关键词: 零工经济, 全景监控, 权力博弈, 矛盾体验, 扎根理论

Abstract: The advancement of digital technologies has propelled the growth of the gig economy, leading to new forms of workplace monitoring. In this context, traditional bilateral oversight between employers and employees has transformed into a model of panoptic surveillance involving the collective participation of algorithms, platforms, and customers. Yet, existing research has paid insufficient attention to the power structures underlying this panoptic surveillance and its impact on the subjective experiences of gig workers. Grounded in power theory and an ambivalence-based perspective, this paper employs a grounded theory approach, by taking ride-hailing and food delivery platforms as cases, to analyze how algorithms, the platform, and customers collectively shape the gig labor process through diverse surveillance forms, thereby intensifying power asymmetry within the platform system. The study finds that, interacting with positive job features like schedule flexibility and income incentives, panoptic surveillance does not simply trigger compliance or resistance. Instead, it fosters an ambivalent experience among workers, characterized by coexisting feelings of freedom and control, identification and alienation. Based on this situation, workers engage in ongoing strategic interactions with platform rules and algorithmic mechanisms. Through individual adaptation and collective coordination, they enter into an embedded, non-confrontational power struggle with the platform system. This research contributes to the literature on labor control in the gig economy and offers insights for optimizing platform governance and fostering more inclusive digital labor relations in the Chinese context.

Key words: Gig Economy, Panoptic Surveillance, Power Struggles, Ambivalent Experiences, Grounded Theory