Uberization Political Economy: Worker Exploitation Regarding Three Forms of Work Intermediation in Platform Companies

Abstract A wide range of studies has emerged on the precariousness of uberized jobs. Nonetheless, there is a gap regarding how these precarious jobs are integrated into the global movement of private valuation and appropriation of the workforce. Thus, this essay aims to apprehend the movement of capital reproduction whose material base occurs in the digital platform dynamics, demonstrating the different forms of intermediated work engendered in the global accumulation process. Using a historical materialist approach, we analyze the phenomenon of uberization in the expansion movement of the production and circulation of goods, scrutinizing the dynamics of big platform companies regarding their relationship with workers and customers, revealing mediations in the movement of values, which culminates in three forms of labor intermediation: (a) Form 1: as a commodity for individual consumption; (b) Form 2: as part of the work processes of industrial capital; and (c) Form 3: as a moderator of exchange relationships. We conclude by indicating that the three forms of uberized products help us to understand how this commodity production process submits men and women to precarious working conditions and increased exploitation. Furthermore, forms 2 and 3, which are more complex and mediated, demonstrate how uberization spreads across the production chain and facilitates the extraction and attraction of surplus value elsewhere, denoting the imperialist character of capitalist dynamics today.

摘要：学界已涌现大量关于优步化（Uberized）工作不稳定性的研究成果。然而，针对此类非正规就业如何融入私人估值与劳动力占有（appropriation of the workforce）的全球流动，相关研究仍存在空白。为此，本文旨在剖析以数字平台动态为物质基础的资本再生产（capital reproduction）运动，阐明全球积累（global accumulation）进程中催生的各类中介化工作形态。本文采用历史唯物主义（historical materialist）研究范式，在商品生产与流通的扩张运动框架下分析优步化现象，细致考察大型平台企业与劳动者、消费者之间的关系动态，揭示价值流动中的中介机制，最终归纳出三种劳动中介形态：(a) 形态1：作为个人消费的商品；(b) 形态2：作为产业资本工作流程的组成部分；(c) 形态3：作为交换关系的调节者。研究最后指出，三种优步化产品形态有助于我们理解此类商品生产过程如何将劳动者置于不稳定的工作处境与加剧的剥削之中。此外，更为复杂且存在中介的形态2与形态3，则揭示了优步化如何向生产链条渗透，并推动剩余价值在其他领域的攫取与吸纳，彰显了当代资本主义动态的帝国主义（imperialist）特征。