O uso corporativo da cidade: as empresas de delivery e a uberização do trabalho em Belo Horizonte (MG)

Abstract

The process of society platformization has expanded into various departments of social life over the last decade, inflicting the reorganization of productive regimes and new labor relations devoid of regulation or social security. Among the impacted sectors is the food sector, with the foundation or arrival of innumerable companies structured as digital platforms dedicated to restaurant management services and meal delivery. In Brazil, Ifood and Rappi stand out as the most prominent companies in the sector, either by the number of establishments or the number of delivery people associated with them. Digital platforms, such as delivery services, are companies based on the strategic use of information as a productive factor, the corporative use of the territory, and the precariousness of work as a rule. Big cities, like Belo Horizonte, are essential for the operation of delivery companies, as they provide a significant demand for orders and, simultaneously, a massive labor force reserve. This research seeks to comprehend the relation between the corporate usage of the territory by the companies of platform capitalism, focusing on the delivery platforms, and the enlargement of the precariousness of work in Belo Horizonte. It is methodologically based on geographical categories and concepts, a literature review about related topics in many areas of the human sciences, fieldwork and application of semi-structured interviews with the delivery people, consumers, and establishment managers, and gathering information and secondary data from the major companies’ media outlets within the sector. It was observed that the territory usage by the delivering companies is a relevant element for understanding the precariousness of work, as the relationship between the distribution of delivery people in the territory made by companies through promotions and the historical concentration of establishments in the city of Belo Horizonte constitutes aggravating factors in the daily lives of delivery workers.