Exploring Shenzhen’s state gig economy: The ‘eyes and ears’ of China’s smart state

Abstract

China’s smart governance agenda is often narrated as the seamless quantification and automation of core state functions through AI, sensors, and integrated platforms. Using Shenzhen’s grid governance, we show that frontline operations remain labour-intensive and precariously staffed. We develop the concept of the state gig economy to explain this hidden backbone of the local smart state: a public-sector labour regime in which platform-based task dispatch and key-performance-indicator-centred accountability institutionalize high-frequency ‘legibility production’ at street level. The state gig economy combines task granularity and digital dispatch, contingent contracting, performance metering, and direct integration into governance objectives. By foregrounding the labour regime that operationalizes ‘smartness’, we show that digital authoritarianism depends as much on managed human input as on sensors and code.