Between precarity and pride: negotiating masculinity and migration in Turkey’s platform economy

Purpose This study examines how human–technology interrelations in platform work shape male migrant workers’ experiences of inclusion and exclusion in Turkey, and how these experiences intersect with masculinity, responsibility and everyday solidarity under precarious conditions. Design/methodology/approach The study draws on 27 face-to-face semi-structured interviews with male migrant food-delivery workers in Istanbul. Participants were recruited through purposive and snowball sampling. The data were analyzed thematically using intersectionality and hegemonic masculinity as interpretive frameworks. Findings Inclusion and exclusion were shaped through socio-technical arrangements combining algorithmically mediated task allocation, customer evaluations, performance metrics, organizational rules and migration-related inequalities. Migrant men also negotiated tensions between breadwinner expectations and precarious work, while platform metrics acquired gendered meanings linked to competence, responsibility and masculine worth. Informal solidarity provided recognition, belonging and practical support but did not replace organizational responsibility. Research limitations/implications Gendered and linguistic dynamics may have shaped interview interactions and interpretation. Practical implications Platform organizations and Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) practitioners should treat task allocation, ratings, performance metrics, prioritization and contestability as potential EDI concerns. Originality/value The study contributes to EDI scholarship by showing how inclusion and exclusion in platform work emerge through human–technology interrelations and by highlighting responsibility for outcomes attributed to “the system.” It also identifies “metrics-driven masculinity” as an empirical process and extends solidarity research by showing how worker mutual support coexists with socio-technical arrangements that shape inclusion and exclusion.