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‘Be Your Own Boss?’ Explaining Variation in Worker Response to the Gig Economy's Ideology in the Global North and South

Author

Listed:
  • Andrew B. Wolf
  • Fellipe Coelho‐Lima
  • Isabel Lopes dos Santos Keppler
  • Mirlly de Souza Ferreira
  • Constanza Dall'Asta
  • María Eugenia Rodríguez Florez
  • Maria Figueroa

Abstract

The proponents of app‐based, algorithmically mediated employment seek to create an easily transferable uniform labour process around the world. These apps classify their workers as independent contractors coupled with the ideological pitch that they will be ‘their own boss’. This model is designed to avoid adhering to employment regulations, but it also effectively appeals to low‐wage workers with historically negative experiences in the labour market. This paper explores how the worker experience and ideological pitch of app‐based employment varies in different socio‐cultural and political contexts. Apps, we argue, may strive for uniformity but they are shaped by local conditioning. Utilising theories of the construction of the labour process, governmentality and racial platform capitalism we explore how app work is conditioned in four cities in the global north and south, demonstrating how place shapes algorithmic management and worker resistance. We point to the role of labour market informality in the south as a primary dynamic shaping divergent responses in our cases.

Suggested Citation

  • Andrew B. Wolf & Fellipe Coelho‐Lima & Isabel Lopes dos Santos Keppler & Mirlly de Souza Ferreira & Constanza Dall'Asta & María Eugenia Rodríguez Florez & Maria Figueroa, 2025. "‘Be Your Own Boss?’ Explaining Variation in Worker Response to the Gig Economy's Ideology in the Global North and South," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 63(4), pages 631-645, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:brjirl:v:63:y:2025:i:4:p:631-645
    DOI: 10.1111/bjir.12887
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Do Jun Lee & Jing Wang, 2024. "From threat to essentially sacrificial: racial capitalism, (im)mobilities, and food delivery workers in New York City during Covid-19," Mobilities, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(6), pages 1023-1040, November.
    2. Dalia Gebrial, 2024. "Racial platform capitalism: Empire, migration and the making of Uber in London," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 56(4), pages 1170-1194, June.
    3. Moritz Altenried, 2024. "Mobile workers, contingent labour: Migration, the gig economy and the multiplication of labour," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 56(4), pages 1113-1128, June.
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