Platform-mediated Food Delivery Work: A Review for CSCW

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This paper presents the practice of platform-based food delivery as a meal well served for scholars within CSCW based on a review of extant literature on the practice. CSCW holds a valuable set of notions and tools for future granular inquiry into the work practice on food delivery platforms and pertinent questions from the field of food delivery resonate with research agendas within CSCW. This argument is based on a scoping synthetic literature review that identifies characteristics of food delivery work and connects them to previous scholarship within CSCW. With few exceptions, food delivery workers are typically young, male and of immigrant background. The work practice typically relies on algorithmic management, dynamic scheduling, a form piece-rate remuneration, and while food delivery workers work solitarily, workers repeatedly organize in both formal and informal groups. Finally, the review shows that while these characteristics are common, there is a high degree of engagement with the local environment which significantly impacts the work practice between the platforms and between locations. The discussion brings forth salient issues and outlines two alleys of future work.