Platform delivery workers′ protests in Turkey

Why do people attend protests despite infection risk during health crises? This paper studies motivations to participate in protests during public health crises under authoritarianism, despite the risks of infection and repression by regime forces, with a focus on economic grievances and moral indignation. It examines motivations for protest participation in the case of workers’ protests in Turkey during 2020 and 2021, using an online survey and interviews with supermarket, delivery, and municipality workers, and waiters in Istanbul. The paper argues that, although the pandemic amplified the cost of participating in protests due to infection risk and government restrictions such as lockdown measures and heavy fines for violating them, it escalated economic grievances and moral indignation even more. By implication, small groups of workers persisted in their protests for months. Unjustified terminations of employment, mistreatment, and poor working conditions resulted in income loss and moral indignation, which increased the perceived costs of not protesting more than the costs of protesting. This paper challenges the expectation that infection risk, lockdowns, and repression by regime forces would discourage protest participation during the pandemic. Theories developed for normal times must consider how pandemic-induced grievances and moral outrage interact with the perceived risks of repression and infection. Furthermore, while studies on protest participation under authoritarianism focus on how moral indignation and anger trigger large-scale protests, this analysis reveals that small groups can also protest for an extended period despite significant risks under authoritarianism.

Recent social movements, as exemplified by the informal organizations formed during and after the Occupy Movement in the United States and Gezi Park Protests in Turkey, are characterized by distrust towards institutional political bodies and hierarchical organizations (Boler et al. 2014). Also, the debate on the relationship between social movements and digital media technologies often highlights the opportunities that these technologies provide for ‘largely unfettered deliberation and coordination of action’ (Castells 2012). Scholars critical towards the concept argue that horizontal grassroots organizations may suffer from problems of continuity and formation of a durable movement (Calhoun 2013). This article aims to investigate the organizational characteristics and media practices of grassroots organizations that were established or mobilized following Gezi Park Protests, a nation-level social protest in Turkey. Drawing on participant observation of three grassroots social movement organizations in Istanbul – Dogancilar Park Forum and Imrahor Garden; Macka Park Forum and Komsu Kapisi Association and Validebag Volunteers – this analysis will aim to contextualize opportunities and obstacles associated with the horizontal structures of such movements. The article will particularly focus on the strategies that these organizations utilize to maintain the sustainability of the respective movements and approaches they employ in media and communication practices at a local level.

This study investigates anxiety risk and work-related factors among platform workers. The recent growth in the platform industry is a worldwide trend, with delivery workers in Korea representing typical platform workers. This cross-sectional study used the 6th Korean Working Conditions Survey to assess anxiety risk among 532 delivery workers compared to general employees. It identified associations between work-related factors and anxiety, including job demands and autonomy, legal protection, and emotional labor. Delivery workers exhibited significantly higher anxiety (odds ratio [OR] = 1.67 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.23-2.28) and work-related anxiety (OR = 2.17 95% CI = 1.48-3.18) risk than the general workforce, and a significantly higher risk of having unfavorable work environment factors. Their anxiety risk was significantly associated with work-related factors, such as long shifts, quick return, time pressure, job stress, absence of union, work-family conflict, and emotional labor. This study identified high levels of anxiety among Korean delivery workers and associated occupational factors. It highlights the importance for industry and government interventions to enhance mental health support, mitigate poor employment conditions, and ensure legal safeguards.

As Covid-19 spread quickly, New York City (NYC) designated food delivery as essential and stopped policing the electric bikes ridden by ‘threatening’ delivery workers. We use racial capitalism to examine how becoming essential reconfigured the labor mobilities of NYC food delivery workers to maintain and create accumulations of racial capitalism in a crisis of pandemic-induced (im)mobilities. This research draws from pre-pandemic and during-pandemic data collections including analyses of governmental documents, surveys, interviews, focus groups, and public data to understand the value extracted from the essential designation of food delivery. Pre-pandemic labor conditions extracted value from food delivery mobility by offloading risks and costs through informal working conditions and policing. Designating food delivery as essential produced new arrangements of uneven (im)mobilities that built upon preexisting conditions of delivery mobility that extracted novel values by intensifying, altering, and creating sacrificial hazards and burdens for workers. However, the embodied incongruencies and fissures of being essential conversely fueled organizing by delivery workers to use their essential narrative to secure local labor victories. The fissures of the essential designation in food delivery indicate critical junctures between racial capitalism and (im)mobilities for possible future accumulations and interventions.

In this field study of the labor process of food delivery workers, we examine the new rules of time and new forms of labor time control in the food delivery industry. Food delivery platforms attract laborers with the flexibility of working time and place but simultaneously strictly surveil the labor process of delivery workers, thus establishing a multidimensional body of control consisting of the platform and customers. At the same time, platform mechanisms of “grab the order” and “wait for the order” help platforms subtly control delivery workers’ experience, thoughts, and emotions. These mechanisms create a sense of time characterized by “punctuality” and “speed,” making delivery workers “all-day workers.” Delivery workers come to delivery platforms in search of work freedom, but in the end, they become constrained by platforms. Helpless, they voluntarily subject themselves to the time control of the platform, while the latter obtains profit under the guise of freedom.

The paper examines the role of medical and social factors, general well-being, and quality of life in patients with hypertension. The role of the nurse of the therapeutic department in the preventive training of patients is emphasized to form a healthy lifestyle and reduce the pathogenic impact of negative social factors.Objective – substantiation of the main measures for prevention of hypertension and improvement of quality of life by studying medico-social and social factors of patients' quality of life with arterial hypertension by nurses.Material and methods. The survey (by questionnaire) involved 120 patients with arterial hypertension consulted at the Municipal Institution "Polyclinic №1" in Chernivtsi, including: men – 43.3%, women – 56.7% aged from 23 to 79 years. With the help of the questionnaires, medical and social, sociological factors of influence, general well-being and quality of life were studied. The research was conducted according to all ethical rules, in particular, in compliance with the principles of voluntariness, confidentiality, research integrity. The results of the study were processed by conventional statistical methods using computer packages STATISTICA 10 and presented by the appropriate number of observations, percentages, and the exact value of p.Results. I and II degree AH prevailed among the examined individuals, and burdened heredity was found in 62.5% (75 people). Insufficient amount of vegetables and fruits, fish in the diet and salt intake of more than 5 g per day (60%) was found. The vast majority of respondents had a secondary special, less of respondents – higher education. Social status survey: 71.62% were employed, most worked full time. According to the survey, 22.09% of people noted excellent working conditions, 38.37% – good, satisfactory – 25.58%, and 13.96% poor working conditions. It was found that the percentage of patients (60.47%), among whom there are excellent and good sanitary and working conditions, exceeds the percentage of respondents with satisfactory and poor working conditions (39.53%). The majority of respondents (53.49%) indicated satisfactory and poor psychological working conditions, which slightly exceeded the number of employees with excellent and good working conditions (46.51%). The advantage of assessing excellent and good material and technical working conditions over excellent and good psychological conditions (60.47% vs. 46.51%) was revealed. The financial condition of the majority of respondents was assessed as average (42.5%). The level of QOL fluctuated from very high to extremely low. Factors that led to a decrease in the level of QOL are the following: the indicator of "health" (1.44), "social status" (1.48), "job satisfaction" (1.59), "social activity" (1.62). Social factors such as financial difficulties, additional work to increase income were reported as negative during the last 6 months by every second patient; deterioration of mutual understanding, deterioration of relations: husband / wife, children, parents, friends, the threat of unemployment for relatives – every third respondent.Conclusions 1. 120 Patients with hypertension have a burdened heredity (62,5%), insufficient consumption of the recommended amount of vegetables and fruits (25,83%), fish in the diet (12,5%), and excessive salt consumption (60%); the predominance of people is with secondary special education and workers (71,62%) with excellent and good sanitation and satisfactory and poor psychological working conditions (39,53%), with an average financial situation (42,5%) and fluctuations in the level of QOL from very high to extremely low. 2. Hypertension worsens the QOL of patients, which is manifested by a decrease in both physical and psychological states. 3. The ability of patients to adequately perceive their disease and form attitudes toward treatment and prevention depends on the level of education. 4. Social support, training and diagnosis of hypertension are significant predictors of commitment to prevention and treatment. 5. Education of patients with hypertension on the principles of a healthy lifestyle by nurses, assistance in reducing the pathogenic impact of negative social factors, the constant promotion of medical knowledge will contribute to the formation of a responsible attitude to maintaining their own health, prevent complications, improve the QOL and social adaptation.

The COVID-19 pandemic has sparked a rapid worldwide increase in the utilization of delivery services. This study delves into the experiences of delivery workers as one of the activley developed industries during the COVID-19 pandemic in South Korea and sheds light on the effects of the pandemic on their working conditions. Through in-depth interviews with 10 Korean delivery workers, data analysis employed the hermeneutic phenomenology research method developed by Van Manen. The findings indicate a substantial rise in income levels and a positive societal perception of delivery labor post-COVID-19. The pandemic also attracted many new workers to the industry due to low entry barriers and work flexibility. However, challenges persisted as delivery workers grappled with an uncertain legal status and sometimes jeopardized their safety to boost earnings in shorter time frames. The pivotal role played by delivery workers in enhancing communal quality of life and connectivity during the pandemic cannot be overlooked. As we step into a post-COVID-19 era, comprehensive efforts are needed to enhance the working environment for delivery workers globally. Notably, clarifying the relationship between delivery workers and companies within the novel digital labor landscape is essential, alongside establishing institutional frameworks to safeguard workers’ basic rights, including health and safety provisions.

To describe the methodological challenges and strategies of a web survey on the working conditions and health among delivery workers. The study population consisted of Brazilian delivery workers operating in the national territory. Procedures include building solid and ongoing collaboration with worker representatives and conducting a four-month data collection from February to May 2022, sharing the link to the online questionnaire on social media such as social networks (Facebook, Instagram) and messaging apps (WhatsApp, Telegram). The recruitment of 41 leaders or influencers of delivery workers increased the dissemination of the study, some of whom participated in the consensual validation of the questionnaire; the production of content for social media for the dissemination of the questionnaire link on social networks and applications, and the in-person dissemination of the study at the delivery workers' meeting points during the workday played a fundamental role, totaling around 132 hours in 45 shifts. The strategies adopted for data collection with a hybrid approach to dissemination made it possible to carry out the web survey. After four months of the web survey, 564 delivery workers, 543 men and 18 women, responded to the online questionnaire. The web survey presented methodological strategies to overcome the challenge of reaching workers, including hybrid work, to increase the participation of workers, on whom epidemiological research is still scarce.

Delivering food, working with hunger: a qualitative study on food delivery workers from Brazil during COVID-19.

With the rapid growth of online food delivery services, the population of delivery workers has reached 13 million in China. Most of them use electric bicycles (e-bikes) as their primary transportation tool. On the other hand, mobile phone call (MPC), as the primary and most effective communication method for delivery workers, induces distracted riding and threatens traffic safety. Although MPC has been extensively investigated in driving-related research, MPC among delivery workers has not yet been investigated. In this study, a questionnaire based on the theory of planned behavior has been designed to investigate social-psychological factors leading to MPC among delivery workers. 150 delivery workers participated in this study. The structural equation model method was adopted to analyze the data. The results show that injunctive norm is positively associated with MPC behaviors; but descriptive norm is negatively associated with MPC behaviors, potentially because of the selective perception phenomenon.

With the rise of digital platform work, there is a challenge to understand the work process of app delivery workers. Given this, this research aims to analyze the reorganization of labor among delivery workers in Arapiraca, Brazil. This is a qualitative research study in which six interviews were conducted. The analysis considered the following dimensions: the work process, forms of control, and collectivity. The study found the formation of groups of delivery workers as an alternative to large delivery apps. In these groups, an administrator is present. There are strategies for collective organization, facilitated by digital social media. However, the presence of the administrator implies the coexistence of elements of vertical organization, with delivery workers being subordinate. These workers have a daily working day longer than 8 hours and earn between one thousand five hundred and two thousand reais (R$) per month. The work of delivery drivers, even with the use of new technologies, remains precarious. This reflects the conservative modernization typical of the periphery of capitalism, blending some technological innovations with old relationships.

This study undertakes a comparative analysis of delivery workers’ struggles in Norway and Germany. Through the theoretical lens of the power resources approach, we analyse how delivery workers in Berlin and Oslo combine associational, structural, institutional, coalitional and discursive power resources, responding to different institutionalised frameworks of industrial relations. We make three contributions to debates on worker agency and resistance in the platform economy. First, we show that delivery workers need to actively combine different power resources to overcome barriers to organising and exercising structural power, resulting from platforms’ model of work organisation. Second, we highlight the role of institutional contexts in shaping workers’ collective organising strategies. Finally, our analysis stresses that the power resources that food delivery workers have built are often contested and circumvented by counter‐practices from the platform companies.

In this article, I argue that indigenous Latin American food delivery workers organize to defy information and knowledge asymmetries by utilizing technology built to mediate online social interactions. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, this paper investigates transnational modes of community-building and network formation and examines how these networks are instrumental for delivery workers in New York City to exercise agency, forge their narrative, and resist platform control by resisting, pushing, and extending a variety of digital and communication technologies. I analyze how public and private means of communication facilitate and constrain social forms of organization by mapping how delivery workers communicate and engage collectively both in the physical and the digital worlds. My research reveals two platforms that workers use to share information: one that operates inwards (WhatsApp) and another that operates outwards (Facebook). These channels represent opposite sides of the spectrum between public and private and synergize to form a transnational distributed knowledge network to shape and interpret the collective identity of Latin American delivery workers. Overall, this article sheds light on how the flow of information through different spaces and times enables delivery workers to construct a place for subversion and negotiation with roles assigned to them by broader socio-political forces.

This article analyses the processes through which delivery workers are controlled by the algorithmic management practiceson deliveryplatforms. The article buildson the existing literature on algorithmic management and control, by identifying the different types of control mechanisms used by platforms to discipline delivery workers in developing countries. It drawson surveys conducted by the International Labour Organization with about 3000 platform delivery workers in elevendeveloping countries (Argentina, Chile, China, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Lebanon, Mexico, Morocco, and Ukraine)to understand howalgorithmic management practicesexert control and undermine workers’ freedoms at work.Itdiscussesthe implications of such a control mechanism on their working conditions, as well as their freedom and autonomy to undertake and perform work. The article concludeswith a discussion on what policies have helped to address some of the issues related to working conditions and what policy measures need to be taken to ensure decent working conditions for workers on digital labour platforms

Food delivery platforms are designed to match on-demand workers with jobs and then manage, monitor, and assess their performance. These platforms provide workers with a digital representation of delivery work. Once a worker accepts a delivery job they need to deal with the complexities of an unsettled urban landscape with varied infrastructures, traffic, and regulations. In particular, the Global South presents a demanding context for this type of work, given less clearly mapped addresses alongside other socio-cultural intricacies. In order to understand how food delivery workers bridge gaps and mismatches between the demands of the app and the realities encountered in situ, for this paper we shadowed six delivery workers over the course of their working day delivering food in Pune, India. The six workers included a complete novice and more experienced riders. We used helmet mounted cameras to record the delivery work, and how our participants managed the extra demands of food delivery work during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our moment-by-moment analysis of the video data is informed by the methodological traditions of ethnomethodology and conversation analysis. While the food delivery platform imposes a detailed workflow expected to be performed alone by the worker, our detailed video analysis reveals the collaborative nature of delivery work. We highlight how workers draw upon their ability to participate in ‘fleeting alliances’ and produce ‘frugal collaboration’ with co-located others, such as other delivery workers or security guards. This allows them to resolve everyday troubles, often learning or imparting ‘the tricks of the trade’ in the process. While gig platforms have commonly been presented as disruptive technologies for coordinating, regulating, and assessing gig workers individually and independently, our findings highlight collaboration as a critically important aspect of food delivery work.