More than a glitch in the platforms

Practices of subleasing and borrowing delivery app accounts are spreading among platform-based food couriers in Spain. This article engages the significance of these seemingly neglectable practices among couriers in deportable situations. Both celebratory and critical portraits of the platform revolution have tended to ignore the question of migration in the digital gig economy. Based on interviews to unregistered couriers, accompanied by media analysis on Glovo, the main delivery company in Spain, this article calls for engaging migration beyond the exception in platform research agendas. The overall argument points to the primacy of migration in the reconfiguration of delivery platform logics of labor recruitment.

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Institutions

Publication Details

Journal
Focaal
Published
2025-03-01
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3167/fcl.2025.0123of1
Citations
3
Primary Topic
Digital Economy and Work Transformation
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
12.60

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article

More than a glitch in the platforms

Maribel Casas‐Cortés
3 citations
Focaal
Digital Economy and Work Transformation
12.60
article

More than a glitch in the platforms

Maribel Casas‐Cortés
article en
3 citations

Abstract

Practices of subleasing and borrowing delivery app accounts are spreading among platform-based food couriers in Spain. This article engages the significance of these seemingly neglectable practices among couriers in deportable situations. Both celebratory and critical portraits of the platform revolution have tended to ignore the question of migration in the digital gig economy. Based on interviews to unregistered couriers, accompanied by media analysis on Glovo, the main delivery company in Spain, this article calls for engaging migration beyond the exception in platform research agendas. The overall argument points to the primacy of migration in the reconfiguration of delivery platform logics of labor recruitment.

Focaal
Universidad de Zaragoza (ES)
Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, Agencia Estatal de Investigación, European Social Fund
Openalex Percentile: Top 2%
Digital Economy and Work Transformation
12.60
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