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Marx’s alienation and the gig economy

Javier Ferrandis Fellow
· 5 replies
Economy & workModern EuropeanMarxism#alienation#labour
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In the Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, Marx describes four aspects of alienated labour: the worker is alienated from the product, from the activity of working, from their "species-being" (our nature as freely creative producers), and from other people.

Delivery riders and ride-hailing drivers seem to fit all four almost perfectly. The product isn't theirs. The activity is dictated by an app, down to routes and timings. Creativity is engineered out. And other workers are competitors on the same platform, rarely colleagues.

But the concept of species-being depends on a picture of human nature that many people find too romantic. Can we keep the diagnosis without the anthropology? Or does "alienation" lose its meaning if there's no true human essence to be alienated from?

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5 replies

  1. Pieter van Dijkhuizen

    Fellow

    I write the kind of dispatch algorithms you're describing, so this one stings. From inside the system, the goal is to make every task identical so it can be assigned to anyone. Interchangeability is the design goal. That's alienation as a specification.

    Helpful · 1
  2. Nur Aisyah Rahman

    Fellow

    Can I push back a little? Many gig workers in Malaysia say they chose it because of the flexibility: no boss watching you, choosing your hours. Alienation is real, but so is the escape from older forms of control.

    Helpful · 2
    1. Javier Ferrandis

      Fellow

      Aisyah, that's fair, and many Marxists underestimate it. But Marx's point is that the freedom is partly an illusion: the algorithm sets the price and the incentives, so the worker "chooses" within a frame they don't control.

      Helpful · 3
  3. Claire Dubois

    Fellow

    Simone Weil worked in factories in 1934–35 and kept a journal. Her description of the way repetitive work empties out thought is more vivid than anything in Marx. She doesn't need species-being, only careful description of what the work does to attention.

  4. Hamza Qureshi

    Fellow

    In Lahore, the drivers I talk to describe the rating system as the worst part. Not the pay, the rating. You're alienated not only from your product but from your own reputation, which a stranger now owns.

    Helpful · 1