Transcending boundaries and breaking social safety nets: how digital platforms reorganize the market and exacerbate economic insecurity
2025-08-01
This article examines how digital platforms reorganize markets and impact platform-dependent participants. Using qualitative data collected from the Chinese freight transportation sector, it argues that platform expansion has extensively weakened the pre-existing relational infrastructure of markets and replaced it with centralized digital infrastructures. This disruptive transformation harms truck drivers’ welfare through two mechanisms: (1) Enhanced market connectivity and anonymity intensify competition and reduce drivers’ income; (2) Bureaucratic, biased platform mediation replaces social, collaborative problem-solving, increasing risks for drivers. Both processes have undermined the relational, spatial boundaries of pre-existing social networks, thus breaking social safety nets and increasing economic insecurity for the less powerful actors. By examining a less-studied case in China, this research offers a novel perspective on the transformative power of digital platforms. It highlights the need for further research on relational dynamics within the platform ecosystem and calls for public attention to fairness issues arising from platform disruptions.