Uberização do trabalho e a reconfiguração dos mecanismos de alienação e de exploração na atividade dos motoristas por aplicativo

Abstract

This essay analyzes the transformations of the productive forces and the relations of production that emerged with the advent of the Industrial Revolution, considering the reflections of the twentieth-century English historian, Edward P. Thompson. The objective is to identify persistence and the updating of structural elements of capitalism — such as time discipline, alienation, and exploitation — within the contemporary context of so-called uberization. The analysis is based on the understanding that these processes, historically constituted during the development of industrial capitalism, take on new forms mediated by digital platforms. In this sense, it is argued that uberization updates historical mechanisms of exploitation by reinforcing alienation and expanding the worker’s loss of control over their own labor and the management of their time.