaborative Economy. http://ec.europa.eu/DocsRoom/documents/16881. Brussels: European Commission.
Esping-Andersen, G. (1990). The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Fourastié, J. (1979) Les Trente Glorieuses ou la révolution invisible de 1946 à 1975. Paris: Fayard.
Gainsforth, S. (2019). Airbnb città merce. Roma: Derive Approdi.
Hamorim, H. & F. Moda (2020) ‘Work by app: Algorithmic management and working conditions of Uber drivers in Brazil’, Work Organisation, Labour & Globalisation, 14 (1):101–18. https://doi.org/10.13169/workorgalaboglob.14.1.0101.
Harvey, D. (2005) A Brief History of Neoliberalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Holts, K., M. Coates, H.N. Spencer, & U. Huws (2019) The Platformisation of Work in Europe: Highlights from Research in 13 European countries. https://www.feps-europe.eu/resources/publications/686-the-platformisation-of-work-in-europe.html.
Huws, U. (2014) Labor in the Global Digital Economy: The Cybertariat Comes of Age. New York: Monthly Review Press.
Huws, U. (2019) Labour in Contemporary Capitalism: What Next? London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Huws, U. (2020) ‘The algorithm and the city: Platform labour and the urban environment’, Work Organisation, Labour & Globalisation, 14 (1):14. https://doi.org/10.13169/workorgalaboglob.14.1.0007.
Huws, U., H.N. Spencer, S.D. Syrdal, & K. Holts (2017). Work in the European Gig Economy. Brussels: FEPS – Foundation for European Progressive Studies. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.18745/DS.19911.
Huws, U. N., Spencer, & M., Coates (2019). The Platformisation Of Work In Europe: Highlights from Research in 13 European Countries. Brussels: FEPS – Foundation for European Progressive Studies.
Kozinets, R. (2010) Netnography: Doing Ethnographic Research Online. London: SAGE.
Kozinets, R. (2015). Netnography: Doing Ethnographic Research Online. London: SAGE.
Leonardi, E. & E. Chertkovskaya (2017) ‘Work as promise for the subject of employability: Unpaid work as a new form of exploitation’, Sociologia del lavoro, 141:112–30. https://doi.org/10.3280/SL2017-145007.
Leonardi, E. & M. Secchi (2016) ‘EXPO 2015 as a laboratory for neoliberalization: Great exhibitions, urban value dispossession and new labor relations’, Partecipazione e Conflitto: The Open Journal of Sociopolitical Studies, 9 (2):567–95. https://doi.org/10.1285/i20356609v9i2p567.
Marglin, S. & J. Schor (1989) The Golden Age of Capitalism: Reinterpreting the Postwar Experience. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Marrone, M. & G. Peterlongo (2020) ‘Where platforms meet infrastructures: Digital platforms, urban resistance and the ambivalence of the city in the Italian case of Bologna’, Work Organisation, Labour & Globalisation, 14 (1):135. https://doi.org/10.13169/workorgalaboglob.14.1.0119.
Mendes, L. (2017). ‘Gentrificação turística em Lisboa: neoliberalismo, financeirização, e urbanismo austeritário em tempos de pós-crise capitalista 2008-2009‘, Cadernos Metrópole [en linea], 19 (39): 479–512.
Mezzadra, S. & B. Neilson (2018) The Politics of Operations: Excavating Contemporary Capitalism. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Novella, M. (2019) ‘Il rider non è lavoratore subordinato, ma è tutelato come se lo fosse’, Labour & Law Issues, 5 (1):82–103. https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.2421-2695/9630.
Peña-Casas, R., D. Ghailani, S. Spasova & B. Vanhercke (2019) In-Work Poverty in Europe: A Study of National Policies. Brussels: European Commission. https://doi.org/10.2767/31835.
Pesole, A., B.M.C. Urzi, M.E. Fernandez, F. Biagi & I. Gonzalez (2018) ‘Platform workers in Europe: Evidence from the COLLEEM survey’, in JRC Science for Policy Report. https://doi.org/10.2760/742789.
Prassl, J. (2018) Humans as a Service: The Promise and Perils of Work in the Gig Economy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Rosenblat, A. (2018) Uberland: How Algorith are Rewriting the Rules of Work. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Scholz, T. (2017) Uberworked and Underpaid. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Seixas, J., & A. Guterres Brito (2018). ‘Political evolution in the Lisbon of the digital era. Fast urban changes, slow institutional restructuring and growing civic pressures’, Urban Research & Practice, 12 (1), 99–110. https://doi.org/10.1080/17535069.2018.1505272.
Springer, S., K. Birch & J. MacLeavy (2016) ‘An introduction to neoliberalism’, in S. Springer, K. Birch & J. MacLeavy, The Handbook of Neoliberalism. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge:1–14.
Srnicek, N. (2016) Platform Capitalism. Cambridge: Polity.
Tubaro, P., C. Le Ludec & A.A. Casilli (2020) ‘Counting “micro-workers”: Societal and methodological challenges around new forms of labour’, Work Organisation, Labour & Globalisation, 14 (1):67–82. https://doi.org/doi:10.13169/workorgalaboglob.14.1.0067.
Vecchi, B. (2017) Il capitalismo delle piattaforme. Rome: Manifestolibri.
Woodcock, J. & M. Graham (2020) The Gig Economy: A Critical Introduction. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Comments

Comment on this article

[1] Ahrendt, D., E. Sándor, A. Revello, J.-M. Jungblut & R. Anderson (2017). In-work poverty in the EU. Dublin: Eurofound. https://www.eurofound.europa.eu/sites/default/files/ef_publication/field_ef_document/ef1725en.pdf

[2] Aloisi, A. (2016) 'Commoditized workers: The rising of on-demand work. A case study research on a set of online platforms and apps. Comparative Labor Law & Policy Journal, 37 (3). https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2637485

[3] Amado, J.L. & T.C. Moreira (2019) ‘A lei portuguesa sobre o transporte de passageiros a partir de plataforma eletrónica: sujeitos, relações e presunções’, Labour & Law Issues, 5(1): 47–81. https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.2421-2695/9629

[4] Andreotti, A., D. Benassi & Y. Kazepov (2018) Western Capitalism in Transition. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

[5] Casilli, A.A. (2019) En attendant les robots: Enquête sur le travail du clic. Paris: Seuil.

[6] Castel, R. (2003) From Manual Workers to Wage Laborers: Transformation of the Social Question. New York: Routledge.

[7] Chicchi, F. (2020) ‘Beyond the “salary institution”: On the “society of performance” and the platformisation of the employment relationship’, Work Organisation, Labour & Globalisation, 14 (1):15–31.

[8] Chicchi, F., E. Leonardi & S. Lucarelli (2018) Más allá del salario: Lógicas de la explotación. Madrid: Enclave de Libros.

[9] Coates, D. (2000) Models of Capitalism: Growth and Stagnation in the Modern Era. Cambridge: Polity Press.

[10] Cocola-Gant, A., & A. Gago, (2019). ‘Airbnb, buy-to-let investment and tourism-driven displacement: A case study in Lisbon’, Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space. https://doi.org/10.1177/0308518X19869012

[11] Coval, C., & G. Cutuli (2016). ‘Dinamiche e persistenza della povertà in Italia: un'analisi sui working poor tra il 2002 e il 2012‘, Sociologia del lavoro, 144: 136–155. https://doi.org/10.3280/SL2016-144009.

[12] Crouch, C. (2011) The Strange Non-Death of Neoliberalism. Cambridge: Polity Press.

[13] Crouch, C. (2019) Will the Gig Economy Prevail? Cambridge: Polity Press.

[14] De Stefano, V. (2016) The Rise of the ‘Just-in-Time Workforce’: On-Demand Work, Crowdwork and Labour Protection in the 'Gig-Economy. Conditions of Work and Employment Series, 71. Geneva: International Labour Organisation. https://www.ilo.org/travail/whatwedo/publications/WCMS_443267/lang–en/index.htm

[15] De Stefano, V. & A. Aloisi (2018) ‘European legal framework for “digital labour platforms”‘, European Commission, Luxembourg. https://doi.org/10.2760/78590

[16] EC (2016) Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions. A European Agenda for the Collaborative Economy. http://ec.europa.eu/DocsRoom/documents/16881. Brussels: European Commission.

[17] Esping-Andersen, G. (1990). The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism. Cambridge: Polity Press.

[18] Fourastié, J. (1979) Les Trente Glorieuses ou la révolution invisible de 1946 à 1975. Paris: Fayard.

[19] Gainsforth, S. (2019). Airbnb città merce. Roma: Derive Approdi.

[20] Hamorim, H. & F. Moda (2020) ‘Work by app: Algorithmic management and working conditions of Uber drivers in Brazil’, Work Organisation, Labour & Globalisation, 14 (1):101–18. https://doi.org/10.13169/workorgalaboglob.14.1.0101.

[21] Harvey, D. (2005) A Brief History of Neoliberalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

[22] Holts, K., M. Coates, H.N. Spencer, & U. Huws (2019) The Platformisation of Work in Europe: Highlights from Research in 13 European countries. https://www.feps-europe.eu/resources/publications/686-the-platformisation-of-work-in-europe.html.

[23] Huws, U. (2014) Labor in the Global Digital Economy: The Cybertariat Comes of Age. New York: Monthly Review Press.

[24] Huws, U. (2019) Labour in Contemporary Capitalism: What Next? London: Palgrave Macmillan.

[25] Huws, U. (2020) ‘The algorithm and the city: Platform labour and the urban environment’, Work Organisation, Labour & Globalisation, 14 (1):14. https://doi.org/10.13169/workorgalaboglob.14.1.0007.

[26] Huws, U., H.N. Spencer, S.D. Syrdal, & K. Holts (2017). Work in the European Gig Economy. Brussels: FEPS – Foundation for European Progressive Studies. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.18745/DS.19911.

[27] Huws, U. N., Spencer, & M., Coates (2019). The Platformisation Of Work In Europe: Highlights from Research in 13 European Countries. Brussels: FEPS – Foundation for European Progressive Studies.

[28] Kozinets, R. (2010) Netnography: Doing Ethnographic Research Online. London: SAGE.

[29] Kozinets, R. (2015). Netnography: Doing Ethnographic Research Online. London: SAGE.

[30] Leonardi, E. & E. Chertkovskaya (2017) ‘Work as promise for the subject of employability: Unpaid work as a new form of exploitation’, Sociologia del lavoro, 141:112–30. https://doi.org/10.3280/SL2017-145007.

[31] Leonardi, E. & M. Secchi (2016) ‘EXPO 2015 as a laboratory for neoliberalization: Great exhibitions, urban value dispossession and new labor relations’, Partecipazione e Conflitto: The Open Journal of Sociopolitical Studies, 9 (2):567–95. https://doi.org/10.1285/i20356609v9i2p567.

[32] Marglin, S. & J. Schor (1989) The Golden Age of Capitalism: Reinterpreting the Postwar Experience. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

[33] Marrone, M. & G. Peterlongo (2020) ‘Where platforms meet infrastructures: Digital platforms, urban resistance and the ambivalence of the city in the Italian case of Bologna’, Work Organisation, Labour & Globalisation, 14 (1):135. https://doi.org/10.13169/workorgalaboglob.14.1.0119.

[34] Mendes, L. (2017). ‘Gentrificação turística em Lisboa: neoliberalismo, financeirização, e urbanismo austeritário em tempos de pós-crise capitalista 2008-2009‘, Cadernos Metrópole [en linea], 19 (39): 479–512.

[35] Mezzadra, S. & B. Neilson (2018) The Politics of Operations: Excavating Contemporary Capitalism. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

[36] Novella, M. (2019) ‘Il rider non è lavoratore subordinato, ma è tutelato come se lo fosse’, Labour & Law Issues, 5 (1):82–103. https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.2421-2695/9630.

[37] Peña-Casas, R., D. Ghailani, S. Spasova & B. Vanhercke (2019) In-Work Poverty in Europe: A Study of National Policies. Brussels: European Commission. https://doi.org/10.2767/31835.

[38] Pesole, A., B.M.C. Urzi, M.E. Fernandez, F. Biagi & I. Gonzalez (2018) ‘Platform workers in Europe: Evidence from the COLLEEM survey’, in JRC Science for Policy Report. https://doi.org/10.2760/742789.

[39] Prassl, J. (2018) Humans as a Service: The Promise and Perils of Work in the Gig Economy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

[40] Rosenblat, A. (2018) Uberland: How Algorith are Rewriting the Rules of Work. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

[41] Scholz, T. (2017) Uberworked and Underpaid. Cambridge: Polity Press.

[42] Seixas, J., & A. Guterres Brito (2018). ‘Political evolution in the Lisbon of the digital era. Fast urban changes, slow institutional restructuring and growing civic pressures’, Urban Research & Practice, 12 (1), 99–110. https://doi.org/10.1080/17535069.2018.1505272.

[43] Springer, S., K. Birch & J. MacLeavy (2016) ‘An introduction to neoliberalism’, in S. Springer, K. Birch & J. MacLeavy, The Handbook of Neoliberalism. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge:1–14.

[44] Srnicek, N. (2016) Platform Capitalism. Cambridge: Polity.

[45] Tubaro, P., C. Le Ludec & A.A. Casilli (2020) ‘Counting “micro-workers”: Societal and methodological challenges around new forms of labour’, Work Organisation, Labour & Globalisation, 14 (1):67–82. https://doi.org/doi:10.13169/workorgalaboglob.14.1.0067.

[46] Vecchi, B. (2017) Il capitalismo delle piattaforme. Rome: Manifestolibri.

[47] Woodcock, J. & M. Graham (2020) The Gig Economy: A Critical Introduction. Cambridge: Polity Press.