At first glance, platform-based digital work would not seem to align with typical labor models of the Taylorist-Fordist accumulation pattern, as it predominantly mobilizes the intellectual capacities of its productive agents. It also differs from Toyotist production practices, as it is primarily based on subjective aspects of the workforce such as creativity and intelligence. Nevertheless, these new forms of digital platform labor appear, despite their differences, to reproduce elements of management and production that are very similar, on the one hand, to the standardized, serial production typical of Taylorist and Fordist industries, and, on the other, to the automobile production system of Toyotism—especially regarding methods of management, incentives, and productive control.

Given this, we find it necessary to analyze what is new and what is preserved in the labor and living conditions, as well as in the political organization of workers whose activities are mediated by information and communication technologies (ICTs) and who, in various ways, draw on cultural and ideological appeals—through entrepreneurship, creativity, and autonomy—to establish productive cooperation. That is, it seems crucial to determine to what extent digital labor is spreading as a productive and service activity, and what the working conditions and forms of precarization are that characterize this type of production in contemporary Brazilian society.

In this regard, the aim of this research is to analyze how a set of ICT-mediated jobs, ideologically supported by entrepreneurship, are structured within the current Brazilian context. We seek to examine their similarities, differences, and specific characteristics, and above all, how these two social elements (ICTs and entrepreneurship) influence these significantly diverse activities, as mentioned above. Thus, we will emphasize two dimensions in our presentation: 1. The objective working and control conditions mediated by ICTs; and 2. The impact of entrepreneurship as an ideological and cultural element that structures these work activities, but also the lives of the workers.