206 research outputs found
Cycling as a food-delivery rider. Or the difficult negotiation among speed, safety and accuracy
No full textPlatform-based food-delivery riders have been primarily analyzed in relation to organisational or regulatory issues, thus overlooking the actual practices that involve them materially, bodily and cognitively. In particular, less attention has been given to a central aspect of this occupation: cycling. By understanding food-delivery work as a social practice (Hui et al., 2016), this paper aims to show that:
1) the organisational and material conditions in which food-delivery work takes place frame the emergence of a specific mode of urban cycling, which concerns the difficult negotiation of speed, safety and accuracy.
2) in order to meet the requirements of practice, riders draw on a set of norms and practical skills by which they define the correct way to accomplish this work.
The research draws on a seven-months Milan-based observant participation (Wacquant, 2015) – during which the author worked as a Glovo part-time rider – supplemented by 21 in-depth interviews with workers
Imbricated to Platforms: The (Re)production of Differences in Food-delivery Work
No full textThe debate on digital labour platforms (DLPs) postulates that algorithms engineer pervasive organizational control, but it often observes that workers can evade and resist this control by manipulating algorithms’ decisions. This article aims to unpack this dichotomic view, shedding light on the more intricate dynamics at play in the everyday interaction between workers, algorithms and related technologies in the context of food-delivery platforms. Based on a seven-months ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Milan in 2020, during which the author worked as a food-delivery courier, this article highlights the internal differentiation within an emerging occupational field that is often considered homogeneous. First, it compares two food-delivery platforms – Glovo and Deliveroo – to uncover differences in the way they prefigure couriers’ work, enabling or constraining their agency. Second, it illustrates how two groups of workers with uneven cultural and socioeconomic resources engage with both platforms. The analysis shows that pre-existing social stratification of workers is reproduced through the processes of “imbrication to platform”, leading to the emergence of different ways of working and dispositions – namely, reactive and strategic. In conclusion, however, it is argued that strategic “imbrications” result less in practices of resistance to organizational control and more into self-optimization tactics that, to some extent, are envisaged and tolerated by DLPs
Encountering algorithms in the urban space: a matter of knowledge. An enactive ethnography of riders’ work
No full textIn the academic debate, an increasing number of studies has addressed the disciplining function of the algorithmic management upon food-delivery workers. The technological infrastructure has been understood as a tool in the hands of the management, against which workers can only resist or succumb insofar as they comply (or not) with algorithmic prescriptions. Less attention has been given to what the interaction with algorithms is made of. By adopting riders’ point of view, this article explores the meanings and competences attached to such interaction, which shapes workers’ spatial and temporal experience. Framing the everyday encounters with algorithms as a “site of knowing” (Nicolini 2011), the paper shows the emergence of a professional vision within (a part of) riders’ community. The research draws on six-months Milan-based observant participation during which the author worked as a part-time rider, integrated with 21 in-depth interviews and a smallsized survey (n=130) with workers
Vivere e lavorare con gli algoritmi
No full textNegli ultimi 15 anni della sua attività scientifica, Fausto Colombo ha analizzato a fondo il rapporto tra media e potere e le sue trasformazioni nell’ecosistema digitale. Un primo snodo fondamentale di questa riflessione si trova nella lettura foucaultiana del web 2.0 all’interno del volume Il potere socievole (2013), dove Colombo osservava come blog e social media, a lungo celebrati come nuovi luoghi di partecipazione pubblica, avessero progressivamente dato origine a forme di sorveglianza diffusa. Se il potere dei media di massa era stato tradizionalmente concepito in termini ideologici e attribuito alle modalità di produzione o alla natura testuale dei mezzi di comunicazione, nei social media il potere assumeva una forma reticolare, e veniva esercitato in modo performativo nelle relazioni fra gli utenti. Un secondo e più recente approdo di questa riflessione riguarda i processi di piattaformizzazione delle industrie mediali e della società nel suo complesso. In linea con molti altri studiosi, Colombo ha rilevato in questi processi un momento di radicale trasformazione del potere dei media, non più interpretabile solo in termini di influenza, ma come un potere di strutturazione della realtà sociale, reso possibile dalla natura programmabile delle piattaforme digitali e dai sistemi algoritmici alla base del loro funzionamento...(dall'incipit
The environmental thinking of Jose Bonifacio de Andrada e Silva
No full textThe study aims at emphasizing the strong presence of the renowned Patriarch of Independence Jose Bonifacio de Andrada e Silva in discussions on environmental degradation that occurred in Brazil in the nineteenth century. The author registered his concern about deforestation in the Brazilian rainforests for farming and charcoal production, and warned about the depletion of water resources, as well as the disappearance of important trees – important raw-material for the shipbuilding industry. He proposed replanting seedlings, the rational use of natural resources, and recommended the adoption of agricultural practices only in valleys. These proposals show an aspect of Bonifacio that is unknown to Brazilian historiography
Bonifacio in America
No full textDas ist die Anekdote von dem prahlerischen Bonfacio, dem in America vor seiner Rückkehr nach Italien mit dem Schiff viele Frauen zuwinken, und ihn bitten zurückzukommen. Er hat aber keine solche Absicht.Il s’agit de l’anecdote du fanfaron Bonifacio que toutes les femmes ont salué lorsqu’il était sur le navire pour rentrer en Italie en le priant de revenir en Amérique. Mais il avait toute autre intention
Joachimite Bibliography 2018
No full textThis annotated bibliography details the publications dedicated to the life and works of Joachim of Fiore, to the development of his hermeneutics and to the influence of his works on other authors. For the latter, the bibliography includes only the studies that show a consistent interest in the figure and the thought of Joachim. Studies concerned with Joachimite authors that show no interest in the analysis of Joachim’s influence on their thinking have not been included. The entries are ordered alphabetically by the surname of the author. Each study is presented with a comment to highlight the content of interest
Joachimite Bibliography 2017
No full textThis annotated bibliography details the publications dedicated to the life and works of Joachim of Fiore, to the development of his hermeneutics and to the influence of his works on other authors. For the latter, the bibliography includes only the studies that show a consistent interest in the figure and the thought of Joachim. Studies concerned with Joachimite authors that show no interest in the analysis of Joachim’s influence on their thinking have not been included. The entries are ordered alphabetically by the surname of the author. Each study is presented with a comment to highlight the content of interest
Joachimite Bibliography 2015
No full textThis annotated bibliography details the publications dedicated to the life and works of Joachim of Fiore, to the development of his hermeneutics and to the influence of his works on other authors. For the latter, the bibliography includes only the studies that show a consistent interest in the figure and the thought of Joachim. Studies concerned with Joachimite authors that show no interest in the analysis of Joachim’s influence on their thinking have not been included. The entries are ordered alphabetically by the surname of the author. Each study is presented with a comment to highlight the content of interest
Joachimite Bibliography 2016
No full textThis annotated bibliography details the publications dedicated to the life and works of Joachim of Fiore, to the development of his hermeneutics and to the influence of his works on other authors. For the latter, the bibliography includes only the studies that show a consistent interest in the figure and the thought of Joachim. Studies concerned with Joachimite authors that show no interest in the analysis of Joachim’s influence on their thinking have not been included. The entries are ordered alphabetically by the surname of the author. Each study is presented with a comment to highlight the content of interest
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