Uberland: How Algorithms Are Rewriting the Rules of Work

A silent cultural revolution is reshaping how we will work for generations to come--and its being led by Uber. The once small Silicon Valley start up has become a juggernaut of the sharing economy, luring drivers with the promise of becoming entrepreneurs but treating them like consumers--and upending labor laws and society expectations simultaneously.

Technology ethnographer Alex Rosenblat shares her award-winning research on how algorithmic managers shape how drivers behave, treating them as consumers rather than employees. With the help of this technology, Uber claims to operate in a world of consumption rather than labor, skirting a series of obligations and laws, manipulating wages, and misleading the public. By using algorithms and rhetoric to blur the line between workers and consumer, Uber exemplifies the ways in which technology can rewrite rules of law and society.

Based on Rosenblat's first hand experience of riding 5,000 miles with Uber drivers, daily visits to online forums from 2014-2018, and face-to-face discussions with Uber senior executives, Uberland goes beyond the question of labor history and law by highlighting how Uber changes various aspects of our lives, be it family life or childcare arrangements, worker conditions or management practices, commuting patterns or urban planning, or racial equality campaigns and labor rights initiatives. With a critical eye towards unveiling the truth, Uberland provides a rare window into the profound social and cultural shifts taking place in a society mediated by technology.




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