Platforming Autonomy and Applying Control: Private Hire Drivers' Struggles and the Platform Mode of Management

A good deal of research has explored the emergence of platform‐managed work, with analysis typically focusing on the capital‐led technological reorganisation of the labour process, and the reactive forms of worker resistance it generates. Accordingly, few studies interrogate how the platform mode of management has itself been informed by the dynamics of class struggle. Drawing on a study among the collective organisation of private hire drivers, this article will illustrate how the emphasis on autonomy and application of control within platform‐managed cab work has been shaped by, and responsive to, drivers' demands, resistance and struggles within the industry. In contrast to existent typologies, which detail a seemingly static model of platform management, this article emphasises the dynamic nature of the antagonistic social relations of work, which have informed the shifting organisation of private hire drivers' labour and the terrain of contention within the industry.