COntesting GOvernance by NUmbers: The Mobilizations of Food Delivery Couriers across Europe in Time of the Pandemic

Project Information

COGONU

Grant agreement ID: 101028811

DOI

10.3030/101028811

Project terminated on 1 July 2023

EC signature date 22 April 2021

Start date 17 January 2022

End date 16 January 2024

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 184 590,72

EU contribution

€ 184 590,72

Coordinated by

UNIVERSITY COLLEGE DUBLIN, NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND, DUBLIN
Ireland

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - COGONU (COntesting GOvernance by NUmbers: The Mobilizations of Food Delivery Couriers across Europe in Time of the Pandemic)

Reporting period: 2022-01-17 to 2024-01-16

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The rise of digital labour and the platform economy has triggered a burgeoning public interest in the topic of technological innovation in the workplace. However, only a few research projects have explored the conditions of workers. Even less attention has been paid to the collective actions of workers affected by these changes. The research project ‘COntesting GOvernance by NUmbers: The Mobilizations of Food Delivery Couriers across Europe in Time of the Pandemic (COGONU)’ has been the first study aimed to fill this gap by exploring the forms of organising, action repertoire, and strategies that food delivery couriers have devised to demand better working conditions. These mobilisations are puzzling, as they have arisen in circumstances normally associated with non-mobilisation, namely: a) the presence of technological and organisational innovation; b) a limited presence of traditional trade union organising.
However, militant forms of worker mobilisation have recently emerged across Europe, and especially in the platform economy, exhibiting novel forms of organisation and action repertoires. COGONU investigated the mobilisations of these workers in two European countries, Ireland and Italy, before and during the Covid crisis to make sense of their variation in terms of action repertoire, forms of organising, alliance building, and target, and to understand the dynamics of contention, their political strategies, and policy outcomes. I concluded my action by co-organising with my mentor, Prof. Roland Erne, an international workshop (29 June – 1 July 2023) at the host institution University College Dublin, titled 'Governance by Numbers and its Discontents' (https://www.erc-europeanunions.eu/workshop-governance-by-numbers-and-its-discontents/). There I presented the results of my research action and discussed them with colleagues and experts in the field of labour politics.

This research action is relevant not only for economic sociology and industrial relations, but also for the future of democracy. Indeed, the technological transformations occurring in platform economy run in parallel with the innovations occurring in the forms of governance at the societal level, moving from a model of government guided by law to a new one guided by numbers, where rules are enforced by performance indicators. This logic is indeed not only used by multinational corporations but also by political institutions. One example is the EU’s New Economic Governance (NEG) that is designed to control national budgets and economic policies by using key performance indicators without creating a federal political organisation. Another example is the use of key performance indicators to assess research and teaching in todays’ universities. Therefore, the study of couriers’ contestation of governance by numbers in their own companies also helps us to better understand the challenges to this new form of governance elsewhere.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Research activities: To pursue the objectives defined by research action, I carried out research fieldwork in Ireland and Italy between May 2022 and March 2023, combining various qualitative methods, especially semi-structured interviews, participant observation, and document analysis. Notably, in each country, I interviewed a sample of around 15 participants among food delivery couriers, union representatives, political activists, and company managers. I also carried out participant observation at various political meetings, strikes, and protest events. I spent a visiting period at the European Trade Unions Institute (ETUI), my secondment institution, between April and May 2023.

Teaching activities: At UCD, my host institution, I co-taught, with Prof. Roland Erne, the module ‘European Industrial Relations and Human Resource Management’ at the UCD Quinn School of Business (September - December 2022). The module included a study trip to Brussels from 16-18 November 2022, where we met with representatives from Business Europe, the European Trade Unions Institute (ETUI), the European Public Service Union (EPSU), and the EU institutions Commission and Parliament.

Results and dissemination: I published several articles in international journals and executed various disseminating activities. As for the scholarly publications, the journal articles are:
1. "How algorithms are reshaping the exploitation of labour-power: insights into the process of labour invisibilization in the platform economy", Theory and Society, DOI: 10.1007/s11186-023-09520-9.
2. “Resisting Algorithmic Control. Understanding the Rise and Variety of Platform Worker Mobilizations”, New Technology, Work and Employment, 38(1): 125-144.
3. “Mobilizing against the Odds. Solidarity in Action in the Platform Economy” (with D della Porta, RE Chesta), Berliner Journal für Soziologie, 32: 213–241.

I presented my research project’s results at several conferences and workshops. Among them are:
June 2023, University of Oxford, Workshop "Fighting Back against Algorithmic Management from the Bottom Up". Presentation and discussion of original paper, "Resisting Algorithmic Control. Understanding the Rise and Variety of Platform Worker Mobilizations".
April 2023, University of Strathclyde, International Labor Process Conference (ILPC). Presentation and discussion of original paper, "Misbehaving for the Company. How Couriers’ Deviant Behaviours Boost Food Delivery" within the special stream, "Braverman and Beyond".

I disseminated my results on my twitter and LinkedIn pages. I also published two newspaper articles and one blog post:
1. "Think what’s going on in the gig economy has nothing to do with you? Think again", Irish Times.
2. "Come gli algoritmi stanno trasformando il mondo del lavoro", Sbilanciamoci.
3. "Labour conflicts in the digital age (with D. della Porta, R.E. Chesta)", Social Europe.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

I have been able to make a relevant theoretical contribution to the understanding of the new mode of governance by numbers and the countermobilizations it triggers. Drawing on and combining concepts and research subjects of Industrial Relations (IR) and Social Movement Studies (SMS), I built a theoretical framework, looking at the strategies of workers and on those of non-labour actors (solidarity groups and social movements) and seeing them as equipped with various resources to trigger conflicts in the labour sphere. My framework offered a significant advantage in the analysis of food delivery couriers’ struggles, which have been triggered by informal networks of activists, workers and rank-and-file unions and with a marginal involvement of traditional unions.

My empirical contribution has been a broadening and deepening of knowledge on the collective organization and mobilization involving a small but very significant segment of digital workers. The study of their mobilization in Ireland and Italy has offered an in-depth analysis of the dynamics of interaction and alliance that have taken place between workers and other social groups. They have also provided broader insights into the forms of contestation that the new organized labour may display in a society dominated by the governance by numbers.

My research is relevant also for the future of democracy. The study of couriers’ contestation of governance by numbers in their own companies helps us to better understand the challenges to this new form of governance by political and educational institutions.

Picture of Cogonu final workshop's participants