Intermediary assemblages and platform fetishism: understanding entanglements of AI-enabled tools, subcontracting, and platform-mediated labor

Platform-mediated work is increasingly characterized by two trends: formalization and intermediaries. Formalization refers to the process by which aspects of platform-mediated work come to resemble established categories of labor, such as through professional recognition or legally-granted protections. This is often portrayed as a consequence of decisions made by platform organizations or the state, as highlighted by the EU Platform Work Directive. The formal protection of workers based on their relationship to the platform is commonly seen as a priority in ensuring fair work on platforms. From this perspective, it appears as if the platform itself is the primary means of production, and its function is principally dictated by decisions made at the global and national scales.

Nevertheless, this narrative is complicated by an ever-growing array of platform intermediaries who subcontract labor; for instance, by offering cleaning services for short-term rentals or vehicles for ride-hailing services. The presence of such actors highlights how the social relations of production concealed by the platform interface extend beyond just those between worker and algorithm, thus challenging taken-for-granted understandings of platform power, which are often simplistically characterized as a two-way antagonism between labor and platform. Further complicating such relations is the growth of AI-enabled tools aimed at efficiently managing workers and inventories. For example, a range of AI-enabled third-party platforms have emerged to help manage listings on short-term rental platforms. Such third-party platforms offer services from guest relations chatbots, dynamic pricing, and photo retouching. While these tools promise the entrepreneurs at the forefront of platform intermediaries streamlined operations through the use of smart technologies, the implementation of such third-party platforms deepens the entanglements in which platform intermediaries operate. This can muddle questions of employment and managerial authority for those who labor within such intermediaries.

This presentation will address these issues by reconciling two seemingly opposing concepts, commodity fetishism and assemblage theory. Drawing from the author's research on Airbnb-based property management companies, this presentation contends that assemblage can illustrate how labor in platform intermediaries is conditioned through multiple streams—such as platform affordances, subcontracting organizations, human labor power, third-party platforms, and local norms— however, assemblage is not enough to explain the power relations involved in commodity production, which often adversely affect those who work within platform intermediaries. To combat this shortcoming, this presentation will use commodity fetishism to elucidate how these relations become represented as a discrete commodity on a platform interface. Ultimately, this perspective aims to account for the multiple agencies and diverse forms of power in platform-mediated work, while not allowing that multiplicity to detract from the outsized power of certain actors in the platform economy.