Ubering while poor: the socio-political implications of digital platforms in underdeveloped contexts

Thesis

Digital platforms that employ algorithmic technologies to facilitate transactions have become popular in many contexts characterised by underdevelopment. What does it mean for society and its politics when people in such contexts become pervasive users of digital transaction platforms?

I address this by venturing out to Manila and Jakarta—Southeast Asia’s largest megacities—to study ride-hailing platforms through interviews, ethnography, and document analysis. I present three studies, which tackle different aspects of the question. The first study examines how digital platform companies employ strategies to win legitimacy in new markets. The second study investigates how the adoption of digital transaction platforms affects the social clamour to improve public systems. The third study explores the strategies that consumers develop to protect themselves against the algorithms and rules that represent the platform’s interests.

I make two important contributions to digital platforms research. First, I uncover previously unexamined ways in which platforms’ characteristics provide powerful advantages to platform companies in shutting down opposition and strengthening society’s reliance on their services. For example, since workers buy assets for the platform, the investment compels them to defend the platform’s interests, enhancing the platform’s power to resist and influence authorities. Second, I show how adverse conditions shape the socio-political impacts of digital platforms by amplifying the advantages of platform companies, sometimes triggering socio-political feedback loops that perpetuate underdevelopment. For example, deficiencies in pre-existing public systems can drive platform users to politically support technological solutions that benefit few, while devaluing public systems that benefit many, thus weakening the social clamour for improvements in public services.

The lessons from underdeveloped contexts need not be confined to developing countries. Adverse conditions that hinder people from living a good life exist everywhere, even in so-called developed countries. Thus, my findings can help many governments and societies who are “Ubering while poor”—that is, using digital platforms in adverse contexts—to better understand the perils and potentials of digital technologies.

Authors: Ramizo, G

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-pv0g7j94q
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: Algorithmic Control; Politics of Platforms; Algorithms; Platform Strategy; Digital Platforms; ICT for Development; Development; Ride-hailing Platforms
• Subjects: Platform Studies; Internet Studies; Sociology; Political Economy; Science and Technology Studies; Business; Political Science; Platform Governance