Dividuals at Work: Data-Driven Subjectification in Platform Work

• In Event: Theory Section Refereed Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 4

Abstract

Platform work relies upon the transformation of embodied persons into slices of data to be controlled—what Deleuze terms as dividuals. Drawing upon participant observation and interviews from food delivery gig workers in Mexico City, this article examines the on-the ground data-driven process subjectification. Specifically, I ask: How do workers on-the ground experience and make sense of their transformation into dividuals? How do they become attached, and identified, with their data-doubles? And alternatively, how do they resist against this transformation? I present two key techniques through which embodied persons are seemingly made into dividuals: division, and modularity. Finally, I present the various strategies—discursive, technical, and political—in which workers resist against data-driven subjectification. This article contributes to our understanding of subjectivity and subjectification in our contemporary data-driven societies.

Author

• Mariana Manriquez, San Jose State University