Precariousness as a formative category of the field: the vulnerabilities of anthropologists and app drivers in the context of a pandemic

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has deepened dynamics of vulnerability that had long been felt by certain social groups. In this context, the solidity of material and psychological support networks often emerged as what buffers the most corrosive effects of the pandemic. In this article, I reflect on this topic based on an ethnography carried out in virtual environments in which an important leadership of app drivers in Pernambuco is present. In addition to identifying some of the arbitrariness suffered by the group of workers that this interlocutor represents (publicized on his Instagram), I also map how the drivers themselves come together to deal with such vulnerabilities. Finally, I demonstrate that it was my own psychological suffering (deepened by the social isolation of the pandemic) that made me look for a driver committed to defending this category of workers.

Keywords:
precarity; COVID-19 pandemic; psychological suffering; virtual ethnography