Banca de QUALIFICAÇÃO: Laura Valle Gontijo

Uma banca de QUALIFICAÇÃO de DOUTORADO foi cadastrada pelo programa.
STUDENT : Laura Valle Gontijo
DATE: 12/09/2024
TIME: 14:00
LOCAL: Online
TITLE:

Platform work and theory of value: contributions to the interpretation of the phenomenon.

KEY WORDS:

platform work; theory of value; working time; digital economy; value extraction

PAGES: 51
BIG AREA: Ciências Humanas
AREA: Sociologia
SUMMARY:

 Platform work has been interpreted in different ways by the literature. There are studies that claim that all the activities done on platforms should be considered a source of unpaid labour and value extraction; there are a significant number of studies that emphasise that the data generated by these activities is a source of value, raw material or capital, having shaped a ‘new economy’; and there are also theorists who claim that it is not possible to consider most of the activities done on platforms as productive and therefore value-creating. The existence of this debate justifies more in-depth studies to understand the phenomenon. The aim of this research project is to contribute to an understanding of platform work, since Marx's theory of value. Semi-structured interviews will be carried out with workers working on five types of digital platform: passenger transport and food delivery; micro-work; logistics; freelance services and advertising or social networks. The interviews will aim to investigate issues that affect the extraction of surplus value (length and flexible distribution of working hours, intensification of work, form of remuneration), that characterise a wage-earning relationship (existence of subordination) and that highlight the effects of labour exploitation (deteriorating health conditions and the outbreak of social struggles). In addition, participant observation will be carried out of workers' day-to-day lives, protests, strikes and meetings; and documents from digital platforms will be analysed, such as company balance sheets and documents relating to social struggles, protests and achievements by workers. A comparative study of interviews with food delivery workers in London and Brasilia will also be done. The aim is to see if there are differences in the way surplus value is extracted in these two capitals. The hypotheses of this study are: a) surplus value is appropriated directly from the work executed by passenger transport, food delivery, micro-labour, logistics and freelance workers, but not in the activity of micro-influencers; b) the digital platforms that extract surplus value are monopolies of labour contractors and intermediaries, who sublet the labour of millions of workers, making use of a piece-rate remuneration; We expect to find different results regarding the form of surplus value extraction in the different types of digital platforms. While on micro-work platforms and freelance services, we expect to find workers working insufficient and flexible hours; on passenger transport and on food delivery platforms, we expect to find excessive and flexible hours; logistics platforms are expected to find excessive and rigid hours; and social networks are expected to find people producing content at flexible times, but whose activity is not characterised as work and therefore does not produce value. We also expect to find differences in the extraction of surplus value in a city like London, in the United Kingdom, compared to Brasilia, located on the periphery of capitalism. It is believed that this is due to the migrant status of workers in London, which forces them to work long hours and makes it difficult for them to organise collectively, and to the reduced circulation time of capital in a city located in a central capitalist country

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
Externo à Instituição - JONAS CHAGAS LUCIO VALENTE - UOX
Externo ao Programa - 1212311 - JORG NOWAK - nullExterna ao Programa - 404652 - MARIA DE LOURDES ROLLEMBERG MOLLO - nullInterno - 3154798 - RICARDO COLTURATO FESTI
Presidente - ***.565.760-** - SADI DAL ROSSO - UTA