[Air-L] Special Issue: Social Media and Platform Work: Stories, Practices, and workers' organisation" (Convergence Journal) edited by Júlia Vilasís-Pamos, Fernanda Pires, Rafael Grohmann and Willian Fernandes Araujo

[Fernanda Pires]

Dear colleagues,

*Convergence* journal just published the special issue *Social media and
platform work: Stories, practices, and workers’ organisation*, edited by
Júlia Vilasís-Pamos, me, Rafael Grohmann and Willian Fernandes Araujo. This
special issue aims to deepen the understanding of how platform workers
engage with social media. During the last decade, social media have been
instrumental within platform work because they are fundamental to this type
of labour. Platform workers’ use of social media can be considered forms of
communication, socialisation and organisation. Through WhatsApp, Telegram,
Instagram, YouTube, TikTok and other channels, workers can share tips,
stories, and practices. Therefore, it is crucial to develop new
understandings of the different uses, discourses, practices and stories
that emerge when platform work intersects with social media.
In the introductory article, we highlighted the roles of social media for
platform labour, especially social media affordances in platform work
cultures, social media as labour, and socialisation, solidarity and
narratives.

*/TABLE OF CONTENTS/*

/Social media and platform work: Stories, practices, and workers’
organisation/
Júlia Vilasís-Pamos, Fernanda Pires, Rafael Grohmann and Willian Fernandes
Araujo
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/13548565241227391

/Cooperative solidarity among crowdworkers? Social learning practices on a
crowdtesting social media platform/
Annika Becker, Leonard Ecker, Inga Külpmann, Karen Schwien, and Patrick
Stobbe
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/13548565231183298

/Delivery workers’ visibility struggles: Weapons of the gig,
(extra)ordinary social media, and strikes/
Ergin Bulut and Adem Yeşilyurt
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/13548565231188415

/The porous boundaries of public and private messages: Solidarity networks
of Latin American food delivery workers in NYC/
Ambar Reyes
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/13548565231210984

/What is so funny about platform labour in Brazil? Ride-hailing drivers’
use of humour and memes on Facebook groups/
Fernanda Pires, Tugce Ataci and Willian Fernandes Araujo
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/13548565231160622

/Gig workers, critical visuality and humour in a digital context: The
graphic representation of riders as a form of social criticism/
Sandra Martorell and Antoni Roig Telo
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/13548565231181981

/Exposing the mess in the online kitchen: Bon Appetit and digital
continuities in legacy media’s workplace exploitations/
Emmelle Israel
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/13548565231193121

/Cooperative affordances: How instant messaging apps afford learning,
resistance and solidarity among food delivery workers/
Tiziano Bonini, Emiliano Treré, Zizheng Yu, Swati Singh, Daniele
Cargnelutti and Francisco Javier López-Ferrández
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/13548565231153505

/The mutual configuration of affordances and technological frames: Content
creators in the Chilean influencer industry/
Arturo Arriagada and Ignacio Siles
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/13548565231157364

/Delivery riders’ cultural production in Spain: A thematic analysis of
their self-representation on YouTube/
Fernanda Pires, Jose Tomasena and Martina Piña
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/13548565231161252

/Partners or workers? Mexican app deliverers on YouTube and TikTok/
Gabriela Elisa Sued and Arturo Rodriguez Rodriguez
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/13548565231179963

/Self-representation as platform work: Stories about working as social
media content creators/
Fabian Hoose and Sophie Rosenbohm
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/13548565231185863

/Influencers’ Instagram imaginaries as a global phenomenon: Negotiating
precarious interdependencies on followers, the platform environment, and
commercial expectations/
Vanessa Richter and Zhen Ye
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/13548565231178918

/‘Traffic rewards’, ‘algorithmic visibility’, and ‘advertiser
satisfaction’: How Chinese short-video platforms cultivate creators in
stages/
Yang Huang and WeiMing Ye
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/13548565231211117