Author: CHEN Long (Associate Professor, College of Humanities and Development, China Agricultural University)
According to the "China Sharing Economy Development Report 2021" released by the State Information Center, there were about 84 million sharing economy service providers in mainland China in 2020, a year-on-year increase of about 7.7%. The sharing economy service providers here mainly include takeaway riders, ride-hailing drivers, couriers and other new forms of employment. At the beginning of 2023, the All-China Federation of Trade Unions released the results of the ninth national workforce survey. Data show that there are currently 84 million new employment forms of workers in the country. The number of delivery riders reached 13 million, accounting for 15% of the total number of workers in the new employment form. During the pandemic, the number of takeaway riders has increased dramatically. Taking Meituan as an example, from 2020 to 2022, the number of riders increased from 4.7 million to 6.24 million, an increase of 32.8%.
The large-scale rise of workers in new employment forms is closely related to the prosperity and development of the platform economy. The rapid development of the platform economy is inseparable from the rapid progress of artificial intelligence technology. As the core driving force of the fourth industrial revolution, artificial intelligence technology is setting off a global wave of science and technology, not only becoming the strategic commanding height of scientific and technological competition between countries, but also profoundly changing all aspects of human social production and daily life. However, the wide application of artificial intelligence technology in the platform economy not only promotes production progress and convenience of life, but also raises concerns about the "de-skilling" and "technological unemployment" of labor caused by technological progress.
In July 2021, Meituan revealed at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference that it will develop unmanned delivery vehicles to the stage of large-scale application in 3-5 years. Drone services are also expected to appear in more cities within 3-5 years. The rapid development of unmanned delivery inevitably makes people worry about "de-skilled" and replaced delivery riders. However, relevant personnel of Meituan also said that unmanned distribution and contactless economy are ecological concepts, and only scale and normalization can solve the cost problem, and manpower is still needed before the advantages of all innovation and technological iteration appear, so a large number of unemployment is unlikely. This does not completely dispel concerns about the "deskilling" and "technological unemployment" of labor caused by technological progress. Given the sheer scale of delivery riders, automation, digitalization, and unmanned mobility, it is necessary to return to the issues that worry us and re-understand the labor process of "de-skilled" and delivery riders.
The nature of "de-skilling" and tacit knowledge in the labor process
The idea of "deskilling" originated from the American economist Harry Braverman. In his view, the scientific management proposed by Taylor was to concentrate scattered knowledge of crafts to employers, which were then distributed to workers in the form of detailed instruction books. Braverman describes it as "separation of concept and execution." Therefore, the essence of "de-skilling" is the separation of concept and execution, that is, the separation of hands and brains in work.
"Deskilling" means the degradation of workers. With the mechanization and automation of industrial production processes, especially the infinite subdivision of work, workers in specific positions have fewer and fewer skills to master, and thus become part of the production line rather than a complete person. Instead of using their brains at work, workers carry out commands like parts or tools of a machine, and as a result, workers become more and more stupid.
Go back to the labor process of a delivery rider. A large number of studies at home and abroad have revealed the trend of artificial intelligence, big data and algorithms in strengthening platform supervision capabilities, reducing workers' autonomy and "de-skilling". As mentioned earlier, "deskilling" is essentially a hand-brain separation at work, the result of which is the degradation of workers' cognitive abilities; But in practice, delivery riders don't behave. One of the important reasons is that the rider's "tacit knowledge" at work is ignored.
"Tacit knowledge" means "we know more than we can express and formula." Historically, workers' "tacit knowledge" has been difficult to detect, but it plays a huge role. The advantage of "tacit knowledge" is that it arises from specific situations rather than general conditions, and can therefore more quickly and directly determine the causes of specific problems in the labor process and find solutions. This characteristic, which arises from a specific situation and is inseparable from human intuition and judgment, makes the rider's labor process impossible to be reduced to "rules, regulations and formulas" according to the requirements of scientific management. The process of using "tacit knowledge" is precisely the process of hand-brain integration, so food delivery will not make takeaway riders stupid, but can allow them to "reap certain growth": "It not only changed the situation in my family, but also changed my life, but also changed my personality, made my whole person a lot changed, mature and stable, and became much stronger." ”
Simply put, the rider's "tacit knowledge" in the food delivery process is mainly reflected in three aspects: one is "brain map", the other is "situational experience", and the third is "communication skills".
The first is the "brain map". Most riders' delivery route planning recommended by the takeaway platform app has undergone a transformation from completely following to self-planning. When new riders first start food delivery, because they are not familiar with the delivery process, area and time, they will strictly follow the delivery route recommended by the takeaway platform App. But after familiarization, they will deliver food according to the delivery route accumulated in their minds, because they know how to plan the delivery route can be faster: "We initially follow the systematic plan to deliver, and after three months of familiarity, we follow the route planned in our brains." ”
The second is "situational experience". Riders are able to make good judgments about specific situations because they repeatedly interact with people and objects during the delivery process, which allows them to accumulate a variety of typical "situational experience". This experience, like the "brain map" and the "communication skills" mentioned later, cannot be clearly expressed, but it plays a key role: "We will encounter various problems in the food delivery process, such as some merchants are slower to eat, you first pick up other faster ones, or customers are closer, I will deliver them to him in a few minutes, and then come back to pick up his meals, which is okay." ”
Finally, there are "communication skills". Riders need to develop superb communication skills, because one of the skills they use most in the food delivery process is communication, such as communicating with the front desk of the store, communicating with the security guard at the entrance of the supermarket and community, and communicating with customers. Good communication can not only improve the efficiency of food delivery, but also exchange for service praise: "Because it is a service industry, it is better to communicate with guests, if the temper is not good, it is easy to have language disputes with guests... If you don't communicate well, you will definitely be complained. Communication is more important than food delivery. ”
Therefore, from the perspective of using "tacit knowledge" in the food delivery process, that is, the need for hand-brain integration in the work, food delivery is not "de-skilled". Good communication with merchants/security/customers, human brain planning of delivery routes, and "situational experience" required for each link of pick-up/delivery require takeaway riders to use both hands and brains and make good use of the "tacit knowledge" they have accumulated in their work. The riders' cognitive abilities did not show degradation at work, and they did not become "increasingly dumber".
The factory that cannot go back to and the desire of the "complete worker"
During the National Two Sessions in 2022, Zhang Xinghai, deputy to the National People's Congress and chairman of Xiaokang Group, said that in recent years, industries such as food delivery, e-commerce, and online live streaming have attracted a large number of young people to work; Express delivery and takeaway industry "involvement" to graduate students to compete; Young people are no longer willing to go to work in factories, resulting in the hollowing out of industrial workers. Zhang Xinghai suggested that the government, enterprises and all sectors of society should work together to encourage young people to compete for industrial workers and alleviate the problem of difficulty in recruiting and employing workers in the manufacturing industry. However, the main reason why riders are reluctant to enter the factory and are willing to deliver food is that in addition to the difference in salary income and management style, one of the overlooked reasons is precisely that food delivery is not "de-skilled" compared to factory workers, but requires them to use both hands and brains.
While there is a "blowout" of employment on various Internet platforms, the traditional manufacturing industry is indeed experiencing a "labor shortage". Cao Dewang, founder of Fuyao Group, also sighed for this: "Today's young people would rather go to deliver food than go to work in factories, which is the current dilemma faced by the manufacturing industry." In this regard, Professor Wen Xiaoyi of the China Institute of Labor Relations pointed out: "In the past, the young and middle-aged labor force active in the factory production line is constantly moving from offline to online, which has caused major changes in China's economic structure and situation. In the past, working in coastal factories was the first choice for countless young people to realize their urban dreams, but now delivering express delivery and takeaway food in big cities is becoming a career priority. ”
For the phenomenon that young people "would rather go to food delivery than go to work in factories", most studies cite the high salary returns of the platform economy and the strict management of the manufacturing industry as the main reasons. Indeed, the income return of delivery riders is in no way inferior to that of traditional manufacturing. It is reported that most workers in factories in coastal areas earn 4,000-8,000 yuan per month. In contrast, riders can get 7,000-8,000 yuan a month, and many people can even exceed 10,000 yuan. More importantly, although it is equally hard, the takeaway rider is rarely controlled, more free, and can also take time to rest: "The factory is too strictly controlled, there is no rest, except for statutory holidays, the state really deducts (punishment), so I will give you a day off." That's more than 6,000 yuan a month, which is about the same as here. But in comparison, here is free. ”
The "partial worker" described by Marx may be the original prototype of "deskilling", that is, "a worker who has been engaged in the same simple operation all his life, transforming his entire body into an automatic, one-sided organ of this operation." Henry Ford's invention of the production assembly line showed more intuitively that what the modern factory needs is no longer the "whole body" of the worker, but the "one-sided organ". The design principle of the assembly line invented by Ford is to "arrange tools and people according to the process so that the assembly of spare parts can be completed in the shortest possible time". Obviously, people are reduced to a tool-like existence on the assembly line. Therefore, workers on the assembly line inevitably encounter hand-brain separation and the resulting cognitive degradation.
However, Marx also pointed out in distinguishing between man and animal, "conscious life activity directly distinguishes man from animal life activity." The difference between humans and animals is that people can engage in free and conscious activities, and the difference between humans and tools is that people have valuable cognitive and creative abilities. Therefore, compared to the work that makes people stupid on the assembly line, people are more willing to choose to deliver food, precisely because it is human nature to want to use both hands and brains at work. And because of the existence of "tacit knowledge", food delivery makes riders feel more like they exist as "complete workers" rather than "one-sided organs" than entering the factory. This may be why riders feel "free" at work.
Although delivery riders do not really face the dilemma of "de-skilled", it is undeniable that riders engaged in food delivery may not have high education and skills in the first place. According to the results of the ninth national workforce survey released by the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, the education of couriers and takeaway delivery workers is concentrated at the high school level and below. From the "Meituan Rider Employment Report During the Epidemic" released by Meituan, it is not difficult to find that the source ranking of riders is factory workers, sales personnel, entrepreneurs or self-employed small businesses or catering industry employees in descending order. Among them, factory workers, salespeople, and catering workers may also be low-skilled workers. How to let more people accumulate "tacit knowledge" in their work, show free and conscious labor, and achieve the collaborative development of man and machine in the era of artificial intelligence is the key issue in front of us in the era of artificial intelligence.
Source: China Social Sciences Network - China Social Sciences News