Racial platform capitalism: Empire, migration and the making of Uber in London

The critical platform studies literature has built a compelling picture of how techniques like worker (mis)classification, algorithmic management and workforce atomisation lie at the heart ‘work on-demand via apps’ actively restructure labour. Much this emerging scholarship identifies that workforces are predominantly comprised migrant racially minoritised workers. However, few theorise migration race as structuring logics model precarity it engenders. This paper addresses gap by exploring economy – specifically work apps both shapes is shaped historically contingent contexts racialisation, their constitutive processes such embodiment immigration policy/rhetoric. Beyond identifying over-representation racial minorities in economy, argues racialisation have been crucial every stage economy's rise to dominance, therefore constitutes key organising principle capitalism hence term ‘racial capitalism’. In doing so, draws on literature, situate (mis)classification forms practice, deployed (re-)organise surplus urban labour-power following 2008 financial crisis. framework will be explored through an ethnographic study Uber's London. Through this, demonstrates co-constitutive relationship, where conditions workers global city London post-2008, political companies can said co-produced one another.