Article:
The "Not so Hidden" Work of Food Delivery

Author(s): Denecke, Mathias

Abstract

Delivery workers cannot be overlooked. While they shape our cityscapes, this work is often depicted as invisible. Before the backdrop of the discussion about hidden work, the question is: what does invisibility mean in case of food delivery? To explore this, I refer to the perspective of workers writing about their experi- ences in the Workers’ Inquiries. I show that delivery work is characterized by various forms of visibility and invisibility, knowing and not-knowing, as well as awareness and unawareness. Companies like Uber Eats, Foodora or Deliveroo promote the idea of delivery without human workers. For courier drivers them- selves, the algorithmic organization of their work proves to be opaque; at the same time, they are dependent on the app interface. For delivery services, work- ers whose location and delivery times are captured are transparent. And custom- ers may take the convenience of delivery for granted.

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BibTex
Denecke, Mathias: The "Not so Hidden" Work of Food Delivery. In: Navigationen - Zeitschrift für Medien- und Kulturwissenschaften, Jg. 24 (2024), Nr. 2, S. 135-148. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.25969/mediarep/23314.
@ARTICLE{Denecke2024,
 author = {Denecke, Mathias},
 title = {The "Not so Hidden" Work of Food Delivery},
 year = 2024,
 doi = "\url{http://dx.doi.org/10.25969/mediarep/23314}",
 editor = {Bareikytė, Miglė and Bee, Julia},
 volume = 24,
 address = {Siegen},
 journal = {Navigationen - Zeitschrift für Medien- und Kulturwissenschaften},
 number = 2,
 pages = {135--148},
}
Keywords
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