Uberização, Plataformas e a Nova Configuração do Trabalho | Ricardo Antunes

The Uberization of work is the guiding thread of this in-depth analysis by sociologist Ricardo Antunes, who demystifies contemporary narratives about the end of the working class and the supposed autonomy of app-based services. In a masterful lecture at the Institute of Economics at Unicamp, Antunes revisits his fundamental theses to explain how technology, under the control of financial capital, has not liberated the individual, but has consolidated what he defines as the "privilege of servitude." The core of the exhibition lies in the critique of Eurocentric theories that, since the 1980s, predicted the death of the theory of value and the disappearance of the proletariat. Antunes demonstrates that, far from becoming obsolete, living labor has been metamorphosed into a new morphology. The old industrial worker now shares space with the "infoproletariat" and the service proletariat, categories that operate under "algorithmic despotism." In these models, Taylor's stopwatch is replaced by invisible and unattainable goals, where the worker is induced to become the manager of their own exploitation. A turning point in the narrative is the historical comparison between modern crowdsourcing and 19th-century outsourcing. The author argues that we are experiencing a regression to the levels of exploitation seen at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, where the absence of rights is sold under the guise of "entrepreneurship." The analysis highlights that the driver or delivery person does not own the means of production, but only the tools of labor, while the platform extracts surplus value through a management system that alienates the producer from their own time and health. The relevance of this debate is heightened by the current Brazilian political climate, marked by movements such as the "Breque dos Apps" (App Strike) and the growing mobilization against the 6x1 work schedule. Antunes points out that resistance has also modernized: the use of social networks to organize strikes and the founding of national alliances of delivery workers represent the new face of class struggle. For scholars of economics and law, this video offers the theoretical tools to understand why the fight for reduced working hours and the regulation of platforms is the greatest civilizational challenge of our time. 📌 TOPICS OF THIS LESSON → The persistence of value theory in platform capitalism → Uberization of work: Uber, Amazon, iFood and digital servitude The new service proletariat and the new morphology of work. Industry 4.0, Artificial Intelligence, and the de-anthropomorphization of work. Delivery workers' strike (July 2020 and March/April 2025) → The fight against the 6x1 work schedule and ANTA (National Alliance of App Workers) → Bill 12/2024: the bill that app workers rejected Entrepreneurship as ideology: the trap of "autonomy" → Critique of Eurocentrism and the "end of work" theses Theme: Revisiting the Meanings of Work Speaker: Ricardo Antunes (full professor of sociology at IFCH - Unicamp) [00:00] Opening and relevance of "The Meanings of Work" after 25 years [07:52] The critique of Eurocentric authors and the thesis of the "End of Work" [16:00] Ontological Dimension: Vital Work vs. Wage Labor [21:42] Who drives Uber? The new platform proletariat [33:53] Big Tech and digital exploration: Amazon and Mechanical Turk [46:24] Industry 4.0 and the worker as an appendage of the algorithm [58:50] Pandemic and the fallacy of the "Autonomous Collaborator" [01:03:00] App Strikes and the App Shutdown [01:15:38] The end of the 6x1 schedule and the struggle for life beyond work [01:40:33] Q&A: Entrepreneurship and the Brazilian slave-owning bourgeoisie 📚 ABOUT THE COURSE "Development, Labor and Public Policies" is an extension course with 30 classes, held in partnership between the Institute of Economics at Unicamp (CESITE, coordinated by Prof. Marcelo Manzano) and the Perseu Abramo Foundation (PT Foundation). This is Lesson 15 — a class open to the public. 🎓 ABOUT THE TEACHER Ricardo Antunes is a Full Professor of Sociology of Work at Unicamp and one of the most important organic intellectuals of the Brazilian working class. Author of "The Privilege of Servitude" (Boitempo, 2018), "Farewell to Work?" and "The Meaning of Work" — whose 3rd edition has just been released. 🌐 Institute of Economics at Unicamp — Official Channel Sign up to follow classes, debates, and research in heterodox economics. #uberization #appdriver #6x1shift #uberization Date: Wednesday, May 7, 2025