Securitizing the technoplatformized City: How delivery workers construct urban safe spaces in Chile's gig economy
This article examines the intersection of digital delivery platforms, urban construction, and worker agency in Antofagasta, northern Chile. Drawing on qualitative ethnographic research, it explores how delivery platform workers navigate, appropriate, and symbolically transform urban space within the...
Saved in:
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Elsevier
2025-12-01
|
| Series: | Digital Geography and Society |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S266637832500025X |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1850068499744948224 |
|---|---|
| author | Iván Ojeda-Pereira |
| author_facet | Iván Ojeda-Pereira |
| author_sort | Iván Ojeda-Pereira |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This article examines the intersection of digital delivery platforms, urban construction, and worker agency in Antofagasta, northern Chile. Drawing on qualitative ethnographic research, it explores how delivery platform workers navigate, appropriate, and symbolically transform urban space within the constraints of the gig economy. The study foregrounds the spatial and affective practice of socio-urban securitization through the creation of informal “safe spaces,” exemplified by a kiosk that functions simultaneously as a resting point, a site of socialization, and a node of symbolic territorialization. Far from being merely functional, these spaces carry emotional and collective significance, enabling survival and community-building amidst structural precarity. By centring the lived experiences of migrant workers, the article contributes to emerging debates on the socio-technical and territorial dimensions of platform labour. It argues for expanding research agendas to include spatial justice and territorial politics in gig economies, emphasizing how digital platforms and worker agency co-produce the urban. The findings reveal how delivery workers negotiate layered risks—personal, work-related, and institutional—while constructing forms of resilience in the face of economic insecurity and spatial exclusion. This research advances a critical lens on the evolving entanglements between platforms, cities, and labour, proposing new directions for studying socio-technical territorialities. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-fab65be4f19044d79cd4a70ee620b15e |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 2666-3783 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-12-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Digital Geography and Society |
| spelling | doaj-art-fab65be4f19044d79cd4a70ee620b15e2025-08-20T02:48:02ZengElsevierDigital Geography and Society2666-37832025-12-01910013610.1016/j.diggeo.2025.100136Securitizing the technoplatformized City: How delivery workers construct urban safe spaces in Chile's gig economyIván Ojeda-Pereira0Department of Industrial Ingineering, Universidad Católica del Norte, Antofagasta, Chile; LUT School of Engineering Science, LUT University, Lappeenranta, Finland; Corresponding author at: Angamos 610, Postal code: 1240000, Antofagasta, Chile.This article examines the intersection of digital delivery platforms, urban construction, and worker agency in Antofagasta, northern Chile. Drawing on qualitative ethnographic research, it explores how delivery platform workers navigate, appropriate, and symbolically transform urban space within the constraints of the gig economy. The study foregrounds the spatial and affective practice of socio-urban securitization through the creation of informal “safe spaces,” exemplified by a kiosk that functions simultaneously as a resting point, a site of socialization, and a node of symbolic territorialization. Far from being merely functional, these spaces carry emotional and collective significance, enabling survival and community-building amidst structural precarity. By centring the lived experiences of migrant workers, the article contributes to emerging debates on the socio-technical and territorial dimensions of platform labour. It argues for expanding research agendas to include spatial justice and territorial politics in gig economies, emphasizing how digital platforms and worker agency co-produce the urban. The findings reveal how delivery workers negotiate layered risks—personal, work-related, and institutional—while constructing forms of resilience in the face of economic insecurity and spatial exclusion. This research advances a critical lens on the evolving entanglements between platforms, cities, and labour, proposing new directions for studying socio-technical territorialities.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S266637832500025XGlobal southPlatform economyTerritorialityScience and technology studiesAction geography |
| spellingShingle | Iván Ojeda-Pereira Securitizing the technoplatformized City: How delivery workers construct urban safe spaces in Chile's gig economy Digital Geography and Society Global south Platform economy Territoriality Science and technology studies Action geography |
| title | Securitizing the technoplatformized City: How delivery workers construct urban safe spaces in Chile's gig economy |
| title_full | Securitizing the technoplatformized City: How delivery workers construct urban safe spaces in Chile's gig economy |
| title_fullStr | Securitizing the technoplatformized City: How delivery workers construct urban safe spaces in Chile's gig economy |
| title_full_unstemmed | Securitizing the technoplatformized City: How delivery workers construct urban safe spaces in Chile's gig economy |
| title_short | Securitizing the technoplatformized City: How delivery workers construct urban safe spaces in Chile's gig economy |
| title_sort | securitizing the technoplatformized city how delivery workers construct urban safe spaces in chile s gig economy |
| topic | Global south Platform economy Territoriality Science and technology studies Action geography |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S266637832500025X |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT ivanojedapereira securitizingthetechnoplatformizedcityhowdeliveryworkersconstructurbansafespacesinchilesgigeconomy |