Digital platforms and work organization: inadequacy of digital taylorism and insurgency of the new putting-out system

Abstract

This paper aims to critically analyze the concept of so-called digital Taylorism. Considering that this concept was developed to describe the organization of work typical of digital platform mediation, the study examines its inadequacy in describing the function of platforms in work organization. From an inflexionist approach to the labor process, it was possible to demonstrate how work organized by platforms is developed on a technical basis supported by the subjective principle and dependent on variable capital elements that align with Taylorism. However, the organization of work implemented by digital platforms is conducted through a new form of the 'putting-out' system, a method predating Taylorism since it coordinates dispersed workers who possess their own means of labor. The inadequacy of Taylorism in explaining the labor process within platforms stems from the fact that essential Taylorist aspects, such as the optimization of movements, the selection of the most capable workers and the concentration of workers in a single workplace, do not manifest and are unnecessary. Consequently, the method of work organization underlying digital platform mediation is more archaic than Taylorism; nonetheless, it remains the most effective for the extraction of surplus value, given the restrictions of the industry technical basis in industries in which digital platforms operate.