Adaptation Of Informal Workers To Digital Transformation: A Qualitative Perspective In The Context Of The Platform Economy

• Achmad Tarmidzi Anas

  IAI Al Khairat Pamekasan

  Author

• Moh Dannur

  IAI Al-Khiarat Pamekasan

  Author

This research aims to deeply explore the adaptation strategies employed by digital informal workers in facing platform-based economic transformation. Using a qualitative approach with a phenomenological method and a constructivist paradigm, this research explores the subjective meanings of workers regarding changes in work roles, algorithmic power relations, and forms of digital resilience. Data were collected through in-depth interviews, limited participatory observation, and digital documentation, and analysed using the Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) approach. The research results indicate that the adaptation of informal workers is intersectional and contextual, encompassing technological, social, symbolic, and emotional dimensions. The adaptation is not an autonomous choice, but rather a response to structural pressures within a flexible yet vulnerable work system. Moreover, digital communities have become important spaces for collective agency and resistance against opaque platform policies. This study offers a conceptual model of bottom-up digital agency, emphasising the active role of workers in shaping the meaning and identity of work amidst structural vulnerabilities. These findings have implications for more equitable and participatory digital labour policies, emphasising the importance of social protection, critical digital literacy, and the strengthening of informal worker communities.

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