Abstract
The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic has brought to the surface some problems and trends within digital platforms, including working conditions, while simultaneously transforming the relationship between platform capitalism and the pandemic complex. Through the case analysis of Uber in Lisbon, we were able to identify a situation where several ambiguities emerged, some of which are associated with the Portuguese singularity of intermediary platform capitalism. From this analysis, anchored to several interviews with Uber drivers/partners, we observed that the pandemic crisis has aggravated some inequalities and problems generally associated with platform capitalism, but also seen new trends and solutions emerge for a political and socio-economic reformulation of this sector.
Highlights
The COVID-19 outbreak has generated a series of descriptive books, written at speed, building superficial conjectures on epidemiologic statistics (Nath, 2020)
Within the spectrum of these essential workers, in this article, we will focus on some of those operating within the scope of platform capitalism – namely, Uber drivers in Lisbon
The analysis focuses on Portugal’s capital, Lisbon, because it has an interesting and almost unique context, representing a laboratory for platform capitalism at a continental level (Tommasoni & Pirina, 2019)
Summary
The COVID-19 outbreak has generated a series of descriptive books, written at speed, building superficial conjectures on epidemiologic statistics (Nath, 2020). The business model is structured around, and supported by, that same intermediation, and the platforms’ profits are proportional to the number of their users (network effects) and to their capacity for instituting a set of rules (including, but not limited to algorithms) which structure the possibilities of action of the diverse agents who interact in and through the platform In such a perspective, this article uses evidence produced by the PLUS project, aiming to contribute to a better understanding of the effects of the pandemic in relation to the Uber platform, its workers and the regulatory framework that makes Portugal a unique case study in the context of platform capitalism. This transformation, aligned with the dominant entrepreneurship culture in Portugal (rooted in family-based and micro-companies), brought into being a new
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