Survival Strategies of the Weak under the Algorithmic Hegemony: based on Chinese Ride-Hailing Drivers_Vol. 2 No. 6 (JMSD 2025)_Journal of Management and Social Development (ISSN: 3005-5741)

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Survival Strategies of the Weak under the Algorithmic Hegemony: based on Chinese Ride-Hailing Drivers

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.62517/jmsd.202512624

Author(s)

Ye Song

Affiliation(s)

School of History, Culture and Tourism, Huaiyin Normal University, Huai'an, Jiangsu, China

Abstract

With the rise of the platform economy, algorithm management has gradually become a dominant labor control mode and brought about huge challenges. This research will take Chinese ride-hailing drivers as the research subjects, explore how they perceive and adapt to the constraints of algorithm and make a living. Based on semi-structured interviews with 10 Chinese ride-hailing drivers, including 5 full-time drivers and 5 part-time drivers. At the same time, analyzing ride-hailing drivers' new difficulties and recognizing a series of survival strategies that they have already taken under the background of Marx's theory of labor value. On the one hand, the research has discovered the platform will extract the surplus value of the driver, squeeze the working hours of drivers and the drivers themselves and the labor process have both witnessed the phenomenon of labor alienation. On the other hand, full-time drivers and part-time drivers are quite different whether in the labor time, wage income, professional identity or in the relationship with the platform. For this, ride-hailing drivers have also taken some measures like accepting orders on multiple platforms and sharing orders in the online driver group to deal with the algorithm control. As the effects of those measures are not significant, some suggestions for ride-hailing drivers, platforms and the government are put at the end of the text.

Keywords

The Platform Economy; Chinese Ride-Hailing Drivers; Algorithmic Hegemony; Survival Strategies; Surplus Value; Alienated Labor

References

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