Abstract
This article analyzes the expectations of digital platform workers in delivery and transportation services in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, and Spain about the future of their work. Using a mixed method, we analyze responses to an open-ended question from a questionnaire applied in 2021 to 971 platform workers in the five countries. We use content analysis and statistical tests to classify and compare results. Workers’ expectations differ according to two major categories referred to: living and working conditions. Despite the significant heterogeneity between countries, workers in Colombia and Spain rate platform work more positively, while those in Chile and Argentina exhibit views that are more negative. Regarding working conditions, platform workers’ evaluations tend to be more negative than living conditions, except for Colombian participants. Favorable expectations focus on the possibility of finding new job opportunities, whereas pessimistic expectations are based on uncertainties and low pay. Still, expectations about the gig economy are more optimistic than expected, based on objectively poor employment conditions; objective working conditions and subjective perceptions can be reconciled considering the widespread labor precariousness. Finally, workers associate this type of work with transition stages (educational, labor, or personal), especially among the youngest. Although we did not find significant disparities by age, we have found different emphases between women, men, and non-binary individuals. Gender expectations seem to be a dimension that requires further exploration in the future, considering the sexual division of labor and the conciliatory “possibilities” between work and family offered by these jobs.
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Change history
26 January 2024
A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42087-024-00401-w
Notes
Work by platform, work-on-demand-via-app.
Treatment of responses with multiple referent objects or ambiguity in reference times: when multiple objects were found, the most prominent was identified in each response. In cases with multiple references that also reflect contrasting experiences or expectations (“before it was like this but now it is like this” or “Now I feel this but in the future I think that…”), the unit was classified only according to the last referred instance. Thus, for example, if the respondent alludes to their past experience and compares it with a current one without explicitly alluding to the future, the allusion to the last instance (the current one) is classified, assuming that they believe it will remain so.
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D.M.C. proposed the categories of analysis and the structure of the manuscript. She prepared Fig. 1. V.V. conducted the statistical tests, prepared the tables, and wrote the results. D.M.C. and V.V. wrote jointly the discussion. D.C.B.B. wrote the introduction and conceptual framework. E. A. and J.A.L. revised the whole manuscript. All the authors read the open-ended questions and classified the responses of their countries.
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The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Psychology Institute of Federal University of Bahia under protocol No. 4.454.983. All participants gave consent to participate before answering the questionnaire.
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The original version of this article unfortunately contained a mistake. The author name Daniela Campos Bahia Boscon should be Daniela Campos Bahia Moscon.
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Cifuentes-Leiton, D.M., Viego, V., Moscon, D.C.B. et al. Expectations About Work and Living Conditions of Delivery and Transport Platform Workers: A Content Analysis Conducted in Five Ibero-American Countries. Hu Arenas (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42087-023-00396-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42087-023-00396-w