The Politics and Regulation of Platform Work in Brazil: Conflicts and Coalitions

• Grant number: 24/19396-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Post-doctor
• Start date: March 01, 2025
• End date: August 31, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Political Science - Political Theory
• Principal Investigator: Rúrion Soares Melo
• Grantee: Caetano Patta da Porciuncula e Barros
• Supervisor: Dr Jamie Woodcock
• Host Institution: Centro Brasileiro de Análise e Planejamento (CEBRAP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: King's College London, England
• Associated to the scholarship: 24/01109-0 - Concentration of economic power and the crisis of democracy in Brazil: work and the public sphere in the age of platformization, BP.PD

Abstract

This project outlines the work plan for a six-month research internship at the Department of Digital Humanities at King's College London, as part of the current postdoctoral research titled "Concentration of Economic Power and the Crisis of Democracy in Brazil: Work and the Public Sphere in the Age of Platformization." The scholarship's original Activity Plan aims to explore the relationship between platform capitalism and the crises of democracy and neoliberal dynamics in Brazil. It examines the interests, political organisation, and mobilisation of workers, companies, and state actors within the public and state spheres. The internship abroad will contribute to: refining the conceptual framework surrounding digital platforms and platform work, considering its social, economic, legal, and political-institutional dimensions; engaging with ongoing debates on the organisation and mobilisation of app drivers and couriers, and updating unionisation experiences, thereby enriching theoretical and methodological approaches to the public sphere, associativism, and collective action; and appropriating current proposals, institutional arrangements, and conflicts related to platform work regulation in the United Kingdom and other European countries, enabling a comparative examination of the issue between the Global North and South from a political economy perspective. The internship is expected to strengthen the empirical, theoretical, and methodological rigour of the research, while promoting its internationalisation. Additionally, these connections will enrich my training as a researcher in alignment with the development plan for the postdoctoral scholarship in Brazil.