Dual governance and digital labor control: Algorithmic exploitation and structural alienation in Croatia's gig economy

Fuente: Zenodo
Enregistré dans:
Détails bibliographiques
Auteur principal: Tomičić, Ana
Format: Recurso digital
Publié: Zenodo 2026
Accès en ligne:
Tags: Ajouter un tag
Pas de tags, Soyez le premier à ajouter un tag!
_version_ 1866902004529364992
author Tomičić, Ana
author_facet Tomičić, Ana
contents <p><span lang="DE">This article introduces the concept of <em>dual governance labor control</em> to explain how algorithmic management and third-party intermediaries jointly deepen precarity in platform capitalism. Drawing on Labor Process Theory and cyberpsychology, the analysis examines Croatia’s food delivery sector as a diagnostic case of how digital infrastructures restructure power, fragment accountability, and intensify alienation. Based on surveys, focus groups, and interviews with delivery workers and union leaders, the study shows how opaque algorithms produce psychological strain and decision fatigue, while aggregators displace responsibility, racialise labour hierarchies, and undermine collective organisation. These dynamics reveal how class, migration, and digital control intersect to maximize surplus extraction while eroding workers’ agency. In highlighting the structural and affective dimensions of this regime, the article extends labour process theory and situates algorithmic anxiety as a systemic outcome of capitalist governance. It concludes by outlining regulatory and collective strategies to contest dual governance and advance more democratic, transparent, and worker-centred alternatives in the platform economy.</span></p>
format Recurso digital
id zenodo_https___doi_org_10_5281_zenodo_18674527
institution Zenodo
language
publishDate 2026
publisher Zenodo
record_format zenodo
spellingShingle Dual governance and digital labor control: Algorithmic exploitation and structural alienation in Croatia's gig economy
Tomičić, Ana
<p><span lang="DE">This article introduces the concept of <em>dual governance labor control</em> to explain how algorithmic management and third-party intermediaries jointly deepen precarity in platform capitalism. Drawing on Labor Process Theory and cyberpsychology, the analysis examines Croatia’s food delivery sector as a diagnostic case of how digital infrastructures restructure power, fragment accountability, and intensify alienation. Based on surveys, focus groups, and interviews with delivery workers and union leaders, the study shows how opaque algorithms produce psychological strain and decision fatigue, while aggregators displace responsibility, racialise labour hierarchies, and undermine collective organisation. These dynamics reveal how class, migration, and digital control intersect to maximize surplus extraction while eroding workers’ agency. In highlighting the structural and affective dimensions of this regime, the article extends labour process theory and situates algorithmic anxiety as a systemic outcome of capitalist governance. It concludes by outlining regulatory and collective strategies to contest dual governance and advance more democratic, transparent, and worker-centred alternatives in the platform economy.</span></p>
title Dual governance and digital labor control: Algorithmic exploitation and structural alienation in Croatia's gig economy
url https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18674527