Seeing like a driver: How workers repair, resist, and reinforce the platform's algorithmic visions
<jats:p> This article theorizes the relationship between two ways of “seeing” and organizing urban mobility markets: the abstract, algorithmic vision of the mobility platform and the experiential, relational vision of the platform driver. Using the case of mobility platforms in Jakarta, we emp...
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| Format: | Article |
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SAGE Publications
2023
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/146964 |
| _version_ | 1826202690543157248 |
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| author | Qadri, Rida D’Ignazio, Catherine |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Urban Studies and Planning |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Urban Studies and Planning Qadri, Rida D’Ignazio, Catherine |
| author_sort | Qadri, Rida |
| collection | MIT |
| description | <jats:p> This article theorizes the relationship between two ways of “seeing” and organizing urban mobility markets: the abstract, algorithmic vision of the mobility platform and the experiential, relational vision of the platform driver. Using the case of mobility platforms in Jakarta, we empirically demonstrate how drivers experience the limitations of the platform's visions and how they deploy their own alternative visions of work and the city. We offer this drivers’ “View from Within” as a counterpoint to the visions of the platform, decentering the platform's visions as the sole arbiter of change and optimization in the city. At the same time, we disrupt the assumed binary between these views, showing how they exist in a complex dance of complementarity and contestation. We conclude with a discussion on the opportunities this entanglement presents for worker agency in the algorithmic market, the hurdles toward more “worker centered design” in platform economies and the tensions between globalizing technological solutions and their localized instantiations. Through this article, we argue for seeing deep, embedded relationships as culturally and historically important modes of urban life which technology has to interact with but cannot fully capture nor do away with. </jats:p> |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T12:13:19Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/146964 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T12:13:19Z |
| publishDate | 2023 |
| publisher | SAGE Publications |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1469642023-02-16T19:22:01Z Seeing like a driver: How workers repair, resist, and reinforce the platform's algorithmic visions Qadri, Rida D’Ignazio, Catherine Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Urban Studies and Planning Library and Information Sciences Information Systems and Management Computer Science Applications Communication Information Systems <jats:p> This article theorizes the relationship between two ways of “seeing” and organizing urban mobility markets: the abstract, algorithmic vision of the mobility platform and the experiential, relational vision of the platform driver. Using the case of mobility platforms in Jakarta, we empirically demonstrate how drivers experience the limitations of the platform's visions and how they deploy their own alternative visions of work and the city. We offer this drivers’ “View from Within” as a counterpoint to the visions of the platform, decentering the platform's visions as the sole arbiter of change and optimization in the city. At the same time, we disrupt the assumed binary between these views, showing how they exist in a complex dance of complementarity and contestation. We conclude with a discussion on the opportunities this entanglement presents for worker agency in the algorithmic market, the hurdles toward more “worker centered design” in platform economies and the tensions between globalizing technological solutions and their localized instantiations. Through this article, we argue for seeing deep, embedded relationships as culturally and historically important modes of urban life which technology has to interact with but cannot fully capture nor do away with. </jats:p> 2023-01-04T16:19:47Z 2023-01-04T16:19:47Z 2022-07 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 2053-9517 2053-9517 https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/146964 Qadri, Rida and D’Ignazio, Catherine. 2022. "Seeing like a driver: How workers repair, resist, and reinforce the platform's algorithmic visions." 9 (2). 10.1177/20539517221133780 Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial License 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ application/pdf SAGE Publications Sage |
| spellingShingle | Library and Information Sciences Information Systems and Management Computer Science Applications Communication Information Systems Qadri, Rida D’Ignazio, Catherine Seeing like a driver: How workers repair, resist, and reinforce the platform's algorithmic visions |
| title | Seeing like a driver: How workers repair, resist, and reinforce the platform's algorithmic visions |
| title_full | Seeing like a driver: How workers repair, resist, and reinforce the platform's algorithmic visions |
| title_fullStr | Seeing like a driver: How workers repair, resist, and reinforce the platform's algorithmic visions |
| title_full_unstemmed | Seeing like a driver: How workers repair, resist, and reinforce the platform's algorithmic visions |
| title_short | Seeing like a driver: How workers repair, resist, and reinforce the platform's algorithmic visions |
| title_sort | seeing like a driver how workers repair resist and reinforce the platform s algorithmic visions |
| topic | Library and Information Sciences Information Systems and Management Computer Science Applications Communication Information Systems |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/146964 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT qadririda seeinglikeadriverhowworkersrepairresistandreinforcetheplatformsalgorithmicvisions AT dignaziocatherine seeinglikeadriverhowworkersrepairresistandreinforcetheplatformsalgorithmicvisions |