Labour Process and Manufacturing Consent in Platform Capitalism

This chapter examines how labor control is organized and maintained within platform capitalism in the Global South through the lens of labor process theory. It argues that the structural dependence of workers on precarious labor markets creates conditions of market despotism, where oversupply of labor and limited access to decent employment severely undermine workers’ bargaining power. Within this context, platform companies exercise repressive forms of control through algorithmic management, rigid performance targets, and unilateral changes in pay systems. Yet, alongside these despotic mechanisms, platforms also selectively deploy hegemonic strategies to manufacture consent. These include discursive framings of flexibility and entrepreneurship, gamification systems that transform productivity pressures into individualized ambitions, and the mobilization of cultural or religious narratives—such as resignation to fate, moralized hardship, and anti-collectivist traditions. The chapter demonstrates that platform labor control in the Global South constitutes a hybrid regime, dominated by despotism but reinforced by fragmented hegemonic practices, reflecting both global dynamics of platform capitalism and local socio-cultural specificities.