Uber, airports, and labour at the infrastructural interfaces of platform urbanism

Recent interest by human geographers and urban scholars in the spatialities of platform companies such as Uber and Airbnb has generated a wealth of contributions on platform urbanism – a concept that captures the urbanization of algorithmic business models and sharing economies. This article explores the interface between platform-mediated labour on Uber, the largest ride-sharing company globally, and the geography of the international airport. To comply with or overcome physical and regulatory barriers that airport precincts are subject to, as well as to manage e-hailing-related conflicts, Uber relies on a series of material adaptations which make its algorithmic platform function. These material adaptations range from sign boards, to attendants wearing high-visibility vests, to car lots specifically designed to embed AI-managed labour into the city. With two ethnographic vignettes set in Mumbai’s and Cape Town’s airports, this essay charts some of the ways in which urban infrastructures and algorithmic platforms transform each other. At their interfaces, labour is algorithmically managed and made invisible, but alternative transactions and different visibilities are also enacted. This paper thus makes a case for charting the singularities of platform urbanism and its labour.