EVERYDAY POLITICS OF ONLINE OJEK DRIVERS: TAKING COVER AND FIGHTING APPLICATORS FROM THE COMMUNITY BASECAMP

Sakinah Nadir; Sunardi Sunardi

doi:10.24198/sosiohumaniora.v26i1.47543

EVERYDAY POLITICS OF ONLINE OJEK DRIVERS: TAKING COVER AND FIGHTING APPLICATORS FROM THE COMMUNITY BASECAMP

Sakinah Nadir, Sunardi Sunardi

Abstract

The platform-based transportation business model has swept across almost all regions in Indonesia. Millions of workers have been absorbed into the workforce in this business model. However, the lack of government protection, compounded by the absence of regulations governing working conditions and safety for workers, often leads to working conditions that favor the applicator side. In this less-than-ideal situation, some workers (online motorcycle taxi drivers) have formed online motorcycle taxi communities as an alternative to cope with these less-than-ideal conditions. This article will look at how the online motorcycle taxi community is used as a medium of indirect resistance against applicators. Using a qualitative method, we adopt Browney Frey's (2020) framework on how the vulnerability of the platform workforce is produced by exploring the online motorcycle taxi community and resistance in Indonesia. Data collection is conducted through interviews and observations. We interviewed at least two communities and more than six drivers. This article argues that the organization of online motorcycle taxis that are formed through the community is part of political expression to get security guarantees. At a certain level, the existence of the community is used as a covert medium of everyday resistance. This fieldwork took place in Palu, Central Sulawesi. This article contributes to understanding the nature of organizers and models of workers' resistance to flexible work regimes sponsored by digital work platforms.

Keywords

community; everyday politics; resistance

Full Text:

PDF

References

Arif Novianto, Anindya Dessi Wulansari, AH (2021). Research: four reasons why the partnership between Gojek, Grab and Maxim is detrimental to Ojols.

Barenji, AV, Wang, WM, Li, Z., & Guerra-Zubiaga, DA (2019). Intelligent E-commerce logistics platform using hybrid agent based approach. Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, 126 (April), 15–31. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tre.2019.04.002

Ford, M., & & Honan, V. (2017). The Go-Jek Effect. Digital Indonesia Connectivity and Divergence. ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, 275–278.

Ford, M. &, & Honan, V. (2019). The limits of mutual aid_ Emerging forms of collectivity among app-based transport workers in Indonesia. Journal of Industrial Relations, 61(4), 528–548. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022185619839428

Frey, B. (2020). Platform Labor and In/Formality: Organization among Motorcycle Taxi Drivers in Bandung, Indonesia. Anthropology of Work Review, 41(1), 36–49. https://doi.org/10.1111/awr.12187

McMillan Cotton, T. (2020). Where Platform Capitalism and Racial Capitalism Meet: The Sociology of Race and Racism in the Digital Society. Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, 6(4), 441–449. https://doi.org/10.1177/2332649220949473

Mustika, W., & Savirani, A. (2021). “Ghost accounts”, “joki accounts” and “account therapy”: Everyday resistance among ride-hailing motorcycle drivers in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Copenhagen Journal of Asian Studies, 39(1), 48–67. https://doi.org/10.22439/CJAS.V39I1.6175

Novianto, A. (2021). Goto Keeps GIG Workers Away from Decent and Fair Work . https://igpa.map.ugm.ac.id/2021/07/05/insight-goto-menjuangkan-pekerja-gig-dari-kerja-layak-dan-adil-survei-condition-kerja-kurir-gokilat/

Panimbang, F. (2021). Solidarity across boundaries: a new practice of collectivity among workers in the app-based transport sector in Indonesia. Globalizations, 0(8), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/14747731.2021.1884789

Papadimitropoulos, E. (2021). Platform Capitalism, Platform Cooperativism, and the Commons. Rethinking Marxism , 33 (2), 246–262. https://doi.org/10.1080/08935696.2021.1893108

Rosano, M., Demartini, CG, Lamberti, F., & Perboli, G. (2018). A mobile platform for collaborative urban freight transportation. Transportation Research Procedia, 30, 14–22. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trpro.2018.09.003

Scott, J. (1986). Everyday forms of peasant resistance. The Journal of Peasent Studies, 13(2), 5–35.

Steinberg, M. (2022). From Automobile Capitalism to Platform Capitalism: Toyotism as a prehistory of digital platforms. Organization Studies, 43(7), 1069–1090. https://doi.org/10.1177/01708406211030681

Sunardi (Edt. Yeremias T. Keban Ari Herwaman Arif Novianto). (2021). Illusion of Incentives in Gojek: How Platform Companies Control Gig Workers in Pseudo Partnership Relationships. In Questioning Decent and Fair Work in the GIG Economy in Indonesia (pp. 63–77). IGPA Press.

Vallas, SP (2019). Platform Capitalism: What’s at Stake for Workers? New Labor Forum, 28 (1), 48–59. https://doi.org/10.1177/1095796018817059

Wu, YJ, Liu, WJ, & Yuan, CH (2020). A mobile-based barrier-free service transportation platform for people with disabilities. Computers in Human Behavior, 107(October), 0–1. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2018.11.005

DOI: https://doi.org/10.24198/sosiohumaniora.v26i1.47543