Navigating Social Class: The Service Encounter and Class Work at the Platform

• In Event: Organizations, Occupations, and Work Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Table 14: Platforms and Participants

Abstract

The article brings the social class-based analysis into the study of on-location platform work. In this way, the article claims that social class is relative for platform studies as workers navigate class based identities during their work at the platform. The literature on service encounters, as well as the concept of class work is employed to define a ‘platformized service encounter’ and detail workers’ strategies in these encounters to deal with the class based identity threats they face. Based on in-depth interviews with platform workers in a large number of platforms in Turkey in the food/grocery delivery, home cleaning and home repair sectors, the article extends the class work concept to the context of platform work. The findings underline the role of skill and work characteristics in the strategies that workers employ in the high stakes platformized service encounters.

Authors

• Kadir Uysal, Higher School of Economics

• Duygun Ruben, Boston College

• Tayfun Mertan, Koç University / Boğaziçi University

• Mehmet Cansoy, Fairfield University