Consent and dissent among platform-based workers: How symbolism steers Uber drivers’ motivation

Abstract

Online platforms have opened up new opportunities for workers who strive to become ‘their own boss’, while creating new constraints and difficult working environments that fall outside traditional, more secure employment relationships. This article investigates the mechanisms through which workers on online platforms consent to their working conditions, and the mechanisms that motivate their dissent. Interviews with 58 actors linked to the expansion of Uber in Cape Town, South Africa, revealed that platforms are loaded with meaningful symbols, and that symbolism plays a great role in the motivation of platform workers. Our findings contribute new theoretical insights about how platforms, by enacting several interactions simultaneously, convey meanings and emotions that either coalesce into workers’ positive perception of their working conditions, or collapse into negative behavior and demotivation.