Platformized Migration:An Exploratory Study of Food Delivery Vendors in the Gig Economy
In contrast to the well-documented experiences of delivery riders in the gig economy,the struggles of food delivery vendors remain underexplored.This study focuses on delivery vendors in Beijing's Songjiazhuang area,examining their platform labor experiences and urban migration patterns using grounded theory and field observations.The study finds the nature of the online on-demand market is such that it is more advantageous to be in the big cities in order to gain access to orders,but the urban-rural migration triggered by the shift in production will lead to new problems of social integration.The research introduces the concept of"platformized migration,"which is a strategy of labourer self-conditioning that caters to the operating mechanisms of the platform economy,in order to reveal the breadth and depth of the penetration of platform logic into the city.This concept captures the dual processes of"digital migration"-the shift from traditional restaurant models to online-only delivery businesses-and"physical migration,"where vendors relocate to urban areas to secure more orders.The study proposes the"platform migration"framework,which encompasses both human and non-human factors,helps broaden our empirical understanding of the interconnectedness of platforms,labor,and urban spaces,offering new insights into the dynamics of the gig economy and platform labor.
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