Navigating power structures in the gig economy: social network dynamics and algorithmic management
Year: 2025
Type: dissertation
Abstract: This dissertation examines the social structures, power dynamics, and collective agency within the gig economy, focusing on platform-based gig work through three sequential studies. The first study conducts a systematic literature review to explore the broader implications of social networks in counteracting the power imbalances imposed by platform algorithms. Reviewing 59 scholarly articles, this study examines how gig workers use informal networks to bolster autonomy and collective agency, often coordinating actions to resist algorithmic control. These networks enable information sharing, support structures, and strategies for mutual benefit, presenting a dual perspective of algorithmic management as both a control mechanism and a potential source of worker empowerment. This analysis proposes a framework for understanding the interplay of economic, technological, community, and regulatory forces that shape gig work and offers recommendations for platforms and policymakers on enhancing worker agency. The second study addresses the difficulty of inferring social networks from gig workers and innovatively uses real co-location data from a Brazilian food-delivery platform to infer and map informal social networks among couriers. By applying network analysis techniques, this study reveals how spatial proximity leads to observable social structures. This approach successfully demonstrates that co-location data can be used to statistically infer meaningful social ties, providing a methodological basis for studying gig work dynamics. Building on these insights, the third study applies the above network analysis method in 15 Brazilian cities, examining how urban contexts affect network structures among gig workers. By analyzing patterns in co-location data, this study finds that city size influences network modularity and the emergence of connected social networks. Larger cities show more complex networks, where couriers with a greater degree and betweenness centrality earn higher incomes, suggesting that platform design could leverage these characteristics to enhance worker engagement and operational efficiencies in the gig economy. Collectively, these studies contribute to understanding the social fabric of the gig economy, the economic impact of network structures, and the empowering potential of informal networks. Future research should delve deeper into regulatory interventions that could foster fairer conditions in gig work environments and further evaluate how platform design can influence worker autonomy and collective agency.
Author: Gustavo Rodrigues Pilatti
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4411599235