Labour Governance of Platforms: Market-Making and Market-Shaping in Delivery and Care Sectors in Belgium

Scholarly work on labour platforms has primarily examined labour governance in relation to the role of algorithmic management in labour control. This article instead argues that platform labour governance involves organising and structuring the broader market environment to ensure a continuous and adaptable labour supply. We showcase the processes of ‘market-making’ and ‘market-shaping’ to explain how labour platforms in food delivery and care service sectors in Belgium engage with their market environments, which feature distinctive local regulations. While delivery platforms act as a market-maker by entering an emerging, yet-to-be-regulated market to organise a disposable and adaptable labour supply, care platforms act as a market-shaper by entering an established and formalised market to shift the workforce from formal employment relations to informal ones. This research thus explains how platforms’ strategies of labour supply as a form of labour governance account for how platforms actively engage with their service market environments.