Work dynamics, algorithmic control, and everyday micro-resistance: an ethnography with bicycle delivery workers in São Paulo

Abstract

This article describes and analyzes the work dynamics and micro-resistance of platform bicycle delivery workers in São Paulo, highlighting how these workers face the control regime characteristic of digital platforms. The research was conducted at a landing zone for platform-based bicycle delivery workers near Praça da República, in the city center. The fieldwork, conducted between 2022 and 2023, combined ethnographic incursions and in-depth interviews with an emphasis on life trajectories, allowing us to capture in detail the routines, perceptions, and daily practices of these workers. The results show that, even in conditions of intense precariousness, delivery workers devise different tricks to deal with the illegibility of the apps, manipulate the algorithmic rules, and sustain forms of autonomy related to their work. These strategies reveal the coexistence of subordination and resistance in the daily life of app-based delivery and allow us to understand how the concrete experience of workers puts pressure on the mechanisms of domination of the platforms. By articulating ethnographic description and theoretical analysis, the article contributes to the field of studies on platform work, highlighting the relevance of everyday resistance to understanding the contemporary world of work.