{"id":{"repo_id":"uiuc","oai_identifier":"oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/108681"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/uiuc/oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/108681","repository":{"repo_id":"uiuc","name":"University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign","base_url":"https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh"},"display":{"title":"The platform economy in China: algorithm, labor, and digital capitalism","abstract":"This dissertation charts the development of one of the most valuable platforms in China, Didi Chuxing. Characterized by a spectacular growth of the market scale, Didi is the most prominent, illustrative, and yet under-researched example of the thriving platform economy. It reveals how Didi’s pursuit of corporate power takes shape in China’s key economic and social transformations: economic restructuring, migrant labor surplus, favorable policy environments for the digital economy, and technology worship. Through this case, this project aims to theorize the consequences of digital technologies on labor in contemporary China. Using a qualitative approach that combines in-depth interviews, observations, documentary research, and textual analyses, the dissertation argues that Didi’s success is the remarkable expression and extension of an on-going process of digital proletariats. Such a tendency is particularly striking in China, a country that favors developmentalism over social equality and has deep-seated worship of technology. It also argues that the platform economy’s technological architectures—platforms, big data, and algorithms—open new possibilities for capitalism to commodify and centralize the dispersed labor force and labor process that features the service economy. Through the largely neglected lens of technicians and managers in an organizational context, this work addresses the lacuna of existing Chinese ICT literature that prioritizes a state-centrism perspective regardless of the agency of technologies and internet companies. By bringing the Chinese platform company into the foreground, my work complicates the emerging study of the platform economy dominated by Western scholars.","abstract_html":"This dissertation charts the development of one of the most valuable platforms in China, Didi Chuxing. Characterized by a spectacular growth of the market scale, Didi is the most prominent, illustrative, and yet under-researched example of the thriving platform economy. It reveals how Didi’s pursuit of corporate power takes shape in China’s key economic and social transformations: economic restructuring, migrant labor surplus, favorable policy environments for the digital economy, and technology worship. Through this case, this project aims to theorize the consequences of digital technologies on labor in contemporary China. Using a qualitative approach that combines in-depth interviews, observations, documentary research, and textual analyses, the dissertation argues that Didi’s success is the remarkable expression and extension of an on-going process of digital proletariats. Such a tendency is particularly striking in China, a country that favors developmentalism over social equality and has deep-seated worship of technology. It also argues that the platform economy’s technological architectures—platforms, big data, and algorithms—open new possibilities for capitalism to commodify and centralize the dispersed labor force and labor process that features the service economy. Through the largely neglected lens of technicians and managers in an organizational context, this work addresses the lacuna of existing Chinese ICT literature that prioritizes a state-centrism perspective regardless of the agency of technologies and internet companies. By bringing the Chinese platform company into the foreground, my work complicates the emerging study of the platform economy dominated by Western scholars.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Li, Ke"],"institution":"University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign","degree_name":"Ph.D.","degree_level":"Dissertation","degree_discipline":"Communications and Media","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Ciafone, Amanda","Christians, Clifford","Hay, James","Martin, Jeffery"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2020,"date_issued":"2020-10-07T22:49:50Z","date_published":"2020-10-07T22:49:50Z","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:24:48Z","subjects":["Digital Capitalism","Technology","Labor","China"],"languages":["en"],"rights":["Copyright, 2020, KE LI"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/2142/108681","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Ciafone, Amanda","Christians, Clifford","Hay, James","Martin, Jeffery"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Li, Ke"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2020-10-07T22:49:50Z","2022-10-07T22:50:13Z","2020-07-17","2020-08"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["text","Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Communications and Media"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Dissertation"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Ph.D."]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Digital Capitalism","Technology","Labor","China"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["en"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Copyright, 2020, KE LI"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["http://hdl.handle.net/2142/108681"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["This dissertation charts the development of one of the most valuable platforms in China, Didi Chuxing. Characterized by a spectacular growth of the market scale, Didi is the most prominent, illustrative, and yet under-researched example of the thriving platform economy. It reveals how Didi’s pursuit of corporate power takes shape in China’s key economic and social transformations: economic restructuring, migrant labor surplus, favorable policy environments for the digital economy, and technology worship. Through this case, this project aims to theorize the consequences of digital technologies on labor in contemporary China. Using a qualitative approach that combines in-depth interviews, observations, documentary research, and textual analyses, the dissertation argues that Didi’s success is the remarkable expression and extension of an on-going process of digital proletariats. Such a tendency is particularly striking in China, a country that favors developmentalism over social equality and has deep-seated worship of technology. It also argues that the platform economy’s technological architectures—platforms, big data, and algorithms—open new possibilities for capitalism to commodify and centralize the dispersed labor force and labor process that features the service economy. Through the largely neglected lens of technicians and managers in an organizational context, this work addresses the lacuna of existing Chinese ICT literature that prioritizes a state-centrism perspective regardless of the agency of technologies and internet companies. 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Characterized by a spectacular growth of the market scale, Didi is the most prominent, illustrative, and yet under-researched example of the thriving platform economy. It reveals how Didi’s pursuit of corporate power takes shape in China’s key economic and social transformations: economic restructuring, migrant labor surplus, favorable policy environments for the digital economy, and technology worship. Through this case, this project aims to theorize the consequences of digital technologies on labor in contemporary China. Using a qualitative approach that combines in-depth interviews, observations, documentary research, and textual analyses, the dissertation argues that Didi’s success is the remarkable expression and extension of an on-going process of digital proletariats. Such a tendency is particularly striking in China, a country that favors developmentalism over social equality and has deep-seated worship of technology. It also argues that the platform economy’s technological architectures—platforms, big data, and algorithms—open new possibilities for capitalism to commodify and centralize the dispersed labor force and labor process that features the service economy. Through the largely neglected lens of technicians and managers in an organizational context, this work addresses the lacuna of existing Chinese ICT literature that prioritizes a state-centrism perspective regardless of the agency of technologies and internet companies. By bringing the Chinese platform company into the foreground, my work complicates the emerging study of the platform economy dominated by Western scholars.","Submission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'Closed Access', the embargo will last until 2022-08-01","The student, Ke Li, accepted the attached license on 2020-07-15 at 13:08.","The student, Ke Li, submitted this Dissertation for approval on 2020-07-15 at 13:35.","This Dissertation was approved for publication on 2020-07-17 at 10:11.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #15542 on 2020-10-02 at 15:50:05","Made available in DSpace on 2020-10-07T22:49:50Z (GMT). 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