THE MEANINGS OF UBERISM

Work platforms, informality and forms of resistance in the city of São Paulo

Resumo

In light of the new coronavirus pandemic, our objective is to analyse the relationship between the current wave of the “platformisation of work” and the traditional forms of being a poor and peripheral worker in São Paulo, highlighting the representations and expectations of young black and peripheral workers with regard to their future work trajectories. In addition, we will explore some of the changes in app-based delivery work routines brought about by the current pandemic. With that in mind, we will present data collected during field research we carried out between January and October 2020, based on ethnographic investigation techniques applied to a group of approximately twenty young workers who meet daily at a specific location of Avenida Paulista in the city of São Paulo – although we maintained systematic and regular contact throughout 2020 with only seven of these young men.