Technologies of Dispossessing of Job Identities: An Ethnographical Study on Snapp (Online Ridesharing Application) Drivers

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Soheil Rezanejad
Saied Reza Ameli
Department of Communication Sciences, University of Tehran
10.22034/jcsc.2023.2004912.2665
Abstract
This paper a report from a wider research project about the situation of online ridesharing drivers in Snapp Company in the city of Tehran. This research had started in the form an organizational ethnography, seeking ways to ameliorate the working conditions of drivers, yet the field had its toll on the research and not only changed the main questions, but also forced a methodological revision, which is in part informed by Bourdieu's proposition of a 'scholarship with commitment', and in part by Nancy Scheper-Hughes' ethical considerations regarding the research subjects. What is reported here is a story of how drivers are disposessed of their job identity. Such disposession is so radical that you may ask a driver 'what is you job?' without stumbling into absurdity. This points us to a new shift in the process of disposession and commodification in late capitalism: disposession of the abstract and commodification of 'labour' as such.
Keywords
digital labour
Snapp
urban transportation
ethnography
scholarship with commitment
Subjects
 
 
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