‘I Love Being My Own Boss (But the Work is Killing Me)’: Ride-hail Drivers’ Contradictory Ideas about Work in African Cities

Abstract

As digital employment becomes increasingly significant, a number of legal cases have emerged centred on whether digital workers should be classified as independent partners or employees. Workers’ freedom in choosing whether and how long to work for an app is central to the argument by platform firms that they are mere technology providers to independent partners. Conversely, the tight control exercised by apps is emphasized by those who see ride-hail work as unprotected wage work. Drawing on mixed-methods research in Dar es Salaam, Johannesburg and Nairobi, this article contributes to the literature by analysing the paradoxical perceptions about work by ride-hail drivers who operate under tight control from apps and yet often think of themselves as their own boss. The manuscript reviews the literature which explains this paradox as the result of the apps’ successful ideological control over work, which is hegemonic and is internalized by drivers, inducing them to consent. The article then discusses the value and limitations of this explanation. It argues that a stronger focus on drivers’ employment histories, and on the often-unexplored dynamics of drivers’ internal class stratification, are essential to understanding why some drivers consider themselves to be their own boss, whilst others do not.