平台劳动:从“乌托邦”到“利维坦”

Platform Labor:From "Utopia" to "Leviathan"

互联网作为一种通过信息传递进行社会组织的技术,其技术社会史始终围绕自由与控制这一对矛盾展开。从万维网诞生以来,信息技术产业曾经催生过无数“未来的工作”,伴随着一波又一波的技术乐观主义浪潮,这些未来工作都曾在许诺一个繁荣经济前景的同时,向劳动者宣誓更多的自我发展和自由。

This article explores the labor condition of platform economy with illuminating the social history of "platform capitalism" and the changing nature of China’s raising platform practice.The metaconcepts of "freedom and control" rooted in post-war Western social thought shaped the organizational imagination of Internet labor. This imagination is formed in alliance with neoliberalism in the postCold War era and shaped the precarious condition of platform labor. China’s platform economy shares similar condition with the platform capitalism, but due to the development of manufacturing and city expansion, China’s platform economy is more of a supplement to the existing economy rather than a substitute.