Plataformas sin fronteras, trabajadores sin derechos: Subcontratación y control algorítmico en el feudo logístico de Amazon

Abstract

This research examines Amazon’s labour model through the lens of platform capitalism, focusing specifically on the digitally mediated labour of subcontracted delivery divers. The analysis, grounded in ethnographic interviews and supported by secondary literature, focuses on how work is organized and monitored through digital tools—especially algorithmic management, automated task assignment, and real-time surveillance. In this context, digital platforms do not merely optimize logistics, they act as instruments of centralized control that displace managerial oversight onto technological systems, externalize risk and intensify precarious working conditions. For subcontracted workers, this results in limited autonomy, unstable workloads, and an environment where disciplinary pressure is embedded in the very infrastructure of their workday. By analysing Amazon’s model, this research contributes to anthropological debates on the reconfiguration of labour, the erosion of employment protections, and the rise of digitally enforced dependency in the global capitalism era.