On the last mile: logistical urbanism and the transformation of labour

Q2 Business, Management and Accounting

Work Organisation, Labour and Globalisation Pub Date : 2019-01-01 DOI:10.13169/WORKORGALABOGLOB.13.1.0114

Moritz Altenried

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引用次数: 27

Abstract

In recent years, the last mile of delivery has become a crucial focus of logistical operations in urban contexts due to the rise of online shopping and the spread of platforms including Amazon to Foodora, Deliveroo and others. This article claims that the increasing importance and time-sensitivity of delivery reconfigures both urban spaces and labour relations. Through an analysis of labour relations in different segments of last mile delivery it argues that we are observing profound changes driven most importantly by digital technologies and the hyper-flexible employment relations facilitated by online platforms. Labour on the last mile is increasingly characterised by intense time pressure, standardisation, algorithmic management and digitally enabled surveillance on the one hand, and platform-driven precarisation and flexibilisation on the other. These developments can also be observed in other areas of logistical labour and across different industries. Hence, labour on the last mile might be understood as a specific but important expression of a broader tendency of the transformation of labour in digital capitalism. At the same time, the new importance of the last mile also signals changes in the production of urban space in the context of platform-driven forms of production, circulation and consumption, that are discussed as an emerging logistical urbanism.

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最后一英里:物流城市化和劳动力转型

近年来，由于网上购物的兴起以及亚马逊(Amazon)、Foodora、Deliveroo等平台的普及，最后一英里的配送已成为城市物流运营的一个关键焦点。这篇文章声称，日益增加的重要性和时间敏感性的交付重新配置城市空间和劳资关系。通过对最后一英里交付不同环节的劳资关系的分析，报告认为，我们正在观察到深刻的变化，最重要的是由数字技术和在线平台促进的超灵活的雇佣关系推动的变化。最后一英里作业的特点越来越明显，一方面是时间紧迫、标准化、算法管理和数字化监控，另一方面是平台驱动的不稳定性和灵活性。这些发展也可以在物流劳动力的其他领域和不同的行业中观察到。因此，最后一英里的劳动力可以被理解为数字资本主义中劳动力转型这一更广泛趋势的具体但重要的表达。与此同时，最后一英里的新重要性也标志着在平台驱动的生产、流通和消费形式的背景下，城市空间生产的变化，这是一种新兴的物流城市主义。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Work Organisation, Labour and Globalisation Business, Management and Accounting-Industrial Relations

CiteScore

3.70

自引率

0.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： Work Organisation, Labour and Globalisation aims to: -Provide a single home for articles which specifically address issues relating to the changing international division of labour and the restructuring of work in a global knowledge-based economy. -Bring together the results of empirical research, both qualitative and quantitative, with theoretical analyses in order to inform the development of new interdisciplinary approaches to the study of the restructuring of work, organisational structures and labour in a global context. -Be global in scope, with a particular emphasis on attracting contributions from developing countries as well as from Europe, North America and other developed regions. -Encourage a dialogue between university-based researchers and their counterparts in international and national government agencies, independent research institutes, trade unions and civil society as well as other policy makers. Subject to the requirements of scholarly peer review, it is open to submissions from contributors working outside the academic sphere and encourages an accessible style of writing in order to facilitate this goal. -Complement, rather than compete with, existing discipline-based journals. -Bring to the attention of English-speaking readers relevant articles originally published in other languages.