A superexploração como regra: plataformas digitais e a mundialização do trabalho periférico

Abstract

Digital platforms and the spread of information and communication technologies have redesigned the dynamics of various work activities, as well as creating new ones. Such tools opened up opportunities in different spaces, making their abandonment unthinkable. However, work mediated by digital platforms largely carries the mark of precariousness, a term commonly used to describe work relationships far from the framework of decent work. It turns out that the use of the precariousness category is sometimes limited to strictly legal parameters, that is, the existence or absence of rights. To provide an expanded sociological vision, the article will propose the use of the category of superexploitation, derived from the Marxist Theory of Dependence. This analytical perspective was initially used to understand the labor relations existing in Latin American dependent capitalism, however, analyzing platformed work it is possible to note the presence of superexploitation as its essence, capable of being globalized through communication technologies. Understanding platformized work not only as precarious, but also as superexploited, expands the range of analysis of this new paradigm in the world of work. Finally, the article will propose that overcoming this situation lies in its understanding based on concrete parameters, which start from the centrality of work in human life and from the perspective of the interests of the collectively organized working class. Thus, dignity will not be reduced to abstract legal notions, but will reflect real concreteness.