The local labour control regime behind the algorithms of China’s food delivery platforms: The case of physical stations in Guangzhou

Research on platform labour has predominantly examined the structuring of the “digital cages” that manage workers through algorithms. Drawing on the local labour control regime (LLCR) framework, this paper explores the local management system of the smallest regulatory units of location-based platforms: the physical stations that govern everyday labour operations. Based on fieldwork among food delivery platforms in Guangzhou, China, our findings reveal the important role that stations have in extracting surplus value within platform labour regimes. Top-down mechanisms of algorithmic control are grounded in, and shaped by, bottom-up mechanisms of local intervention which find their origin in a local labour control regime that pre-dates the digital economy.