There's No Ghost in the Machine

This field study seeks to make an incremental, but important, contribution to the existing body of knowledge on how algorithmic management in India’s burgeoning platform economy affects worker agency, autonomy, and rights at work. We make a significant shift to the lens of enquiry by turning the spotlight from mapping the impacts of algorithmic decision-making to decoding the workings of the algorithm itself. The term ‘algorithmic management’ conjures up an image of a boss-bot, an autonomous agent that is ordering and exploiting a passive workforce.