Uberization

the process of restructuring the work activity of bikers through delivery plataforma

Abstract

Technological advances in capital society have enabled new forms of exploitation and commodification of the workforce through digital platforms, affecting all dimensions of the lives of social beings. Aware of these new morphologies of work, this research aims to contribute to the analysis of the phenomenon of Uberization from the understanding of two key aspects, namely: how the process of restructuring work activity in the so-called Industry 4.0 has been taking place, mainly that of motorcycle couriers linked to app-companies and what are the social determinations involved in this process. To do so, we combined a literature review on the work category and the restructuring of productive forces based on Marxian works and analysis of semi-structured interviews with app-company couriers in the city of Belo Horizonte. We identified six central issues: (i) the category of work continues to be central to human existence and fulfillment; (ii) uberization is not a disruptive phenomenon, it is, in fact, the appropriation, by the application companies, through digital platforms, of the exploitation of the workforce, using these new technological resources to deepen the precariousness within the capital society.; (iii) the work of the couriers is controlled, managed and inspected through algorithms, with the presence of subordination of these to the app-companies being evident; (iv) the intensification of working hours and the negation of the salary condition are the central elements for the extraction of surplus value in this form of work (v) the workers' socioeconomic conditions and employability conditions are determining factors for entry and permanence of the couriers in this work (vi) even recognizing a certain autonomy in this work, the couriers see themselves as overexploited, precarious and outside of legislative regulations and social protection. From this we conclude that the uberization of work is the reflection of a markedly destructive capitalism, which appropriates a mass of informal workers, using the most advanced technologies, to accentuate even more the superexploitation of the workforce through new forms of control and management that hide the form of salaried work, leading the worker to recognize himself as autonomous, while, in reality, they remain informal workers, underutilized to the necessary extent determined by the application companies.