Riding different. Una topologia sociale dei rider del food delivery

Abstract

So far, food-delivery riders have been addressed in reference to broad socio-economic processes related to the diffusion of digital labour platforms. Adopting a dispositional approach, this paper frames the rider's occupation as a specific and open-ended occupation. We try to shed light on the dynamics of differentiation and positioning within this occupational space, thus recomposing its heterogeneity. The article is based on a mixed-methods research carried out in Milan in 2020, centred on an "observant participation" of seven months, during which the re-searcher worked as a rider.