Beyond the easy gig: Platform work literacies among location-based on-demand workers in Spain

This article examines findings from a 4-year study conducted in Spain on the labour dynamics within platforms, with workers in food delivery, transportation, cleaning, caregiving, and accommodation. Despite the differences, it explores how informal learning processes enable workers to navigate the platform economy within these services. The study analyses key competences related to technology use, content creation, resource management, service delivery, social management, and understanding platform and legal frameworks through an ethnographic method. The findings reveal a complex constellation of skills and forms of knowledge embedded in platform work that extend beyond digital and algorithmic competences. These results challenge the persistent ‘low-skill’ label commonly associated with location-based gig work and call for broader analytical frameworks to conceptualise and investigate ‘platform work literacies’.