Labour super-exploitation in differential uberisation: A Latin American perspective on the platform economy

This article explores the dynamics of digital platforms for food delivery in Latin America, with a focus on empirical research conducted in Mexico City. The impact of gig and platform labour reveals significant divergences between the Global North and South, particularly in how these platforms disrupt social labour relations and subjective working conditions, suggesting to analyse in the frame of ‘differential uberisation’ of labour. Through interviews, the study examines the structural heterogeneity of labour realities in Latin America, while also highlighting key contributions from critical Latin American thought on labour. Furthermore, it discusses how conditions typical of peripheral economies, such as the super-exploitation of labour, are increasingly prevalent within the platform economy. These conditions are globalised through the worldwide operation of digital platforms. This article seeks to critically analyse this phenomenon from a Latin American perspective, drawing on long-term ethnographic research.