Class identity of platform workers: A comparative study of employed and self-employed food couriers

This thesis offers a comparative qualitative investigation of class identities in platform work. It examines how employed and self-employed food couriers in England and Germany position themselves within socio-economic hierarchies.
The self-organisation of workers in the platform sector, particularly among food couriers, has raised much interest among scholars (Joyce et al., 2020; Vandaele, 2021). While the working conditions and resistance of couriers are widely studied (Trappmann et al., 2020; Cant, 2020; Stuart et al., 2024), their identities have not been the focus of empirical research, and few platform researchers have applied a class perspective (Robinson 2017).
This research asks how couriers perceive their socio-economic position within society and investigates what shapes their class identities. It follows an integrated approach to class analysis (Wright, 2005) and conceptualises class identity as an element of class consciousness (Mann, 1973; Gurin et al., 1980; Keefer et al., 2015). A key assumption is that class identity develops over the life course through an interplay of work and life experiences (Mann, 1973).
Based on 33 in-depth interviews with couriers in Germany and England, which were analysed following the coding system of Grounded Theory (Glaser et al., 1968; Glaser, 1978), the thesis shows that these workers are largely aware of their socio-economic position. Their class identifications reflect the job's role in their lives: as side income on the journey to professional middle-class careers, a shared struggle necessary to make a living, and a move up from worse jobs. The thesis argues that the misidentifications in this study are not primarily the result of misrecognition but reflect the material reality of parts of the courier workforce.
By offering an explanation based on material changes in the world of work, the thesis takes forward debates about middling tendencies and class disidentification in modern capitalism (Savage et al., 2001; Skeggs, 2015; Irwin, 2018). It demonstrated that the context of platform work and its role in people’s lives can both obstruct and support the development of working-class identities among different parts of the workforce. It thereby also aids the understanding of resistance and consent in the platform sector (Galière, 2020; Purcell and Brook, 2022; Stuart et al., 2024).