http://hdl.handle.net/11089/55540 2026-04-17T19:55:17Z 2026-04-17T19:55:17Z Spuriņa, Maija Ķešāne, Iveta http://hdl.handle.net/11089/55550 2025-05-08T01:43:53Z 2025-04-30T00:00:00Z

Affective Governmentality in Food Delivery Platforms: A Study of Bolt Food Riga Push Notifications Spuriņa, Maija; Ķešāne, Iveta The paper uses a governmentality perspective to discuss the issue of control in food delivery platforms through analysis of 4083 push notifications sent by the Bolt Food platform to its couriers in Riga from 2020 to 2023. It examines intensity, rationalization, subjectification, and the use of emojis in push notifications and demonstrates affective governmentality technology to control labor mobility. The analysis contributes to the literature on algorithmic management that focuses predominantly on the control embedded in the platform application. Suppose a platform application is viewed as an algorithmic panopticon in which a worker is free to enter or exit by signing on or off. In that case, other semi-automated control technologies, such as push notifications, are affective persuasive tools for bringing workers into the panopticon that limits workers’ autonomy and control.

2025-04-30T00:00:00Z Kaźmierska, Kaja http://hdl.handle.net/11089/55547 2025-05-08T01:43:51Z 2025-04-30T00:00:00Z

The Biographical Experience of Being a Stay-at-Home Mother of a Large Family Versus Online Activity. A Case Study Kaźmierska, Kaja The article presents the analysis of two cases of women reconstructed based on autobiographical narrative interviews. They are mothers of many children and are active online, having accounts on Instagram and creating content. Most research focused on the activities of online creators is based on an analysis of their web content. Due to the type of research data, autobiographical narratives and the interpretations of one’s biographical experiences and actions are the main frame of this analysis. Both narrators represent contemporary modern women, combining opposing patterns of tradition and modernity, which are often presented in public discourses as contradictory or mutually excluding. Internet activity seems to remedy the accompanying experience of tension and supports women’s biographical work. What stands out is the identity work undertaken by the two narrators, whose frame of reference is the tension between the planned and voluntary entry into traditionally understood motherhood and the plan for one’s development inscribed in the identity of an educated modern woman socialized in a culture of individualism. In this respect, their online activity appears to have a compensatory function in their biographies.

2025-04-30T00:00:00Z Łuczaj, Kamil http://hdl.handle.net/11089/55549 2025-05-08T01:43:54Z 2025-04-30T00:00:00Z

Navigating Recognition: The Symbolic Struggles in the Biographies of Young Polish Internet Content Creators Łuczaj, Kamil This paper aims to examine the symbolic struggles embedded in the biographies of internet content creators. Pursuing a relatively new profession that lacks symbolic legitimization necessitates both explanatory and emotional labor to justify a “biographical action scheme” that does not align with existing “institutionalized schedules for organizing biographies,” in Fritz Schütze’s sense. Drawing on interviews with young Polish internet content creators, I analyze these struggles through the lens of Axel Honneth’s concept of the “struggle for recognition” and Michèle Lamont’s notion of “symbolic boundaries.”The empirical analysis suggests that the initial struggle involves proving their worth to close family and friends, who may question the legitimacy of being an influencer compared to a stable 9-to-5 job. This tension is particularly pronounced in intergenerational relationships, such as between children and their parents. The second struggle occurs between content creators and their audiences. Here, the challenge is defending oneself against justified or unjustified accusations and hate speech. The third struggle is inherent to those operating at the intersection of various social fields. For these influencers, who build their content on popular science, the lack of recognition or hostility from the academic community is another serious biographical problem.The necessity to engage in constant power struggles, which demand considerable skill, challenges the widespread perception of internet influencing as a “childish” profession—one that offers an enjoyable job paired with undeservedly high earnings.

2025-04-30T00:00:00Z Drążczyk, Aleksandra http://hdl.handle.net/11089/55548 2025-05-08T01:43:46Z 2025-04-30T00:00:00Z

Can You Make Money from Being Queer? Commodification of Queerness on Social Media as Biographical Experience Drążczyk, Aleksandra The article presents a case study of an autobiographical narrative interview with Adam—a young influencer who creates books-related content. Special attention is given to Adam’s relationship with his audience and how it influences his self-perception. Of significant importance to the influencer’s biography are Adam’s non-heteronormative sexual orientation and the stigma associated with it. Using the sociolinguistic tools of Fritz Schütze’s biographical approach and its process structures, Erving Goffman’s theory of stigma, and Anselm Strauss’s concept of social worlds, I attempt to reconstruct the processes related to influencer activity on social media. The analysis reveals tensions between the ideological vision of one’s duties and the necessity to meet the expectations of the audience, including in the context of accusations related to the commodification of queerness. The text attempts to capture the possible biographical meanings of being an influencer and the identity-related entanglements of this role. It also highlights potential disruptions to biographical work caused by activities within social media.

2025-04-30T00:00:00Z