Platform Capitalism’s Hidden Abode: Producing Data Assets in the Gig Economy

TLDR

App‑governed gig workers serve as pivotal conduits in software systems that produce digital data as a distinct asset class. The article argues that gig work under financialised platform capitalism follows a dual value production process, where monetary service value is augmented by the use and speculative value of data generated before, during, and after service provision, and reflects on data asset production and unequal opportunities for valorisation. The authors survey strategies for data‑centric worker empowerment to address the unequal distribution of data asset valorisation. These strategies are crucial attempts to counter platform capitalism’s domination, yet the massive wealth and synergetic capacities of meta‑platforms remain the most formidable obstacle to worker power and social justice in data‑driven societies.

Abstract

Abstract In this article, we argue that the governance of gig work under conditions of financialised platform capitalism is characterised by a process that we call “dual value production”: the monetary value produced by the service provided is augmented by the use and speculative value of the data produced before, during, and after service provision. App‐governed gig workers hence function as pivotal conduits in software systems that produce digital data as a particular asset class. We reflect on the production of data assets and the unequal distribution of opportunities for their valorisation, after which we survey a number of strategies seeking data‐centric worker empowerment. These strategies, we argue, are crucial attempts to push back against platform capitalism’s domination, bankrolled by what we term “meta‐platforms”. Ultimately, it is the massive wealth and synergetic capacities of meta‐platforms that constitute the most formidable obstacle to worker power and social justice in increasingly data‐driven societies.