COLLECTIVE POLITICAL ORGANIZATION IN THE CONTEXT OF INFORMATIONAL-PLATFORMIZED WORK: a study on the relationship between new modalities of work mediated by ICTs and the organization of new forms of collective politics

• Grant number: 22/11748-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: March 01, 2024
• End date: February 29, 2028
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Sociology
• Principal Investigator: Henrique José Domiciano Amorim
• Grantee: Ederson Duda da Silva
• Host Institution: Escola de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (EFLCH). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus Guarulhos. Guarulhos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to develop a study on the relationship between new work modalities mediated by information and communication technologies (ICTs) and new forms of collective political organization of workers. Specifically, we intend to carry out a case study with app delivery drivers and call center teleoperators, examining the relationship between these workers and their forms of organization and political action. We start from the assumption that informational-platformized work plays an increasingly significant role in contemporary capitalist societies, configuring itself as a new form of organization, management and control of the workforce. Through empirical research, we intend to qualify the impact of work mediated by ICTs on the contemporary forms of political-collective organization of app delivery people and call center teleoperators. In this sense, we start from the following research problem: how does informational-platformized work, represented here by these two categories of work, with their specific characteristics, based, for example, on the isolation and/or dispersion of work collectives and in the accelerated reconfiguration of ICTs, does it exert influence, directly or even indirectly, on the constitution of the forms of political organizations of these workers' collectives? As a methodological hypothesis, the choice of the case study of teleoperators and app-based delivery people is justified by the fact that we understand that these professional categories can synthesize an empirical microcosm for analyzing the relationship between new work modalities mediated by ICTs and their action and collective political organization. Therefore, it is necessary to specify, first, the most central characteristics of the work of app delivery drivers and call center teleoperators and, second, the specificities of the forms of collective political organization of these workers so that we can then establish the links of relationship and/or articulation between work and organizational policy in this contemporary context of profusion of ICTs.