Paper short abstract:

My paper explores how Latin American food delivery workers in NYC use digital platforms to exercise agency, and shape their collective identity. It analyzes how they communicate and engage collectively both in the physical and the digital space through public and private communication channels.

Paper long abstract:

My paper examines how indigenous Latin American migrant delivery workers in New York City exercise agency, build community and their collective identity, and resist platform control through their use of digital platforms.

Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, my paper investigates transnational modes of community-building and network formation and examines how these networks are instrumental for delivery workers. I map how workers communicate and engage collectively and with each other through digital platforms. There are two main digital platforms that delivery workers use to share information: one that operates inwards (WhatsApp), and another that operates outwards (Facebook).

Yet, these two forms of communication represent opposite sides of the spectrum between public and private. Delivery workers use Facebook to live-stream accidents, upload information about bike robberies, and document their actions. They use WhatsApp to coordinate, request help, and mobilize in real-time. I analyze and build a typology about how public and private communication facilitate and constrain social forms of organization. I identify two objectives to workers’ live-streaming: it helps construct their own narrative and establishes public credibility. On the other hand, WhatsApp’s groups manage logistical issues, serve as a marketplace, and act as a moral agent. These layers of communication synergize to form a transnational distributed knowledge network, shaping their individual and collective identities of migrant workers.

Overall, this article sheds light on how the flow of information through different spaces and times enables delivery workers to construct a place for subversion and negotiation with roles assigned to them by broader socio-political forces.