Platform work and Marx’s theory of value: a literature review

Journal title SOCIOLOGIA DEL LAVORO
Author/s Laura Valle Gontijo, João Pedro Inácio Peleja
Publishing Year 2024 Issue 2024/169
Language Italian Pages 15 P. 99-113 File size 205 KB
DOI 10.3280/SL2024-169005
DOI is like a bar code for intellectual property: to have more infomation click here

Below, you can see the article first page

If you want to buy this article in PDF format, you can do it, following the instructions to buy download credits

Article preview

FrancoAngeli is member of Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA), a not-for-profit association which run the CrossRef service enabling links to and from online scholarly content.

This article aims to investigate the academic production of platform work and its interfaces with Marx’s theory of value in the field of Social and Economic Sciences. A systematic review of the international literature produced between 2009 and 2023 was carried on the Scopus database. The question of the creation of value is the most important aspect that has been identified by this research. Most of the authors affirmed that data creates value. We indicated the critics that exist on this topic. For instance, the formal and real subsumption of labor to capital and the importance that money plays in materializing value. Also, piece-rate pay was identified as an important aspect that affects workers’ subjectivity to increase the creation of value. In addition, the authors explored the process of concentration and centralization of capital in the platform economy. This literature review concludes that there is still a lack of studies on platform work from a value theory perspective.

Questo articolo si propone di indagare la produzione accademica di platform work e le sue interfacce con la teoria del valore di Marx nel campo delle scienze sociali ed economiche. Abbiamo effettuato una revisione sistematica della letteratura internazionale prodotta tra il 2009 e il 2023. La questione della creazione di valore è l'aspetto più importante individuato da questa ricerca. La maggior parte degli autori ha affermato che i dati creano valore. Abbiamo indicato le critiche che esistono su questo tema e gli aspetti che riteniamo debbano essere esplorati nella ricerca futura. La retribuzione a cottimo è stata identificata come un aspetto importante che influisce sulla soggettività dei lavoratori per aumentare la creazione di valore. Inoltre, gli autori hanno esplorato il processo di concentrazione e centralizzazione del capitale nell'economia delle piattaforme. Questo articolo conclude che mancano ancora studi sul lavoro su piattaforma da una prospettiva di teoria del valore.

Keywords: Platform economy; Theory of value; Digital labor; Literature review

  1. Alkhatib A., Bernstein M., Levi M. (2017). Examing Crowd Work and Gig Work Through The Historical Lens of Piecework. Presented at Proceedings of The 2017 Chi Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Denver, 4599-4616, May. DOI: 10.1145/3025453.302597
  2. Altenried M. (2020). The platform as a factory: Crowdwork and the hidden labor behind artificial intelligence. Capital & Class, 44(2): 145-158. DOI: 10.1177/030981681989941
  3. Anwar, M.A. (2022). Platforms of inequality: gender dynamics of digital labor in Africa. Gender & Development, 30(3): 747-764. DOI: 10.1080/13552074.2022.212105
  4. Hertwig M. and Papsdorf C. (2017). Varieties of Sharing. Strategies, structures, and working conditions of a novel field. Berliner Journal fur Soziologie, 27(3-4): 521-5461.
  5. Bajwa U., Knorr L., Ruggiero E., Gastaldo D. and Zendel A. (2018). Towards an understanding of workers’ experiences in the global gig economy. GloMHI (Global Migration and Health Initiative), Toronto, April.
  6. Barratt T., Goods C. and Veen A. (2020). ‘I’m my own boss. . .’: Active intermediation and ‘entrepreneurial’ worker agency in the Australian gig-economy. EPA: Economy and Space, 52(8): 1643-1661. DOI: 10.1177/0308518X2091434
  7. Bearson D., Kenney M. and Zysman J. (2021). Measuring the impacts of labor in the platform economy: new work created, old work reorganized, and value creation reconfigured. Industrial and Corporate Change, 30(3): 536-563.
  8. Bolaño C.R.S., and Vieira E.S. (2015). The Political Economy of the Internet: Social Networking Sites and a Reply to Fuchs. Television & New Media, 16(1): 52-61. DOI: 10.1177/152747641452713
  9. Braverman H. (1974) Labor and Monopoly Capital: The Degradation of Work in the Twentieth Century. New York: Monthly Review Press.
  10. Cansoy M. and Schor J. (2023). Commercialization on “Sharing Platforms”: The Case of Airbnb Hosting. American Behavioral Scientist, 0(0): 1-24. DOI: 10.1177/00027642231155
  11. Cant C. (2021). Delivery fight! The fight against faceless bosses. Cambridge: Polity Press.
  12. Cieslik K., Banya R. and Vira B. (2022). Offline contexts of online jobs: Platform drivers, decent work, and informality in Lagos, Nigeria. Development Policy Review, 40(4): e12595.
  13. Cole M. (2022). (Infra)structural Discontinuity: Capital, Labour, and Technological Change. Antipode: a radical journal of geography, 55(2): 348-372.
  14. Comor E. (2015). Marx’s Value Theory: a Critical Response to Analyses of Digital Prosumption. FIMS Publications. 99.
  15. Dal Rosso S. (2017). The flexibility ruse: workers and the theory of value. São Paulo: Boitempo. (in Portuguese).
  16. Davis M.E., Hoyt E. (2020). A longitudinal study of piece rate and health: evidence and implications for workers in the US gig economy. Public Health, 180: 1-9.
  17. De Groen W.P., Kilhoffer Z., Lenaerts K. and Salez N. (2017). The Impact of the Platform Economy on Job Creation. Intereconomics. 56(6): 345-351.
  18. Drahokoupil J. and Piasna A. (2017). Work in the Platform Economy: Beyond Lower Transaction Costs. Intereconomics. 52(6): 335-340.
  19. Dubal V. (2020). The Time Politics of Home-Based Digital Piecework. “The Future of Work in the Age of Automation and AI”. Center for Ethics Journal: Perspectives on Ethics, Symposium Issue. 2020: 50.
  20. Ecker Y. and Strüver A. (2022). Towards alternative platform futures in post-pandemic cities? A case study on platformization and changing socio-spatial relations in on-demand food delivery. Digital Geography, 3(1): 100032.
  21. Fabrellas A.G. (2019). The zero-hour contract in platform work Should we ban it or embrace it? IDP: Revista de Internet, Derecho y Politica, 28, February.
  22. Frénot S. and Grumbach S. (2014). Social data, the most coveted of object. Hérodote, 152-153(1-2): 43-66.
  23. Fuchs C. (2014). Digital Labour and Karl Marx, New York, NY: Routledge.
  24. Fumagalli A., Lucarelli S., Musolino E. and Rocchi G. (2018). Digital Labour in the Platform Economy: The Case of Facebook. Sustainability, 10(1757): 2-16.
  25. Giddy J.K. (2022). Uber and employment in the Global South-not-so-decent work. Tourism Geographies, 24(2): 1-18. DOI: 10.1080/14616688.2021.193195
  26. Greve B. (2017). Technology and the Future of Work: The Impact on Labour Markets and Welfare States. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing Limited.
  27. Iazzolino G. and Varesio A. (2023). Gaming the System: Tactical Workarounds and the Production of Antagonistic Subjectivities among Migrant Platform Workers in Italy. Antipode: a radical journal of geography, 55(3): 2-20.
  28. Joyce S. (2020). Rediscovering the cash nexus, again: Subsumption and the labor-capital relation in platform work. Capital & Class 2020, 44(4): 541-552. DOI: 10.1177/030981682090635
  29. Kangal K. (2016). The Karl Marx Problem in Contemporary New Media Economy: A Critique of Christian Fuchs’ Account. Television & New Media, 17(5): 416-428. DOI: 10.1177/152747641562226
  30. Kenney M. and Zysman J. (2020). The platform economy: restructuring the space of capitalist accumulation. Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy, and Society 2020, 13: 55-76.
  31. Kirchner S., Dittmar N. and Ziegler E.S. (2022). Moving Beyond Uber Two Modes of Organization and Work in the German Platform Economy. Köln Z Soziol (Suppl 1), 74: 109-131.
  32. Lam L. and Triandafyllidou A. (2020). Road to nowhere or to somewhere? Migrant pathways in platform work in Canada. EPA: Economy and Space, 1-20. DOI: 10.1177/0308518X2210902-4
  33. Lenin V.I. (1979). Imperialism - Upper Stage of Capitalism. São Paulo: Global. (in Portuguese).
  34. Luxemburgo R. (1970). The accumulation of capital: a study in the economic interpretation of imperialism. Translation: Moniz Bandeira. Rio de Janeiro: Zahar Editores. (in Portuguese).
  35. Marx K. (2017). Capital: critique of political economy. 2 ed. Book I: The production process of capital. São Paulo: Boitempo. (in Portuguese).
  36. Marx K. (2013). Capital. São Paulo: Boitempo, vol 1. (in Portuguese).
  37. Marx K. (1984). Capital. São Paulo: Difel. vol I e II. (in Portuguese).
  38. Marx K. (1978). Capital book I chapter VI (unpublished). Sào Paulo: Human Sciences Publishing House Ltda. (in Portuguese).
  39. Mckenzie M. de J. (2022). Micro-assets and portfolio management in the new platform economy. Distinktion: Journal of Social Theory, 23(1): 94-113. DOI: 10.1080/1600910X.2020.173484
  40. Micha A., Poggi C. and Pereyra F. (2022). When women enter male-dominated territories in the platform economy: gender inequalities among drivers and riders in Argentina. Gender & Development, 30(3): 575-600. DOI: 10.1080/13552074.2022.211793
  41. Minter K. (2017). Negotiating labor standards in the gig economy: Airtasker and Unions New South Wales. Economic and Labour Relations Review. 2(3): 438-4541. DOI: 10.1177/103530461772430
  42. Mrčela A.K. (2022). In Search of The Good Life: Weaknesses of The Ever-Stronger Global Platform Economy. Teorija In Praksa, Ljubjana, 58(3).
  43. Mueller M.L. and Farhat K. (2022). Regulation of platform market access by the United States and China: Neo‐mercantilism in digital services. Policy & Internet, 14 (1): 348-367.
  44. Mustika W. and Savirani A. (2021). “Ghost Accounts”, “Joki Accounts” and “Account Therapy”: Everyday Resistance Among Ride-hailing Motorcycle Drivers in Yogyarkarta, Indonesia. The Copenhagen Journal of Asian Studies, 39(1): 48-67.
  45. Nayak B and Walton N. (2023). The future of platforms, big data, and new forms of capital accumulation. Information Technology & People, 37(2): 662-676. DOI: 10.1108/ITP-05-2022-040
  46. Nerinckx S. (2016). The ‘Uberization’ of the labor market: Some thoughts from an employment law perspective on the collaborative economy. ERA Forum. 17(2): 245-265.
  47. Nowak S. (2023). The social lives of network effects: Speculation and risk in Jakarta’s platform economy. EPA: Economy and Space 2023, 55(2): 471-489. DOI: 10.1177/0308518X21105695
  48. Overtz R. (2021). The Algorithmic University: On-Line Education, Learning Management Systems, and the Struggle over Academic Labor. Critical Sociology, 47(7-8): 1065-1084. DOI: 10.1177/089692052094893
  49. Piasna A. and Drahokoupil J. (2021). Flexibility unbound: understanding the heterogeneity of preferences among food delivery platform workers. Socio-Economic Review, 19 (4): 1397-1419, 2021.
  50. Polkowska D. (2019). Does the app contribute to the precarization of work? The case of Uber drivers in Poland. Partecipazione e conflitto, 12(3): 717-741.
  51. Rani U. and Furrer M. (2019). On-demand digital economy: Can experience ensure work and income security for microtask workers?. Jahrbücher für Nationalökonomie und Statistik, 239(3): 565-597.
  52. Rodima-Taylor D. (2022). Platformizing Ubuntu? FinTech, Inclusion, and Mutual Help in Africa. Journal of Cultural Economy, 15(4): 416-435. DOI: 10.1080/17530350.2022.2040569
  53. Rodríguez-Modroño P., Pesole A. and López-Igual P. (2022). Assessing gender inequality in digital labour platforms in Europe. Internet Policy Review, 11(1): 1-23. DOI: 10.14763/2022.1.162
  54. Saad Filho A. (2001). Wages and exploitation in the Marxist theory of value. Economy and Society. 10(1): 27-42. (in Portuguese).
  55. Sadowski J. (2019). When data is capital: Datafication, accumulation, and   extraction. Big Data & Society, 6(1). DOI: 10.1177/205395171882054
  56. Santoni de Sio, F., Almeida, T., and Van Den Hoven, J. (2021). The future of work: freedom, justice, and capital in the age of artificial intelligence. Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy, 1-25. DOI: 10.1080/13698230.2021.2008204
  57. Scasserra S. and Partenio F. (2021). Precarización del trabajo y estrategias de trabajadoras en plataformas digitales: trabajo desde el hogar, organización sindical y disputa por derechos en el contexto de la pandemia del Covid-19. Sociologias, 23(57): 174-206. DOI: 10.1590/15174522-11230
  58. Schor J.B. and Attwood-Charles W. (2017). The “sharing” economy: labor, inequality, and social connection on for‐profit platforms. Sociology Compass; 11(8): p.n/a.
  59. Shevchuk A., Strebkov D. and Tyulyupo A. (2021). Always on across time zones: Invisible schedules in the online gig economy. New Technology, Work and Employment, 36(1): 94-113, 2021.
  60. Srnicek N. (2016) Platform Capitalism, Cambridge: Polity Press.
  61. Stanford J. (2017). The resurgence of gig work: Historical and theoretical perspectives. Economic and Labour Relations Review, 28(3): 382-4011. DOI: 10.1177/103530461772430
  62. Tiziano T. (2017). Remedies and legal categories: How to deal with work in the gig economy. Lavoro e Diritto. 21(3-4): 367-405. DOI: 10.1441/8839
  63. Turnšek M. and Ladkin A. (2017). Changing Employment in the Sharing Economy: The Case of Airbnb. Javnost. 24: S82-S9918. DOI: 10.1080/13183222.2017.141157
  64. Umney C., Stuart M., Bessa I., Joyce S., Neumann D., and Trappmann V. (2024). Platform Labour Unrest in a Global Perspective: How, Where and Why Do Platform Workers Protest? Work, Employment and Society, 38(1): 3-26. DOI: 10.1177/0950017023120967
  65. van Doorn N. (2017). Platform labor: on the gendered and racialized exploitation of low-income service work in the ‘on-demand’ economy. Information Communication and Society. Open Access, 20(6):898-9143. DOI: 10.1080/1369118X.2017.129419
  66. Veen A., Goods C. and Barratt T. (2020). Platform-Capital’s ‘Appetite’ for Control: A Labour Process Analysis of Food-Delivery Work in Australia. Work, Employment and Society 2020, 34(3): 388-406. DOI: 10.1177/0950010701983691
  67. Wang S. (2020). Chinese affective platform economies: dating, live streaming, and performative labor on Blued. Media, Culture & Society, 42(4): 502-520. DOI: 10.1177/0163443719867283
  68. Woodcock J. (2020). The algorithmic panopticon at Deliveroo: Measurement, precarity, and the illusion of control. Ephemera: theory & politics in organization 2020, 20(3): 67-95.
  69. Xu L. and Zhang H. (2022). The game of popularity: The earnings system and labor control in the live streaming industry. Chinese Journal of Sociology 2022, 8(2): 187-209. DOI: 10.1177/20571050X22109032
  70. Yang G., Deng F., Wang Y. and Xiang X. (2022). Digital Paradox: Platform Economy and High-Quality Economic Development—New Evidence from Provincial Panel Data in China. Sustainability, 14(4): 2225.
  71. Yin S. (2023). Situating platform gig economy in the formal subsumption of reproductive labor: Transnational migrant domestic workers and the continuum of exploitation and precarity. Capital & Class, 0(0): 1-15. DOI: 10.1177/03098168221145407
  72. Yu Z., Treré E. and Bonini T. (2022). The emergence of algorithmic solidarity: unveiling mutual aid practices and resistance among Chinese delivery workers. Media International Australia, 183(1): 107-123. DOI: 10.1177/1329878X22107479
  73. Zysman J., Kenney M., Drahokoupil J., Piasna A., Petropoulos G., De Groen W., Kilhoffer Z., Lenaerts K. and Salez N. (2017). Regulating the Platform Economy: How to Protect Workers While Promoting Innovation. Intereconomics. 52(6): 3281.

Laura Valle Gontijo, João Pedro Inácio Peleja, Platform work and Marx’s theory of value: a literature review in "SOCIOLOGIA DEL LAVORO " 169/2024, pp 99-113, DOI: 10.3280/SL2024-169005