Visible yet unseen: unpacking the (in)visibilities of food-delivery riders in public space

Food-delivery riders embody a constitutive paradox of platform-mediated labour. Although visible and physically exposed in public space, their labour is obscured, their subjectivities unacknowledged, and their presence marginalised. This article explores this visible invisibility paradox to illuminate gaps in theorising (in)visibility in platform labour. Existing scholarship conceptualises (in)visibility as disembodiment, sociocultural disguise, and economic devaluation, with spatial mechanisms primarily addressed through material presence in public or private space. Moreover, institutional invisibility has largely been theorised regarding labour regulation, overlooking how invisibility within the transportation regime compounds economic, physical, and cultural vulnerabilities. Drawing on interviews with food-delivery riders in Toronto and international studies, this article makes a theoretical contribution to platform labour studies. By illustrating how riders are at once highly visible and othered in public space, the paper provides an analytical expansion of the framework for (in)visibility in platform-mediated work that foregrounds sociospatial dynamics, including sociocultural practices and norms, and institutional regulation. Conceptualising space not as a mere backdrop but as a social product enables a more comprehensive analysis of how sociospatial arrangements (re)produce invisibility.