Bikeboys and Platform Work in Brazil: Between Grey Zones of Employment and Entrepreneurial Culture

The extensive process of precarization, flexibility, and technological revolutions in information over the last decades has led to the platformization of various activities, resulting in new arrangements in labor relations, as seen in the case of app delivery workers. The so-called "bikeboys" use bicycles to make deliveries, typically meals, via an app. In Brazil, they are generally young, Black, and residents of the periphery—one of the most vulnerable populations. Deprived of labor rights, guarantees, protections, and responsible for the risks and costs of their activity, they are influenced by the entrepreneurial discourse that digital platforms provide complete freedom to delivery workers, valuing the "autonomy" of their "franchisees" and constituting a job "without a boss.". This study aims to understand how bikeboys assimilate, reinterpret, and use the entrepreneurial discourse in Brazil. This proposal was conducted with bikeboys in the downtown area of São Paulo, using an ethnographic and life trajectory methodology.This research indicated that a significant portion of the bikeboys rejected work relationships whose normative scenario is salaried employment (Carteria Assinada). Delivery workers often discuss among themselves how labor rights "restrain human beings" and "hinder their growth." The idea of a minimum wage is seen as something that "accommodates people" in their current situation and generates a "loss of countless possibilities for greater profitability." This horizon of expectations is built around the perception of freedom and autonomy, with the idea of defining their own working hours seen as something positive. The bikeboys positively assimilate the entrepreneurial culture through a set of practices and values developed throughout their complex life trajectories, shaped by environments permeated by the boundaries between the legal, illegal, and illicit, which constitute grey zones and hybrid forms of employment and insertion into the labor market.