Book dossier

Uberland

by Alex Rosenblat

"A silent cultural revolution is reshaping how we will work for generations to come--and Uber is leading it. The Silicon Valley start-up has become a juggernaut of the sharing economy, promising drivers the opportunity to be entrepreneurs but managing them with algorithms and treating them like consumers. The billion-dollar global behemoth has upended our expectations about what it means to work in a society mediated by digital circuitry. Technology ethnographer Alex Rosenblat shares her award-winning research on how algorithm managers are creating profound social and cultural shifts. Uber is now affecting everything from family life, management practices, and urban planning to racial equality campaigns and labor rights initiatives. Based on Rosenblat's firsthand experience of riding 5,000 miles with Uber drivers, daily visits to online forums from 2014 to 2018, and face-to-face discussions with senior Uber employees, Uberland goes beyond the headlines and deciphers the complex relationship between algorithms and workers. Technology enables Uber to call labor 'consumption' and thereby skirt regulations, experiment with working conditions, and mislead the public about driver earnings. Using algorithms and rhetoric, Uber and other big tech companies are blurring the line between worker and consumer and rewriting the rules of law and society"--Provided by publisher.