Searching for meaning during the pandemic: Delivery riders’ motivations in keeping the city of Wuhan running

Abstract

This article explores the motivations behind the moral code of delivery rider migrant workers who served in Wuhan, China, during the pandemic. Based on ethnographic research, we analyze how riders experienced the challenging situation of everyday work. Influenced by socialist and neoliberal contexts, the riders’ actions reflect diversified moral values combining individualistic and collectivist ethics. The precarious conditions gave rise to alternative visions and opportunities for the migrant laborers. They created a new mode of autonomy with economic rationality and emotional bonds to a geographical locality. Simultaneously, the riders’ identity was temporarily reshaped by both the public and themselves, creating responsibility and meaning. This act of strong “social responsibility” reconnected individuals trapped in the plight of the pandemic. This kind of altruistic behavior exemplified the process of people seeking meaning through their work.