Uberization and Overexploitation

This book examines “uberization” “from below”, by focusing on three major cities (Paris, London and Montreal) and on the individual situations of Uber drivers, to analyse the deployment of “racial platform capitalism”. Racialized men are over-represented among Uber drivers and the book argues that this is no coincidence; the platform exploits their relegation to a subordinate material and symbolic position within the social order to gain access to the labour reserve it needs to operate. At the same time, this essential but unwanted labour force must accept the degraded working and employment conditions offered. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of the sociology of work and the platform economy.