Towards Feminist Futures in the Platform Economy: Four Stories from India

Abstract

This chapter focuses on how gender relations are orchestrated in the platform economy and its platform-mediated structures of social power. While digital platforms have been seen as opportunities for women to enter the labour market, there is little evidence that platform work is challenging existing structural biases. The totalising control of algorithms in platform-mediated work exposes platform workers to exploitative conditions, raising important questions about platform workers’ epistemic rights. Based on primary research in India, and building on the research undertaken with colleagues, this text unpacks the impacts of ‘algorithmified’ work and their consequences on gendered epistemologies in the era of the platform economy. First, I will provide a brief background on the characteristics of digital platforms and algorithmic management of work. After this, I will examine implications for the agency and autonomy of women workers and micro-entrepreneurs who seek economic opportunities through digital labour platforms and e-commerce marketplaces. Offering a feminist analysis of the social relations of power that characterise algorithmically restructured labour markets, I will argue how we can move away from the present paradigm to one that is radically transformed.