Resisting the Algorithmic Boss: Guessing, Gaming, Reframing and Contesting Rules in App-based Management

Abstract

Digital labour platforms do not appear as fertile ground for collective opposition. Precarious working conditions, digital control and anonymity are believed to impede resistance. However, research has shown that algorithmic management can create new conditions, spaces and practices of resistance. Our study set out to investigate the relationship between app-based management and collective opposition in the case Deliveroo and Foodora food-delivery workers in Berlin. We found out that being a subject of app-based management amplifies the insecurity and instability of already precarious gig-work. Information vacuum, lack of feedback mechanism and data-driven performance control are the three core elements of ‘digital precarity’. These conditions fuel the need for practices of collective learning, gaming, reframing and contesting the algorithmic system. The paper emphasizes that many practices hidden from the public eye could be considered resistance, because they expose and challenge the power imbalance between the workers and the platforms.