Taxi Industry in Korea: Understanding the Shifts and Working Environment in Platform Economy

What does it mean to own the means of production in the platform economy? How are self-employed drivers adjusting to the shift in the industry after taxi-hailing platforms became an integral part of their livelihood? This dissertation discusses taxi drivers’ work experiences and work environment in Seoul, by focusing on the shift that was made after the introduction of the taxi-hailing platforms in the industry. Self-employed taxi drivers used to be considered the owners of the means of production, as they owned their own taxis and recruited passengers. However, with the introduction of the taxi-hailing platforms, their working environment has changed, where taxi-hailing platforms hold great importance in sustaining their livelihood. This dissertation contemplates how taxi drivers are experiencing those shifts by focusing on the ideas of luck, ownership, abiotic matters, ranging from automobiles, AI, to the politics of proximity that reside in taxi rides, and gendered space in Korea. I first discuss how the idea of luck has served as an ontological perspective for the taxi drivers to assess their rides, which used to remain unpredictable. Then, I contemplate how the introduction of taxi-hailing platforms holds the drivers’ past performance accountable through deploying a rating system, and the platforms’ attempt to quantify and predict unforeseen rides collide with the traditional understanding of luck in the industry. Furthermore, this dissertation looks at how the meaning of ownership of the means of production changes and how that change is critical by looking at the effect of the rating system, which is argued to be the tool to both change the drivers into platform workers and reflect this shift. Then, I emphasize the importance of abiotic matters in interpreting experiences by looking at how non-human agents such as AI, platforms, proximity, and networks affect the drivers. Lastly, I focus on what it means to work as a woman driver in the male-dominated industry and how they navigate the industry.

Author dc:creator

• Do Yeon Shin (24400589)

• Anthropology
• Cultural

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright
• Open Access after 2031-05-01

DOI dc:identifier

https://doi.org/10.25417/uic.32995655.v1

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:figshare.com:article/32995655