The Brazilian Workers in Amazon Mechanical Turk: Dreams and realities of ghost workers
Autor(a) principal: | |
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Data de Publicação: | 2020 |
Outros Autores: | , |
Tipo de documento: | Artigo |
Idioma: | por eng |
Título da fonte: | Contracampo |
Texto Completo: | https://periodicos.uff.br/contracampo/article/view/38252 |
Resumo: | Contributing to research on digital platform labor in the Global South, this research surveyed 149 Brazilian workers in the Amazon Mechanical Turk (AMT) platform. We begin by offering a demographic overview of the Brazilian turkers and their relation with work in general. In line with previous studies of turkers in the USA and India, AMT offers poor working conditions for Brazilian turkers. Other findings we discuss include: how a large amount of the respondents affirmed they have been formally unemployed for a long period of time; the relative importance of the pay they receive to their financial subsistence; and how Brazilian turkers cannot receive their pay directly into their bank accounts due to Amazon restrictions, making them resort to creative circumventions of the system. Importantly, these “ghost workers” (Gray & Suri, 2019) find ways to support each other and self-organize through the WhatsApp group, where they also mobilize to fight for changes on the platform. As this type of work is still in formation in Brazil, and potentially will grow in the coming years, we argue this is a matter of concern. |
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The Brazilian Workers in Amazon Mechanical Turk: Dreams and realities of ghost workersdigital laborAmazon Mechanical TurkGlobal Southplatformdigital capitalismContributing to research on digital platform labor in the Global South, this research surveyed 149 Brazilian workers in the Amazon Mechanical Turk (AMT) platform. We begin by offering a demographic overview of the Brazilian turkers and their relation with work in general. In line with previous studies of turkers in the USA and India, AMT offers poor working conditions for Brazilian turkers. Other findings we discuss include: how a large amount of the respondents affirmed they have been formally unemployed for a long period of time; the relative importance of the pay they receive to their financial subsistence; and how Brazilian turkers cannot receive their pay directly into their bank accounts due to Amazon restrictions, making them resort to creative circumventions of the system. Importantly, these “ghost workers” (Gray & Suri, 2019) find ways to support each other and self-organize through the WhatsApp group, where they also mobilize to fight for changes on the platform. As this type of work is still in formation in Brazil, and potentially will grow in the coming years, we argue this is a matter of concern. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Comunicação da Universidade Federal Fluminense2020-04-17info:eu-repo/semantics/articleinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersiontext/htmltext/htmlapplication/pdfhttps://periodicos.uff.br/contracampo/article/view/3825210.22409/contracampo.v39i1.38252Contracampo; v. 39 n. 1 (2020): Trabalho de Plataforma2238-25771414-748310.22409/contracampo.v39i1reponame:Contracampoinstname:Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFF)instacron:UFFporenghttps://periodicos.uff.br/contracampo/article/view/38252/html_pthttps://periodicos.uff.br/contracampo/article/view/38252/htmlhttps://periodicos.uff.br/contracampo/article/view/38252/pdfCopyright (c) 2020 Revista Contracampoinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessMoreschi, BrunoPereira, GabrielCozman, Fabio G.2020-07-26T14:21:57Zoai:ojs.pkp.sfu.ca:article/38252Revistahttps://periodicos.uff.br/contracampoPUBhttps://periodicos.uff.br/contracampo/oai||contracampo.uff@gmail.com2238-25771414-7483opendoar:2020-07-26T14:21:57Contracampo - Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFF)false |
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv |
The Brazilian Workers in Amazon Mechanical Turk: Dreams and realities of ghost workers |
title |
The Brazilian Workers in Amazon Mechanical Turk: Dreams and realities of ghost workers |
spellingShingle |
The Brazilian Workers in Amazon Mechanical Turk: Dreams and realities of ghost workers Moreschi, Bruno digital labor Amazon Mechanical Turk Global South platform digital capitalism |
title_short |
The Brazilian Workers in Amazon Mechanical Turk: Dreams and realities of ghost workers |
title_full |
The Brazilian Workers in Amazon Mechanical Turk: Dreams and realities of ghost workers |
title_fullStr |
The Brazilian Workers in Amazon Mechanical Turk: Dreams and realities of ghost workers |
title_full_unstemmed |
The Brazilian Workers in Amazon Mechanical Turk: Dreams and realities of ghost workers |
title_sort |
The Brazilian Workers in Amazon Mechanical Turk: Dreams and realities of ghost workers |
author |
Moreschi, Bruno |
author_facet |
Moreschi, Bruno Pereira, Gabriel Cozman, Fabio G. |
author_role |
author |
author2 |
Pereira, Gabriel Cozman, Fabio G. |
author2_role |
author author |
dc.contributor.author.fl_str_mv |
Moreschi, Bruno Pereira, Gabriel Cozman, Fabio G. |
dc.subject.por.fl_str_mv |
digital labor Amazon Mechanical Turk Global South platform digital capitalism |
topic |
digital labor Amazon Mechanical Turk Global South platform digital capitalism |
description |
Contributing to research on digital platform labor in the Global South, this research surveyed 149 Brazilian workers in the Amazon Mechanical Turk (AMT) platform. We begin by offering a demographic overview of the Brazilian turkers and their relation with work in general. In line with previous studies of turkers in the USA and India, AMT offers poor working conditions for Brazilian turkers. Other findings we discuss include: how a large amount of the respondents affirmed they have been formally unemployed for a long period of time; the relative importance of the pay they receive to their financial subsistence; and how Brazilian turkers cannot receive their pay directly into their bank accounts due to Amazon restrictions, making them resort to creative circumventions of the system. Importantly, these “ghost workers” (Gray & Suri, 2019) find ways to support each other and self-organize through the WhatsApp group, where they also mobilize to fight for changes on the platform. As this type of work is still in formation in Brazil, and potentially will grow in the coming years, we argue this is a matter of concern. |
publishDate |
2020 |
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv |
2020-04-17 |
dc.type.driver.fl_str_mv |
info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion |
format |
article |
status_str |
publishedVersion |
dc.identifier.uri.fl_str_mv |
https://periodicos.uff.br/contracampo/article/view/38252 10.22409/contracampo.v39i1.38252 |
url |
https://periodicos.uff.br/contracampo/article/view/38252 |
identifier_str_mv |
10.22409/contracampo.v39i1.38252 |
dc.language.iso.fl_str_mv |
por eng |
language |
por eng |
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv |
https://periodicos.uff.br/contracampo/article/view/38252/html_pt https://periodicos.uff.br/contracampo/article/view/38252/html https://periodicos.uff.br/contracampo/article/view/38252/pdf |
dc.rights.driver.fl_str_mv |
Copyright (c) 2020 Revista Contracampo info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
rights_invalid_str_mv |
Copyright (c) 2020 Revista Contracampo |
eu_rights_str_mv |
openAccess |
dc.format.none.fl_str_mv |
text/html text/html application/pdf |
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv |
Programa de Pós-Graduação em Comunicação da Universidade Federal Fluminense |
publisher.none.fl_str_mv |
Programa de Pós-Graduação em Comunicação da Universidade Federal Fluminense |
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv |
Contracampo; v. 39 n. 1 (2020): Trabalho de Plataforma 2238-2577 1414-7483 10.22409/contracampo.v39i1 reponame:Contracampo instname:Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFF) instacron:UFF |
instname_str |
Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFF) |
instacron_str |
UFF |
institution |
UFF |
reponame_str |
Contracampo |
collection |
Contracampo |
repository.name.fl_str_mv |
Contracampo - Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFF) |
repository.mail.fl_str_mv |
||contracampo.uff@gmail.com |
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1799705522627149824 |