Gaming the System: Tactical Workarounds and the Production of Antagonistic Subjectivities among Migrant Platform Workers in Italy

Abstract

Our article explores how migrant food delivery couriers work around platform algorithmic control to argue that gaming the system is a form of everyday resistance. Drawing on data collected in Turin, Italy, between August 2020 and June 2021, we examine how, on the one hand, through gamification, food delivery platforms construct the couriers as entrepreneurial and productive subjects; on the other hand, we show that the disarticulation and repurposing of these management mechanisms both address survival needs and signal a still fledgling, but potentially vibrant, space of labour activism. By conceptualising gamification as another weapon in capital's arsenal to control labour, we acknowledge the entanglement of workers' agency and subjectivity. We thus bring a two-fold contribution to radical geography: we link gamification to the "production of subjectivity", drawing on the Italian Operaista intellectual tradition; and we posit the subversive and generative potential of migrant couriers' everyday geographies. Riassunto: Il nostro articolo esplora il modo in cui i corrieri migranti che lavorano nel settore del food delivery aggirano il controllo algoritmico delle piattaforme per sostenere che ingannare il sistema e una forma di resistenza quotidiana. Sulla base di dati raccolti a Torino tra agosto 2020 e giugno 2021, esaminiamo come, da un lato, le piattaforme di food delivery usano tecniche di gamification per costruire i corrieri come soggetti imprenditoriali e produttivi; dall'altro, dimostriamo che la disarticolazione e l'adattamento di questi meccanismi di gestione simultaneamente soddisfano necessit a di sopravvivenza e segnalano uno spazio embrionale, ma potenzialmente vibrante, di attivismo operaio. Concettualizzando la gamification come l'ennesima arma nell'arsenale con cui il capitale controlla il lavoro, riconosciamo l'intreccio tra l'azione e la soggettivit a dei lavoratori. Il nostro contributo alla geografia radicale e pertanto duplice: stabiliamo un nesso tra gamification e la "produzione della soggettivit a", attingendo alla tradizione intellettuale operaista italiana; e sosteniamo il potenziale sovversivo e generativo delle geografie quotidiane dei corrieri migranti.

Stratified pathways into platform work: Migration trajectories and skills in Berlin’s gig economy

“…However, participants were selected to represent a wide range of different legal visa statuses and categories of immigration. In contrast to accounts of undocumented workers in ride-hailing and food delivery in Italy, France and Belgium (Iazzolino and Varesio, 2023; PICUM, 2022), this study did not find undocumented migrants in the platform labour force in domestic work and grocery delivery, despite continued efforts to sample for this status. All research participants were legally documented in Germany, even if some of their work may have been undocumented.…”

Negotiating dignity and social justice in community food access spaces

“…In the workplace and beyond, workarounds emerge out of perceived limited opportunities as a way to regain control over an unjust system. Studying how migrant food delivery workers in Italy address unfair algorithms, Iazzolino and Varesio (2023, p. 2) argue that “gaming the system is a form of everyday resistance.” Similarly, Raridon and colleagues (2021) show that farmers’ workarounds can be understood as first steps in addressing structural inequalities.…”

“…Although Ginsburg et al (2019) contend that workarounds add uncertainty to an already difficult-to-navigate food system, others argue that workarounds provide new opportunities for underserved groups to resist or challenge the status quo. As a tactical choice, workarounds are rooted in “mutual help and solidary” (Iazzolino and Varesio, 2023, p. 13). In the workplace, ease of resistance varies at different stages of the process and “can both enable and weaken platforms’ control systems” while providing employees opportunities to remain creative in responding to constraints (Cameron and Rahman, 2022, p. 54).…”

The labour consequences of Covid-19: migrant workers in tourism and hospitality

“…The contactless delivery process meant that businesses connecting restaurants and diners, such as Uber Eats, Deliveroo, Food Panda, Grab, Glovo or Bolt, were working during the pandemic, thus providing continuous employment opportunities (Li et al , 2023). Migrant labour played a vital role in the platform business model's viability as a result of the steady influx of investment capital (van Doorn and Vijay, 2021; Iazzolino and Varesio, 2023). As suggested by Baum and Giddy (2021), we are already witnessing the normalisation of gig and platform work in tourism.…”