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Original Articles

Your order, their labor: An exploration of algorithms and laboring on food delivery platforms in China

Pages 308-323 | Received 28 May 2018, Accepted 09 Jan 2019, Published online: 26 Mar 2019
 

Abstract

This study examines the use of “algorithms in everyday labor” to explore the labor conditions of three Chinese food delivery platforms: Baidu Deliveries, Eleme, and Meituan. In particular, it examines how delivery workers make sense of these algorithms through the parameters of temporality, affect, and gamification. The study also demonstrates that in working for food delivery platforms, couriers are not simply passive entities that are subjected to a digital “panopticon.” Instead, they create their own “organic algorithms” to manage and, in some cases, even subvert the system. The results of the approach used in this study demonstrate that digital labor has become both more accessible and more precarious in contemporary China. Based on these results, the notion of “algorithmic making and remaking” is suggested as a topic in future research on technology and digital labor.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ping Sun

Ping Sun is an Assistant Professor in the Institute of Journalism and Communication, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Her research mainly concerns ICTs, platform and digital labor.

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