Periodic Reporting for period 1 - WorkPoliticsBIP (Flexible Work, Rigid Politics: The Nexus Between Labour Precariousness and Authoritarian Politics in The Global South (Brazil, India, Philippines))
Berichtszeitraum: 2023-01-01 bis 2025-06-30
This project investigate the nexus between labour precariousness and authoritarian politics in Brazil, India, and the Philippines (BIP). At the beginning of the 2000s, emergent economies were promising global democratic powers. Yet, democratic consolidation faces significant challenges as BIP nations elect populist authoritarian politicians. The understanding of such a process remains fragmented or limited to a global North repertoire. This project proposes a framework that examines emerging economies’ development contradictions, namely economic growth that fostered new aspirational classes amidst labour precariousness. Several figures show that emerging classes supported authoritarian politicians in the BIPs. We interrogate why and how this occurs. A key problem in the scholarship on radical right supporters is to rely exclusively on reactionary emotions of anger, hate, resentment, and nostalgia in contexts of impoverishment and recession. In contexts of growth, reactive emotions must be understood alongside active drivers of aspirations and self-fulfilment stimulated by the entrepreneurial ideal. An innovative combination of intensive ethnography and extensive data sciences will analyse the ideological nexus between precarious platform workers’ and authoritarian politicians’ values in the BIP countries. Simultaneous 14-month ethnography in each country and data mining aim to scrutinise confluences and divergences between the two axes. This comparative research looks at how political subjectivity and aspirations are culturally and technologically shaped in different countries and platforms. The research team will explore two intertwined phenomena: (a) the sociological roots related to platform labour precariousness that makes this converge possible (sense of authenticity, isolation, individualism, competitiveness, entrepreneurial spirit), and (b) the technological infrastructure that promotes and reconfigures interactions between the two axes.
1 - Does the digital economy foster neo-illiberalism? What is the role of technology?
This is the central question of the project, grounded in the hypothesis that labour precarisation and platformisation are key drivers of far-right expansion, enabled by flexible labour relations and high connectivity. We address this through several work packages:
- Building a database of 1 million Brazilian aspiring digital entrepreneurs active on Instagram to track political and economic trends.
- Conducting digital ethnography and daily monitoring of 600 Brazilian influencers who dominate the digital marketing landscape on social media.
- Performing long-term ethnography and in-depth interviews with low-income, precarious digital workers across three countries.
2 - What are the particularities of the far right in the Global South?
We examine the rise of authoritarian populism in three countries through comparative analysis. This includes literature reviews, workshops with democracy experts in Brazil, India, and the Philippines (BIPs), and ethnographic fieldwork. We encourage all researchers to visit the various field sites to foster cutting-edge comparisons and collaborations.
3 - What are the predominant political views in different labour sectors?
Assuming that platformisation and labour precariousness drive neo-illiberalism, we aim to explore the nuances of this process across different occupations. For example, we have observed that sex workers in all three countries are less likely to support far-right ideologies than app-based drivers.
To investigate this, we are conducting 150 in-depth interviews—50 in each country. Two PhD students are studying uberisation in India and the Philippines, another PhD student is conducting ethnography among personal cleaners in Brazil, and a postdoctoral researcher is focusing on the beauty sector across the three countries.
4 - How does the digital economy transform the informal economy?
Through a longitudinal perspective, spanning 25 years of ethnographic research with low-income peddlers in Brazil, Principal Investigator (PI) Rosana Pinheiro-Machado is following their transition to online entrepreneurship. This work package involves resuming old ethnographic ties from previous projects to explore the shift in labour dynamics.
In Brazil, social media has become the driving force for both labour and entrepreneurship.
5 - What is the role of social media in this process?
While much of the contemporary discourse on platformisation of work focuses on gig platforms, we argue that social media should be considered integral to this debate. It serves as the primary means of work, particularly for low-income individuals working in countries high usage of social media.
This is the central question of the project, grounded in the hypothesis that labour precarisation and platformisation are key drivers of far-right expansion, enabled by flexible labour relations and high connectivity. We address this through several work packages:
- Building a database of 1 million Brazilian aspiring digital entrepreneurs active on Instagram to track political and economic trends.
- Conducting digital ethnography and daily monitoring of 600 Brazilian influencers who dominate the digital marketing landscape on social media.
- Performing long-term ethnography and in-depth interviews with low-income, precarious digital workers across three countries.
2 - What are the particularities of the far right in the Global South?
We examine the rise of authoritarian populism in three countries through comparative analysis. This includes literature reviews, workshops with democracy experts in Brazil, India, and the Philippines (BIPs), and ethnographic fieldwork. We encourage all researchers to visit the various field sites to foster cutting-edge comparisons and collaborations.
3 - What are the predominant political views in different labour sectors?
Assuming that platformisation and labour precariousness drive neo-illiberalism, we aim to explore the nuances of this process across different occupations. For example, we have observed that sex workers in all three countries are less likely to support far-right ideologies than app-based drivers.
To investigate this, we are conducting 150 in-depth interviews—50 in each country. Two PhD students are studying uberisation in India and the Philippines, another PhD student is conducting ethnography among personal cleaners in Brazil, and a postdoctoral researcher is focusing on the beauty sector across the three countries.
4 - How does the digital economy transform the informal economy?
Through a longitudinal perspective, spanning 25 years of ethnographic research with low-income peddlers in Brazil, Principal Investigator (PI) Rosana Pinheiro-Machado is following their transition to online entrepreneurship. This work package involves resuming old ethnographic ties from previous projects to explore the shift in labour dynamics.
In Brazil, social media has become the driving force for both labour and entrepreneurship.
5 - What is the role of social media in this process?
While much of the contemporary discourse on platformisation of work focuses on gig platforms, we argue that social media should be considered integral to this debate. It serves as the primary means of work, particularly for low-income individuals working in countries high usage of social media.
At the end of the project, we aim:
1 – To demonstrate that precarisation, accelerated by digital technologies, is fuelling the far-right surge by providing a platform for anti-political sentiments, aspirational entrepreneurialism, hyper-individualism, and a distorted view of meritocracy. The classic sociological literature has already demonstrated that the non-organisation of labour can lead to reactionary political views, driven by flexible ties and unprotected labour. However, our multi-method study aims to show how technology not only accelerates this process but also radicalises it. The precarisation of life and economic practices fosters active and reactive emotions. In particular, resentment focused on local and territorialised experiences plays a more significant role than abstract enemies created on social media. Thus, the project also aims to show that debates on misinformation should shift their focus towards local, territorialised forms of influence.
2 – To prove that the expanding digital marketing field, especially in Brazil, is marked by the false promise that individuals can succeed by conducting business on social media. Our database tracks 1 million micro-digital entrepreneurs to assess their growth over a three-year period. Preliminary data already indicate that these individuals are stagnating.
3 – To innovate methodologically through the unique combination of intensive ethnography and extensive computational approaches. To date, this combination has successfully captured the individual stories of the underprivileged, who are platformised but too poor to be visible in the statistics provided by international organisations, governments, and academic studies.
4 – To redefine the concept of platform work and recommend the inclusion of social media in discussions on the platformisation of labour. By focusing solely on labour platforms, international organisations and governments overlook the hidden story of millions of people who are working via social media and are equally platformised. Our innovative methods have shown that around 25% of Brazil’s economically active population is working in unregulated conditions on social media.
1 – To demonstrate that precarisation, accelerated by digital technologies, is fuelling the far-right surge by providing a platform for anti-political sentiments, aspirational entrepreneurialism, hyper-individualism, and a distorted view of meritocracy. The classic sociological literature has already demonstrated that the non-organisation of labour can lead to reactionary political views, driven by flexible ties and unprotected labour. However, our multi-method study aims to show how technology not only accelerates this process but also radicalises it. The precarisation of life and economic practices fosters active and reactive emotions. In particular, resentment focused on local and territorialised experiences plays a more significant role than abstract enemies created on social media. Thus, the project also aims to show that debates on misinformation should shift their focus towards local, territorialised forms of influence.
2 – To prove that the expanding digital marketing field, especially in Brazil, is marked by the false promise that individuals can succeed by conducting business on social media. Our database tracks 1 million micro-digital entrepreneurs to assess their growth over a three-year period. Preliminary data already indicate that these individuals are stagnating.
3 – To innovate methodologically through the unique combination of intensive ethnography and extensive computational approaches. To date, this combination has successfully captured the individual stories of the underprivileged, who are platformised but too poor to be visible in the statistics provided by international organisations, governments, and academic studies.
4 – To redefine the concept of platform work and recommend the inclusion of social media in discussions on the platformisation of labour. By focusing solely on labour platforms, international organisations and governments overlook the hidden story of millions of people who are working via social media and are equally platformised. Our innovative methods have shown that around 25% of Brazil’s economically active population is working in unregulated conditions on social media.