PLATCOM PROJECT

COMMUNICATION
PLATFORMS,
WORKFORCE
AND INFORMAL
LEARNING
WHITE PAPER
2 COMMUNICATION PLATFORMS, WORKFORCE AND INFORMAL LEARNING

Platform capitalism:
a study
Platforms cut across all aspects of human life, from information and
KEYWORD entertainment (Facebook, X, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Instagram)
Platform to transportation (Uber, Cabify), shopping (Amazon, Mercado
A platform is a digital infrastructure Libre), cleaning services (Clintu), temporary rental housing (Airbnb),
that not only orchestrates education (Coursera, AltSchool), animal care (Gudog) and delivery
interactions by algorithmically (Glovo, UberEat, Deliveroo).
processing, monetizing, and
circulating data, but also acts
Although platforms are machines for generating, processing, and
as an intermediary, connecting
marketing data, they cannot be reduced to just that dimension.
diverse user groups. Within this
framework, platformization refers The PLATCOM project proposed going beyond denouncing digital
to the widespread penetration of labor and algorithmic business to delve into the different dimensions
platform infrastructures, economic of how platforms and their workers function.
mechanisms, and mediation forms
into various aspects of social life. Between 2020 and 2024, the PLATCOM project team analyzed
the functioning of these interfaces, identifying their main actors,
relationships, processes, and tensions. The team also researched how
the platform workers acquire their skills and the informal teaching-
STATE OF THE ART
learning processes that are expressed in a setting characterized by its
Julie Chen precariousness and flexibility. Finally, the team analyzed the values
and Cheryll Ruth Soriano and ideology that predominate in the discourses of the main actors.
“The global proliferation of digital
platforms that mediate service
provision, either through crowdwork
platforms or through local job-match
for transport or food-delivery services,
is inseparable from the global decrease
in institutional labor protection in the
past few decades of neoliberalism.”

Source: Chen, J. and Soriano, C.R.

(2022). How do workers survive
and thrive in the platform economy?
Evidence from China and the
Philippines. In: M. Graham and F.
Ferrari (eds.) Digital Work in the
Planetary Market. MIT Press, p. 53.
 WHITE PAPER 3

The research
The specific objectives of the research are to:
• Identify and analyze the actors, relationships, and processes
that affect the platform workforce
• Identify and analyze the skills and informal learning strategies
Country of origin
of the interviewee Interviews of the platform workers
SPAIN 18 • Analyze the ideological values and tensions that emerge from
FRANCE 1 these processes.
ITALY 1

ROMANIA 1 The PLATCOM team employed various methods to give a voice to

VENEZUELA 12
the platform workers of different sectors (e.g., ride-hailing, delivery,

CHILE 3
cleaning, and renting). Data were collected through semi-structured
interviews, non-participant observation, and document analysis.
MEXICO 3

ARGENTINA 2
The research started in 2020 amid a global pandemic and before
PERU 2
the enactment of the Spanish Rider Law. The team interviewed
CUBA 1
48 workers (16 of whom were interviewed more than once) until
HONDURAS 1
reaching a total of 73 interviews. A wide range of perspectives and
EGYPT 1
experiences were also collected, covering a wide diversity of gender
SENEGAL 1
identities (31 males, 16 females, and 1 transgender), age groups
PAKISTAN 1
(ranging from 18 to 55 years old), and geographical origins.

Sector Delivery Restaurants Logistics Temporary rental Cleaning and care Transportation

Workers 21 7 7 6 4 2
4 COMMUNICATION PLATFORMS, WORKFORCE AND INFORMAL LEARNING
STATE OF THE ART
Julia Ticona
“Studies of the relationship between
carework platforms and workers often
focus on the antagonistic relationship
between workers and platform
companies. However, as this area of
scholarship evolves, it is important to
see antagonism as only one of many
possibilities for understanding the
politics of platforms (...)
Platforms are subject to different
kinds of pressures and support from
both allies and adversaries within
sociotechnical systems.”
Source: Ticona, J. (2022). Red
flags, sob stories, and scams: The
contested meaning of governance
on carework labor platforms. New
Media & Society, 24(7), 1548-1566.
KEYWORD
Interface
We understand an interface as a
network of actors, relationships
and processes. This approach seeks
to go beyond the classic ‘graphical
user interface’ to propose a scalable
analytical model that can be applied
to different settings: political
parties as a political interface,
the classroom as an educational
interface, the museum as a cultural
interface, etc.
The semi-structured interviews were carried out mainly in Madrid and
Barcelona. They explored different aspects of the work (initiation, training,
job conditions, expectations, and mobility processes) and the way the
workers use technology.
Participants were selected through intentional non-probabilistic sampling,
including workers of platforms such as Glovo, Just Eat, Getir, Cabify, Rover,
Topnanny and Airbnb. Snowball sampling was used to reach unidentified
individuals. All participants were adults and provided informed consent.
Following EU privacy protocols, their identities were safeguarded
through pseudonyms.
The PLATCOM team applied a dual approach to analyze the data with the
NVivo software. Initially, we systematically identified themes through
inductive and iterative coding. The significant themes identified included, for
example, ‘the process of starting to work’. Then the team focused on actors
(individual, institutional, technological, etc.). Coding revealed relationships
(like competition/cooperation, domination/resistance, etc.) that formed
higher categories and themes. Finally, exchanges between actors were
mapped and emerging tensions and conflicts were identified.
The interface
In an interface, actors (human, institutional, technological, textual,
etc.) can establish cooperative or competitive relationships, or one
actor can dominate over others who resist its power. Economic,
educational and interpretive processes are also expressed in an
interface. Beyond its descriptive potential, this approach (inspired by
the work of Bruno Latour and Manuel de Landa) makes it possible to
identify areas of tension and critical points of an interface in order to
operate on them.
When platform work is analyzed from an interface-focused
perspective, what first emerges is the complexity of that work
environment. Far from the myth of digital disintermediation of the
1990s, platforms have become a new example of cyberintermediation
that has also given birth to an extremely dense network of actors.
 WHITE PAPER 5

TECH HUMAN ACTOR ACTOR

ACTOR ACTOR That work
TECNOL. is not, or hardly, regulated in these interfaces has been
HUMANO

a permanent source of conflict. In the delivery sector, the ‘Rider

INST.
ACTOR
BIO
ACTOR
Law’ (2021)
ACTOR
INSTIT.
ACTORserved to regulate the presence of “false freelancers”;
BIO

in the rental sector, the regulation affected habitability certificates.

Legislation often generates new conflicts that add to the tensions
inherent in the sectors that are still unregulated.
TECH HUMAN INST.
ACTOR ACTOR ACTOR
Power conflicts and relations of domination are commonplace in
Cooperation relationships
platform work. These are not only tensions between human actors
ACTOR ACTOR ACTOR (clients, company operators, intermediary companies, etc.): workers
TECNOL. HUMANO INSTIT.
Competition relationships
are also controlled by the apps and algorithms of the platforms.
Domination relationships This multiple domination also increases the processes of meaning
production, forcing the actors to interpret the extended functions of
Resistance relationships
the platforms while facing an already precarious and often lonely job.
Economic processes $
Meaning production and
Below are three actor maps, one of work in public spaces
interpretation processes ? (transportation and delivery) and the other two in private spaces
Conflicts (care and housing).

PLATFORM PLATFORM
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DELIVERY WORKERS CORPORATION 1 CORPORATION 2
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Meaning production and

nterpretation processes ?
 6 COMMUNICATION PLATFORMS, WORKFORCE AND INFORMAL LEARNING
Care worke

CARE WORKERS
HUMAN
ACTOR

BIO
ACTOR
PETS

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
CHILDREN ELDERLY
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rocesses $
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Temporary rental housing workers

TECH HUMAN ACTOR ACTOR
ACTOR ACTOR TECNOL. HUMANO

INST. BIO ACTOR ACTOR

oduction and
ACTOR ACTOR INSTIT. BIO

on processes ?
Cooperation relationships TEMPORARY RENTAL HOUSING WORKERS

Competition relationships
TECH HUMAN INST.
ACTOR ACTOR ACTOR POLICE
Domination relationships
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

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LAWS> NEIGHBORS
>>
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Resistance relationships >>
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ships HOUSE
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PLATFORM HOTEL
CORPORATION
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and
ses ?
 WHITE PAPER 7

During the fieldwork the PLATCOM team identified various tensions

STATE OF THE ART
between workers (freelancers and employees), which has led to a
Niels van Doorn series of individual actions (e.g., submitting demands to companies)
and Aaron Shapiro and forms of organization (informal groups or through unions).
“The straightforward conclusion for
many scholars is that algorithmic
In short: the platform worker is the point where different forms
management is managerial control
of domination converge. In addition to being a flexible, transitory
by other means. A more nuanced
and poorly paid job, the worker is the weakest node in a complex
picture began to emerge, however,
as researchers looked ‘beyond the network of actors. This situation promotes, on one hand, cooperative
algorithm’ to the complex overlaps relationships (such as the creation of online groups), and on the other
of human and non-human agents hand, different forms of resistance. We recommend reading the
involved in coordinating platform- publications generated by the PLATCOM team in which the different
mediated service transactions.” sectors of the platform economy (cleaning, care, transport, etc.) are
analyzed in depth.
Source: van Doorn, N. and Shapiro,
A. (2023). Studying the Gig Economy
‘Beyond the Gig’: A Research Agenda.
Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com

INTERVIEW “They tell me where I have to go to get the order, where I have to take it and
how much they are going to pay me. They’re sending you a message and at
the same time, they’re messing with you, eh, because you’re waiting at the
Francisco restaurant and they send you a message (‘You’ve been waiting for your order for
FOOD DELIVERY a long time, what’s happening?’), they send notifications and they call you. Even
the customer can send you a message (‘Hey, what’s happened to my order?’).
Well, okay, the customer has the right, OK? But complain to the application or
the restaurant, not me. Or am I making the pizza?”

“When I rented the account they recommended that I join these WhatsApp

Leonardo groups in case I had any problems. Because if you have a problem the company
is not responsible. You have that group of people who, I don’t know, if this
FOOD DELIVERY
person who I rented the account from does something to me, scams me, or I
have a problem with a client, I can only go to them.”
8 COMMUNICATION PLATFORMS, WORKFORCE AND INFORMAL LEARNING
KEYWORD
Informal learning
strategy
An informal learning strategy
is a way of acquiring knowledge
and skills in a self-directed and
unstructured way through everyday
activities, social interactions, and
resources available outside formal
educational settings.
STATE OF THE ART
Oliver N.K. Chan
“Expertise in Uber is not just about
having skills in driving and interacting
with passengers; rather, it means being
able to mobilize rhetorical devices to
show the ability to know the ostensibly
inscrutable algorithmic labor platform
and relate this knowledge to audiences.
Indeed, Uber drivers, much like taxi
drivers and other traditional service
workers, must learn to manage their
service encounters.”
Source: Chan, N.K. (2019).
“Becoming an expert in driving
for Uber”: Uber driver/bloggers’
performance of expertise and
self-presentation on YouTube. New
Media & Society, 21(9), 2048-2067.
Competencies and learning
To effectively perform on digital platforms, workers must master a
set of skills that transcend mere technological proficiency. It is in this
context that new forms of knowledge and literacies emerge, such as
gig literacy, platform literacy and algorithm literacy.
The PLATCOM team identified platform work competencies that
go beyond technology and include account management, on- and
off-platform interactions, post-service tasks, reviews, monitoring
earnings, and legal responsibilities (for example, paying taxes).
During the fieldwork, seven competencies were identified that can be
related to five dimensions: technological (technology competence),
textual (content creation competence), productive (resource
management competence and service delivery competence), social
(social management competence), and institutional (platform
framework competence and legal framework competence). Each
competence encompasses a range of knowledge, skills, attitudes,
and behaviors. These elements can be systematically categorized
(drawing from an evolved iteration of the classic taxonomy originally
formulated by Benjamin Bloom in 1956) into distinct cognitive
processes: knowing, understanding, evaluating, applying, and
innovating. The following image summarizes the main competencies
identified during the research.
Regarding learning strategies, it was observed that workers acquire
their skills through practice (trial and error), requesting information
from their co-workers or asking other actors for help in specific
situations. Training by companies is practically non-existent. When
it does exist, it is given by tutors in a talk on the first day of work or
through very short courses.
 WHITE PAPER 9

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While the map delineates each competency distinctly, it is crucial to

recognize that they frequently intersect in the context of real-world
practices. Take, for instance, a worker evaluating whether to accept
or decline a job. Their decision is influenced by a complex interplay
of factors: estimated distance and time, the service’s contribution
to daily earnings, the client’s needs and temperament, and potential
risks, to name a few.
10 COMMUNICATION PLATFORMS, WORKFORCE AND INFORMAL LEARNING

INTERVIEW

“You go to the area where you can get more work or where you can travel, that
José is, where they’ll pay you better, right? Because of… the type of restaurants, the
FOOD DELIVERY amount of food people order, or the distance you travel, that’s why it’s the best
paid. The more distance you travel, the more you get paid for your order.”

“I always check (the age of) the dogs, especially after my recent experiences
Gracia with very old dogs (...) I’m very afraid that something will happen to them.
PET-SITTING Just think, a fifteen-year-old dog is very delicate.”

Discourses and values

The PLATCOM team also analyzed the discourses of the main actors
of the interface-platform. First, it must be noted that the platform
universe does not have a single semantic field. Although some
concepts are shared, each job sector (transportation, rental, cleaning,
etc.) has its own vocabulary. On the other hand, enunciation in the first
person singular (“I”) tends to prevail in the workers’ discourses, with
the exception of a few cases, for example workers who are activists
and speak on behalf of the group. In the rest of the discourses,
individual enunciation predominates.

When discourses are analyzed, what is not said is as important or even

more important than what is said. In most interviews, it is surprising
that a fundamental actor in this interface, the State, is almost never
mentioned. At most, the State is present through its legal expressions,
for example when workers mention the “Rider Law”, the “Supreme
Court” or the “norms” that regulate the sector.

Nominal forms are expressions that have great explanatory power,

generating an intelligibility effect that sometimes ends up hiding the
causes of a phenomenon (for example, the “pandemic”). In almost all
the interviews carried out, the “system” is usually mentioned, which
can take different forms: the “application”, the “platform” or even the
“internet”. In the old industrial capitalism the company was clearly
identified; however, in platform capitalism, this actor is diluted behind
multiple euphemisms.
 WHITE PAPER 11

INTERVIEW

María “The pandemic made everything very difficult, the pandemic left everything a
mess. I lost a lot of jobs, like seven jobs, and it was really hard. But hey, I’m back
CLEANING AND CARE
on track and here I am, still on my feet.”

In terms of rhetorical figures, the way in which poor working or hiring

conditions are expressed through metaphors is relevant. Images
linked to “slavery” are common in the platform workers’ discourses,
since they see themselves as dehumanized actors (“raw material”)
who agree to enter into a “dirty game” always at the risk of “breaking
up”. These negative conceptions are complemented by positive
expressions in which flexibility and freedom are valued (“being your
own boss”, “controlling your time”).
12 COMMUNICATION PLATFORMS, WORKFORCE AND INFORMAL LEARNING

INTERVIEW

“You become a slave and that’s what we were, we were like slaves to the hours,
Eduardo to the time, to the things, not that you have to connect, but you have to hunt
FOOD DELIVERY these hours, otherwise you won’t work later.”

Pepe “Those of us who support the platform are the ones who put up the houses,
because we are the raw material for Airbnb (...) Airbnb ended up being a cover
ACCOMMODATION
for illegal tourist apartments, which is not the same as home sharing.”

Yoani “It’s more or less like this, it’s like a dirty game that you decide to enter and you
decide to pay the consequences of entering that game (...) But the rider always
FOOD DELIVERY
takes the slap in the face.”

Oriol “I basically liked the possibility of being my own boss, riding my bike
FOOD DELIVERY and being outside.”

One of the most relevant aspects of platform workers’ discourses is

that many do not consider it a job. In the case of apartment and rider
management, “work” is often used to refer to another work activity.
It is as if platform work were a complementary non-work, a temporary
source of income while waiting for real work to arrive. This vision of
the work activity is sometimes complemented with a recreational or
sporting conception of work on platforms.

INTERVIEW
“I have always really liked riding a bike, so it was like… plus they paint

Joaquín everything so beautifully: ‘Oh, you tour around your city riding on your bike
and they pay you on top of that.’ Let’s say that I was attracted by the idea
FOOD DELIVERY
that they were selling and well, in reality I love the job, but the working
conditions are terrible.”

Carlos “The screen is very basic, in fact, you don’t even know you are on Amazon.
WAREHOUSE LOGISTICS The screen looks more like a video game.”
 WHITE PAPER 13

Conclusions

These are the top ten outcomes that emerged from the PLATCOM
research project:

#1 The agency of workers to resist algorithmic control is part of a series

of learning processes and requires other practices and competencies
in addition to providing a service.

#2 Platforms are not just machines for generating, processing and

marketing data, they are complex sociotechnical interfaces that are
crossed by labor conflicts, political tensions, and meaning negotiations.

#3 Far from the myth of digital disintermediation, platforms have become

a new example of cyberintermediation, propelling an extremely dense
network of human and non-human actors.

#4 Despite being an individual and solitary job, workers generate spaces

to support each other, acquire skills, learn tricks to ‘beat’ the algorithm
and generate different forms of resistance.

#5 In addition to being a flexible, transitory and poorly paid job, the

platform worker is the weakest node in a complex network in which
he or she is dominated by different human actors and by the platform.

#6 The competencies for working on platforms are not limited to

technological skills, as they include mastery of social relations
and knowledge of the institutional and work context.
14 COMMUNICATION PLATFORMS, WORKFORCE AND INFORMAL LEARNING

#7 Each competence involves a set of knowledge, skills, attitudes and

behaviors which, in turn, can be organized into different processes:
knowing, understanding, evaluating, applying and innovating.

#8 With little in-company training, workers acquire skills through

practice, learning from co-workers or asking for help in specific
situations from other actors.

#9 When talking about their work experience, platform workers use

metaphors related to ‘slavery’ but also with ideas of ‘freedom’.

#10 Despite the working conditions, platform workers sometimes do

not consider it a job, but rather a non-job conceived as a leisure or
sporting activity.

STATE OF THE ART

Thomas Poell
“Nothing about platformization
is inevitable. A society primarily
organized around the market is
not a natural state of being. Other
arrangements are possible.
Our current situation is the result of
decades of neoliberal politics, which
have proven to be the perfect
environment for commercial platforms
to become key institutional actors.”

Source: Poell, T. (2022). Platforms,

power & collectivity. Inaugural speech
delivered on 24 June, 2022. Faculty
of Humanities (FGw) - Amsterdam
School for Cultural Analysis (ASCA).
WHITE PAPER 15

PLATCOM Team
Carlos A. Scolari (Principal Investigator - UPF)
Martina Piña (UPF)
María del Mar Guerrero (UPF)
Júlia Vilasís-Pamos (UPF)
María José Establés (UCLM)
Jon Dornaleteche (UVA)
Cristina San José (UVA)
Ruth Contreras (UVic)
José Luis Eguía (ENTI-UB)
Fernanda Pires (UAB)
Núria Hernández Sellés (CSEU La Salle)
Marta Fernández Ruiz (CITM-UPC)
José M. Tomasena (UB)
Débora Lanzeni (Monash University)

WHITE PAPER DESIGN

Ars Media - Turin, Italy

How to cite this document:

Scolari, C.A., Piña, M. and Guerrero-Pico, M. (2024). Communication
platforms, workforce and informal learning. White Paper of the
PLATCOM project. Barcelona: Pompeu Fabra University.

The PLATCOM project (2020-24) was funded by the The Ministry

of Science, Innovation and Universities and the National Research
Agency of Spain (Reference: PID2019-109846RB-I00).

The PLATCOM project appreciates the collaboration

of Comisiones Obreras (Barcelona).

This work is distributed under this Creative Commons license

PLATCOM Project (2020-24)
PID2019-109846RB-I00

platcom.upf.edu
February 2024