3. Algorithmic Coercion: The Rational Control of Platform Labour

This chapter delves into the rational discourse behind algorithmic control within China’s food-delivery platform economy, focusing on how platforms utilise algorithmic technologies to construct and legitimise control strategies that reflect rational ideologies of worker regulation. It explores the virtual organisational strategy adopted by platforms, which relies on digital technologies to network and monitor geographically dispersed workers. The chapter also examines the deliberate outsourcing of the labour force to third-party staffing agencies, creating an ambiguous triangular relationship between the driver, the staffing agency, and the platform. Additionally, it discusses the role of algorithmic control in the food-delivery labour process, including the use of AI-driven order-dispatch systems and AI-powered delivery assistants to govern drivers’ time and dissect the delivery task into its smallest possible components. The chapter concludes by highlighting the deskilling and degradation of food-delivery labour, as well as the consolidation of despotic control regimes within the digital workplace.