Reimagining Work Security in Latin America's Platform Economy: Workers' Strategies Amid Urban Violence

Abstract

This article analyzes how ride-hailing drivers in Lima redefine security amidst high informality and urban violence. Drawing on 40 in-depth interviews and more than 35 informal conversations with drivers, alongside a systematic review of Latin American media coverage of the platform economy, it shows how drivers value platforms not for formal job security, but for mitigating physical risks, enabling cashless transactions, and providing data-driven oversight of passengers and routes. By examining workers' spatial agency and their ‘reworking’ of platform technologies, this study reconceptualizes platform labour through the lens of urban security. The analysis reveals how workers use platforms to produce new arrangements of security and trust in precarious urban environments, enriching our understanding of platform labour in the Global South.