Embodied Precariat and Digital Control in the “Gig Economy”: The Mobile Labor of Food Delivery Workers

The promises of flexible work and instant deliveries promoted through food delivery apps are one the latest trends within “gig economy” lay at forefront smart city agendas. This article focuses on undertaken by Deliveroo couriers to investigate how they embody, negotiate, contest “smartness” platform. Drawing ethnographic research in London Manchester, analysis internal online communication, interviews with workers, examines competing understandings emerge response algorithmic management workplace. paper conceptualizes two distinctive yet overlapping attitudes among couriers—entrepreneurialism solidarity—and discusses their implications for future platform work.