This study examines digital trucking platforms in two major economies of the Global South: Brazil and China. We argue that trucking platforms are engendering dramatic transformations of disorganised road transport logistics systems in both these continental-scale economies, centralising investment and co-ordinating control to enable leapfrog development. In the process, they are unifying previously fragmented space economies by rationalizing transport systems and proletarianizing their workforces, driving down costs and eliminating barriers to the geographical circulation of capital. While this offers some benefits to workers, it also exposes them to the vagaries of market discipline in new ways.

Speakers

Jörg Nowak is a Visiting Professor at University of Brasilia, Brazil.

Steve Rolf is ESRC Research Fellow at the Digital Futures at Work (Digit) Centre, University of Sussex Business School.

Wei Wei is a Research Fellow at the Technology and Management Centre for Development, University of Oxford.