Buy with 1-Click: Independent Contracting and Migrant Workers in China’s Last-Mile Parcel Delivery

This article analyzes labor informality in the Chinese platform economy. Drawing on participant observation at a parcel delivery station in Beijing, the author discusses how individual and family lives are impacted by the hectic world of logistics work, and indeed, how c o mpa ni e s ha v e i nc r e a s e d c os t competitiveness through driving exploitation i nto forms hi dden wi thi n the househol d. Migrant family members frequently assist each other by calling customers and wrapping parcels while their unpaid labor is subsidizing the company’s business operations. Although t he s pher es of pr oduct i on and s oci al reproduction can sometimes be integrated in cities, they confront precarious work and unequal urban citizenship.