O tempo atmosférico e o cotidiano laboral de entregadores por aplicativo

Abstract

The platformization of labor has been reshaping sociospatial dynamics, labor relations, and modes of circulation within cities. App-based delivery workers labor for long hours under an algorithmic management system of informalized work, in which the costs of labor are borne by the workers themselves. As a result, the daily experience of high temperatures and intense rainfall events becomes yet another factor of exposure that further increases the vulnerability of platform workers. This dissertation aims to analyze the relationship between app-based delivery workers and the urban climate in the city of Rio de Janeiro, with an emphasis on climate risks associated with exposure to temperature and precipitation. We examine climate dynamics using both quantitative data from meteorological stations and qualitative methods that center the subjective experience of these impacts. Our qualitative approach includes interviews and digital ethnography conducted through participation in instant messaging groups of app-based couriers, as well as the collection of mobility data from a food delivery worker in Rio de Janeiro. This diverse set of data enabled us to analyze the labor routines at multiple scales: from the everyday lived experience to the ways in which companies continuously adapt algorithmic management strategies to intensify value extraction. The findings indicate that the delivery workers' daily schedules are affected by weather conditions, resulting in changes to mobility flows, wait times, and individual strategies to cope with heat and rain. The shifting of labor-related costs onto the workers increases their vulnerability to climate exposure, compelling them to develop coping strategies both individually and collectively. Climate risk is not merely a consequence of the precariousness of platform labor—it is a structural element in the ongoing process of informalization and erosion of workers’ rights. Thus, the materialization of climate risks in the daily lives of these workers is intrinsically linked to the processes of vulnerability and precarization imposed by digital platforms.