Neoliberal Governance and the Politics of Platform-Based Gig Work in Southeast Asia

Over the past decade, platform-based delivery and ride-hailing services have expanded rapidly across Southeast Asia, reshaping urban labor markets and daily life. This study examines how platform companies reorganize labor governance in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. Using a structured-focused comparative approach, it analyzes four interrelated dimensions of the platform labor regime: wage structures, algorithmic control and work organization, risk and cost shifting, and (the absence of ) social protection. Examining these dimensions through the frameworks of platform capitalism and governmentality, the study argues that delivery and mobility platforms operate as instruments of neoliberal governance, disciplining labor through algorithmic management while systematically shifting financial and occupational risks onto workers. The study finds that platform capitalism has deepened the region’s labor precarity, even as workers increasingly push back against platform-imposed conditions.