Abstract
With increasing socioeconomic precarity and ecological threat, resilience has become the individual responsibility and moral obligation of the neoliberal subject. Digital labor platforms are a clear expression and beneficiary of this development, offering hustling as a way to gain resilience as a micro-entrepreneur. However, we present evidence to the contrary, demonstrating how hustling in the digital economy erodes resilience on a systemic level. For this purpose, we draw on an in-depth, ecological ethnography about Poshmark, a social commerce platform for predominantly female hustlers to sell clothes. We tell the story of a pattern set in motion by the rapid scaling of the platform, which requires hustlers to do more and more click-work to yield smaller and smaller sales. As a result, they are caught up in a runaway dynamic that erodes the resilience of the ecology as a whole.
Originalsprog | Engelsk |
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Tidsskrift | New Media & Society |
Vol/bind | 26 |
Udgave nummer | 1 |
Sider (fra-til) | 71-90 |
Antal sider | 20 |
ISSN | 1461-4448 |
DOI | |
Status | Udgivet - jan. 2024 |
Bibliografisk note
Published online: November 5, 2021.Emneord
- Digital platforms
- Ecology
- Ethnography
- Hustling
- Resilience