Beyond Algorithmic Domination: How Networks, Platform Resistance, and Client Power Reshape Autonomy in China’s Freelancers

• In Event: 41021 - Student Forum Refereed Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Roundtable 13: Technology and the Evolution of Artificial Intelligence

Abstract

The global rise of platform-mediated gig economies has transformed digital labour markets, sparking sociological debates over autonomy and control in atomized, employer-less work arrangements. A prevailing narrative frames gig work as universally subordinated to algorithmic regimentation, rooted in studies of low-skill workers like delivery riders and ride-hailing drivers. This study challenges the notion that such technical control fully explains labour processes across all gig work, particularly for high-skill freelancers in creative and knowledge-intensive fields—such as programming, design, and counselling—within China’s digital economy. Through 20 semi-structured interviews conducted in 2023, it investigates how these freelancers negotiate autonomy-control tensions through strategies embedded in social networks and economic relations. Findings reveal three key dimensions. First, freelancers leverage networks to transform professional and personal ties into economic opportunities and resilience, surpassing low-skill dependency, though constrained by access barriers and intermediaries. Second, they assert platform independence by bypassing algorithmic constraints and adapting to traffic pressures, diverging from control-centric views of gig labour. Third, client interactions blend agency through transactional safeguards with vulnerabilities from power imbalances and ethical tensions. These insights contest the overemphasis on algorithmic control, portraying autonomy as a dynamic outcome of skill, networks, and market interplay rather than a state erased by technology. Limited to a small Chinese sample, the study suggests future cross-national research. It reframes gig work as a contested terrain, advancing labour sociology by highlighting skill-based agency overlooked in prior narratives and urging policies to strengthen freelancers’ relational resources for greater equity in digital labour markets.

Authors

• Peiyao Jiang, School of Social and Behavioral Sciences Nanjing Universiy

• Xinru Zhang