In his 1926 novel, The Castle, Franz Kafka encapsulates themes of alienation, lack of control, and enhanced feelings of individual powerlessness. The novel seems like a presentiment of a dystopian society governed by opaque contracts and algorithmic systems we barely understand. Yet at the same time, Kafka reveals possibilities to resist such elusive forces, embodied by the Land Surveyor K., who refuses to surrender to any of the castle’s authorities.

PLATFORM: MOVEMENT, QUERY, RESOLUTION.

‘They alter the structure whenever they want to’, one rider claims. ‘And they have so many conditions. If we don’t log in for a week, our basic daily incentive changes. Recently, they decreased the overall incentive for 15 orders by 20 percent.’ Another rider, who is slightly older than the rest of the group, adds, ‘it seems like, the longer I work this job, the less I earn.’

When you’re out in any city in India, you can see delivery drivers darting around on their bikes, around the clock – on highways and along smaller gullies, zigzagging through the oppressive traffic and nimbly evading the blind spots of the loud, rickety buses. Drivers’ loyalties (to one of around three to four major platforms) are easily discernible from the colour of their respective uniforms and delivery gear. Asking drivers to wear these uniforms is a somewhat sneaky manoeuvre by platforms, because they don’t technically employ the drivers. In fact, in other countries this practice has gotten platforms in trouble because platform workers have used it to argue that platforms control how they work as they would employees while not classifying them as such. All in all, however, no one frets much about having to wear a uniform, as this concern pales next to the other facts of this work – the daily risks, the precarious income, the uncertainty of having work the next day, or the next week.