Unpacking Algorithmic Power: Gig Economy, Food Delivery, and Migrant Labour Precarity

A defining feature of modern life today is the presence of algorithms organising the many facets of our daily lives. For instance, algorithms are behind how we shop and receive our news, how we socialise and communicate with those we know and those we do not, the ways we work, and much more. This penetration of algorithms has drawn considerable attention from scholars in the diverse disciplines and sub-fields of the social sciences. For political scientists, algorithmic governance has been a prominent research area, with topics ranging from how governments use algorithms to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of policymaking and implementation to how governments themselves have been shaped and steered by algorithms originating elsewhere. At the heart of these debates are questions about power. Who has power? Where is power located? How is power generated and exercised? What are the effects of algorithmic power? Yet these questions are not exclusive to political scientists; other social scientists—in sociology, urban studies, communication studies, and more—are also interested in addressing these very questions. In this paper, we unpack algorithmic power from the perspectives of political science, communication studies, and urban studies. Our research design is comparative. As Sartori reminds us, comparisons are important if we are to identify the main explanatory variables to any particular social-political phenomenon. We examine and answer the questions concerning power using the case of the food delivery sector in Helsinki, Singapore, and Melbourne. Food delivery has been a growing phenomenon before the COVID-19 pandemic, but it was the pandemic that has driven the demand for this service as restaurants were forced to adopt alternative business models (delivery and takeaway instead of dining-in) and consumers stayed at home. At least three features define and distinguish food delivery today: use of an algorithm-based technology (e.g. algorithms find potential customers for couriers based on their previous performance and geolocation, algorithms determine which restaurants are available based on users’ geolocation and real-time demand); prevalence of food delivery couriers who work part-time and are immigrants or from a minority background; and food delivery as an integral and expanding sector of the gig economy. Power can thus be analysed through the lens of at least four distinct sets of actors: governments, app companies, app users, and food delivery couriers. In this paper, we focus on governments and food delivery couriers by examining policy (how have national and local governments regulated the gig economy sector? What are the policies they have instrumentalised?), and impact (how have algorithmic decision-making transformed the lives of immigrant food delivery couriers? What strategies have couriers embraced to exercise control?). In so doing, we test our assumption about algorithmic governance as an ongoing and contextually-unfolding process where actors make decisions about algorithms via interacting with data and human practices in specific social-political contexts. To locate power thus requires empirical assessment across time, across place, and across groups.