Bike-boys' labor: algorithmic management and entrepreneurship

• Grant number: 21/02720-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: July 01, 2021
• End date: June 30, 2022
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Sociology - Other specific Sociologies
• Principal Investigator: Henrique José Domiciano Amorim
• Grantee: Guilherme Augusto Fernandes
• Host Institution: Escola de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (EFLCH). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus Guarulhos. Guarulhos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This research aims to analyze the working and living conditions of bike-boys or bicycle application deliverers. The professional category of food, and other product, delivery already has a long history of existence, but currently, it starts to be performed with some particularities, related to the emergence of digital delivery platforms. Our research object will be analyzed from two focuses: 1. Observe the novelties present in the algorithmic management, taking into account what possibly was preserved from the "old" work organization forms (Taylorist-Fordist and/or Toyotist), and verify its possible impacts on the bike boys work performance; and 2. Verify if and how entrepreneurship shapes the bike boys' work and life, above all, seeking to analyze the social self-representation of these workers and their adherence to this type of work. Therefore, we will conduct empirical research based on semi-structured interviews, seeking to answer the following research problem: to what extent the forms of algorithmic management and control, and entrepreneurship, are significant in structuring bike-boys work and life? (AU)