As Estratégias de Comunicação das Plataformas de Trabalho: Circulação de Sentidos nas Mídias Sociais das Empresas no Brasil

Rafael Grohmann; Cláudia Nonato; Ana Flávia Marques; Camila Acosta Camargo

doi:10.17231/comsoc.39(2021).2879

Authors

Rafael Grohmann Laboratório de Pesquisa DigiLabour, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências da Comunicação, Universidade do Vale do Rio do Sinos, São Leopoldo, Brazil https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1063-8668
Cláudia Nonato Centro de Pesquisa em Comunicação e Trabalho, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências da Comunicação, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5447-9761
Ana Flávia Marques Centro de Pesquisa em Comunicação e Trabalho, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências da Comunicação, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3447-3506
Camila Acosta Camargo Centro de Pesquisa em Comunicação e Trabalho, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências da Comunicação, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1188-5014

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17231/comsoc.39(2021).2879

Keywords:

Brazil, circulation of meanings, communication, platform labor

Abstract

This article aims to analyze how ride-hailing and delivery platforms in Brazil produce their ethos on social media in the context of the first national strike of workers in the pandemic. We argue, based on the notion of circulation of meanings, how the construction of the platform’s ethos is a sign element of class struggles, and a dimension of the role of communication in the platformization of labor. We conducted a content analysis on social media (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube) from two delivery (iFood and Rappi) and two ride-hailing platforms (Uber and 99), the largest of the country. The categories are: “pandemic and health” (contextual dimension in relation to the pandemic); “citizenship and diversity” (recurrent dimension in the discourse of platforms, in line with the literature in the area), “relations with brands and influencers” (visibility labor of the platforms with specific stakeholders) and “workers’ representations” (as a central element of the sign dimension of the class struggles). In general, the platforms’ media strategies, focused on consumers, present meanings of charity, philanthropy, citizenship and diversity, stating they are open to the demands of workers. The workers’ demands are reframed from the perspective of sacrificial citizenship, self-help, entrepreneurship and resilience. The results show how the platforms’ media strategies on social media play a central role in class contradictions.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Abidin, C. (2016). Visibility labour: Engaging with influencers’ fashion brands and #OOTD advertorial campaigns on Instagram. Media International Australia, 161(1), 86–100. https://doi.org/10.1177/1329878X16665177

Abílio, L. (2015). Sem maquiagem: O trabalho de um milhão de revendedoras de cosméticos. Boitempo.

Abílio, L., Almeida, P., Amorim, H., Cardoso, A. C., Fonseca, V., Kalil, R., & Machado, S. (2020). Condições de trabalho de entregadores via plataforma digital durante a covid-19. Revista Jurídica Trabalho e Desenvolvimento Humano, 3, 1–21. https://doi.org/10.33239/rjtdh.v.74

Abílio, L., Grohmann, R., & Weiss, H. (2021). Struggles of delivery workers in Brazil: Working conditions and collective organization during the pandemic. Journal of Labor and Society. Publicação eletrónica antecipada. https://doi.org/10.1163/24714607-bja10012

Alacovska, A., & Gill, R. (2019). De-westernizing creative labour studies: The informality of creative work from an ex-centric perspective. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 22(2), 195–212. https://doi.org/10.1177/1367877918821231

Aliança Bike. (2019). Pesquisa de perfil de entregadores ciclistas de aplicativo. https://aliancabike.org.br/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/relatorio_s2.pdf

Amorim, H., & Moda, F. (2020). Work by app: Algorithmic management and working conditions of Uber drivers in Brazil. Work Organisation, Labour & Globalisation, 14(1), 101–118. https://doi.org/10.13169/workorgalaboglob.14.1.0101

Atanasoski, N., & Vora, K. (2019). Surrogate humanity: Race, robots, and the politics of technological futures. Duke University Press.

Baccega, M. (1995). Palavra e discurso: História e literatura. Ática.

Bakhtin, M. (1979). The aesthetics of verbal art. Iskusstvo.

Brown, W. (2016). Sacrificial citizenship: Neoliberalism, human capital, and austerity politics. Constellations, 23(1), 3–14. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8675.12166

Bucher, T., & Helmond, A. (2018). The affordances of social media platforms. Sage handbook of social media. Sage.

Cant, C. (2019). Riding for deliveroo: Resistance in the new economy. John Wiley & Sons.

Casaqui, V., & Riegel, V. (2016). Management of happiness, production of affects and the spirit of capitalism: International narratives of transformation from Coca-Cola brand. The Journal of International Communication, 22(2), 293–314. https://doi.org/10.1080/13216597.2016.1194304

Casilli, A. (2019). En attendant les robots: Enquête sur le travail du clic. Seuil.

Casilli, A., & Posada, J. (2019). The platformization of labor and society. In. M. Graham & W. Dutton (Eds.), Society and the internet: How networks of information and communication are changing our lives (pp. 293–306). Oxford University Press.

Castellano, M. (2018). Vencedores e fracassados: O imperativo do sucesso na cultura da autoajuda. Appris.

Chen, J. Y., & Qiu, J. L. (2019). Digital utility: Datafication, regulation, labor, and Didi’s platformization of urban transport in China. Chinese Journal of Communication, 12(3), 274-289. https://doi.org/10.1080/17544750.2019.1614964

Codagnone, C., Karatzogianni, A., & Matthews, J. (2016). Platform economics: Rhetoric and reality in the ‘sharing economy’. Emerald Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1108/9781787438095

Cordero, K., & Daza, C. (2020). Precarización laboral em plataformas digitales: Una lectura desde América Latina. Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Ecuador FES-ILDIS.

Costanza-Chock, S. (2020). Design justice. MIT Press.

Couldry, N., & Mejias, U. A. (2019). Data colonialism: Rethinking big data’s relation to the contemporary subject. Television & New Media, 20(4), 336–349. https://doi.org/10.1177/1527476418796632

Dardot, P., & Laval, C. (2013). The new way of the world: On neoliberal society. Verso.

Davis, M., & Xiao, J. (2021). De-westernizing platform studies: History and logics of Chinese and U.S. platforms. International Journal of Communication, 15, 103–122. https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/13961

Dubal, V. (2019). An Uber ambivalence: Employee status, worker perspectives, & regulation in the gig economy. Political Science. Publicação eletrónica antecipada. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3488009

Dyer-Witheford, N., Kjosen, A., & Steinhoff, J. (2019). Inhuman power: Artificial intelligence and the future of capitalism. Pluto Press.

Englert, S., Woodcock, J., & Cant, C. (2020). Digital workerism: Technology, platforms, and the circulation of workers’ struggles’. tripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique, 18(1), 132–145. https://doi.org/10.31269/triplec.v18i1.1133

Fairwork. (2019). The five pillars of Fairwork: Labour standards in the platform economy. https://fair.work/wp-content/uploads/sites/97/2019/10/Fairwork-Y1-Report.pdf

Fairwork. (2020). The gig economy and covid-19: Fairwork report on platform policies. http://fair.work/wp-content/uploads/sites/97/2020/09/COVID-19-Report-September-2020.pdf

Figaro, R. (2018). Comunicação e trabalho: Implicações teórico-metodológicas. Galáxia, (39), 177–189. https://doi.org/10.1590/1982-255435905

Frenken, K., & Schor, J. (2017). Putting the sharing economy into perspective. Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions, 3–10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eist.2017.01.003

Gibbings, S., & Taylor, J. (2019). A desirable future: Uber as image-making in winnipeg. Communication, Culture and Critique, 12(4), 570–589. https://doi.org/10.1093/ccc/tcz026

Goux, J. (1973). Économie et symbolique: Freud, Marx. Éditions de Seuil.

Graham, M. (Ed.). (2019). Digital economies at global margins. MIT Press.

Graham, M., & Anwar, M. (2019). The global gig economy: Towards a planetary labour market? First Monday, 24(4). https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v24i4.9913

Grohmann, R. (2018). Signos de classe: Sobre a circulação das classes sociais nos processos comunicacionais. Rumores, 12(24), 293–312. https://doi.org/10.11606/issn.1982-677X.rum.2018.142047

Grohmann, R., & Qiu, J. (2020). Contextualizing platform labor. Contracampo, 22(1), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.22409/contracampo.v39i1.42260

Hall, S. (1997). Representation: Cultural representations and signifying practices. Sage.

Howson, K., Ustek-Spilda, F., Grohmann, R., Salem, N., Carelli, R., Abs, D., Salvagni, J., Graham, M., Balbornoz, M., Chavez, H., Arriagada, A., & Bonhomme, M. (2020). ‘Just because you don’t see your boss, doesn’t mean you don’t have a boss’: Covid-19 and gig worker strikes across Latin America. International Union Rights, 20(3), 20–28. https://doi.org/10.14213/inteuniorigh.27.3.0020

Huws, U. (2014). Labor in the global digital economy: The cybertariat comes of age. Monthly Review Press.

Huws, U. (2020). Reinventing the welfare state: Digital platforms and public policies. Pluto Press.

iFood. (s.d.). Sobre iFood. https://institucional.ifood.com.br/ifood

Illouz, E. (2007). Cold intimacies: The making of emotional capitalism. Polity Press.

Karatzogianni, A., & Matthews, J. (2020). Platform ideologies: Ideological production in digital intermediation platforms and structural effectivity in the “sharing economy”. Television & New Media, 21(1), 95–114. https://doi.org/10.1177/1527476418808029

Lazar, T., Ribak, R., & Davidson, R. (2020). Mobile social media as platforms in workers’ unionization. Information, Communication & Society, 23(3), 437–453. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2018.1510536

Leaver, T., Highfield, T., & Abidin, C. (2020). Instagram: Visual social media cultures. Polity.

Liu, W. (2020). Abolish Silicon Valley. Penguin.

Maingueneau, D. (2001). Análise de textos de comunicação. Cortez.

Marazzi, C. (2011). Capital and affects: The politics of the language economy. Semiotext(e).

Morozov, E., & Bria, F. (2018). Rethinking smart cities: Democratizing urban technology. Rosa Luxemberg Stifung.

Mosco, V. (2009). The political economy of communication (2.ª ed.). Sage.

(s.d.). Sobre a 99. https://carreiras.99app.com/sobre-a-99/

Pasquale, F. (2016). Two narratives of platform capitalism. Yale Law and Policy Review, 35(1), 309–319. https://ylpr.yale.edu/two-narratives-platform-capitalism

Plantin, J. C., Lagoze, C., Edwards, P. N., & Sandvig. C. (2018). Infrastructure studies meet platform studies in the age of Google and Facebook. New Media & Society, 20(1), 293–310. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444816661553

Poell, T., Nieborg, D., & van Dijck, J. (2019). Platformisation. Internet Policy Review, 8(4). https://doi.org/10.14763/2019.4.1425

Popescu, G. H., Petrescu, E., & Sabie, O. (2018). Algorithmic labor in the platform economy: Digital infrastructures, job quality, and workplace surveillance. Economics Management and Financial Markets, 13(3), 74–79. https://doi.org/10.22381/EMFM13320184

Qiu, J. L., Gregg, M., & Crawford, K. (2014). Circuits of labour: A labour theory of the iPhone era. TripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique, 12(2), 564–581. https://doi.org/10.31269/triplec.v12i2.540

Rosenblat, A. (2018). Uberland: How algorithms are rewriting the rules of work. University of California Press

Rossi-Landi, F. (1973). Il linguaggio come lavoro e come mercato. Bompiani.

Sadowski, J. (2020). The internet of landlords: Digital platforms and new mechanisms of rentier capitalism. Antipode, 52(2), 337–338. https://doi.org/10.1111/anti.12595

Scholz, T. (2016). Uberworked and underpaid: How workers are disrupting the digital economy. Polity Press.

Schor, J. B., Attwood-Charles, W., Cansoy, M., Ladegaard, I., & Wengronowitz, R. (2020). Dependence and precarity in the platform economy. Theory and Society, 49, 833–861. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11186-020-09408-y

Schradie, J. (2015). Political ideology, social media, and labor unions: Using the internet to reach the powerful, not mobilize the powerless. International Journal of Communication, 9, 1985–2006. https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/3384/1413

Scolere, L., Pruchniewska, U., & Duffy B. E. (2018). Constructing the platform-specific self-brand: The labor of social media promotion. Social Media + Society,4(3), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305118784768

Silverstone, R. (1999). Why study media? Sage.

Sodré, M. (2019). The science of the commons: Note on communication methodology. Palgrave.

Soriano, C., & Cabañes, J. (2020). Entrepreneurial solidarities: Social media collectives and Filipino digital platform workers. Social Media + Society, 6(2) 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305120926484

Srnicek, N. (2016). Platform capitalism. John Wiley & Sons.

Sun, P. (2019). Your order, their labor: An exploration of algorithms and laboring on food delivery platforms in China. Chinese Journal of Communication, 12(3), 308–323. https://doi.org/10.1080/17544750.2019.1583676

Uber. (s.d.). Cidadania global. https://www.uber.com/br/pt-br/community/

Uber. (2020). Carnaval 2020: Uber lança campanha para reforçar respeito. https://www.uber.com/pt-BR/newsroom/carnaval-2020-uber-lanca-campanha-para-reforcar-respeito/

van Dijck, J, Poell, T., & De Waal, M. (2018). The platform society: Public values in a connective world. Oxford University Press.

van Doorn, N. (2017). Platform labor: On the gendered and racialized exploitation of low-income service work in the ‘on-demand’ economy. Information, Communication & Society, 20(6), 898–914. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2017.1294194

Voloshinov, V. N. (1973). Marxism and the philosophy of language. Seminar Press.

Wajcman, J. (2019). How Silicon Valley sets time. New Media & Society, 21(6), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444818820073

Williams, R. (2005). Culture and materialism. Verso Books.

Wood, A., Graham, M., Lehdonvirta, V., & Hjorth, I. (2019). Good gig, bad gig: Autonomy and algorithmic control in the global gig economy. Work, Employment & Society, 33(1), 56–75. https://doi.org/10.1177/0950017018785616

Wood, A., Lehdonvirta, V., & Graham, M. (2018). Workers of the internet unite? Online freelancer organisation among remote gig economy workers in six Asian and African countries. New Technology, Work & Employment, 33(2), 95–112. https://ssrn.com/abstract=3211803

Wood, D. M., & Monahan, T. (2019). Platform surveillance. Surveillance & Society, 17(1/2), 1–6. https://doi.org/10.24908/ss.v17i1/2.13237

Woodcock, J. & Graham, M. (2019). The gig economy: A critical introduction. Polity.