This article develops a multi-level framework for the analysis of a bottom-up politics of technology at the workplace. It draws on a multi-case study on algorithmic management of manual labor in manufacturing and delivery platforms in Germany. In researching how workers influenced the use of algorithmic management systems, the concept of technopolitics is developed to refer to three different arenas of negotiation: (1) the arena of regulation, where institutional framings of technologies in production are negotiated, typically between state actors, employers’ associations, and unions. (2) The arena of implementation, where strategies of technology deployment are negotiated—in the German production model typically between management and works council. (3) The arena of appropriation, in which different organizational technocultures offer contesting schemes for the actual use of technology at work. Whereas most recent research on digitalization of work conceptualizes workers as mere objects of digitalization processes, this paper focuses on worker agency as a “technopolitics from below.” It thus demonstrates how workers influence the concrete outcome of digitalization projects.

本文开发了一个多层次的框架，用于分析工作场所技术的自下而上的政治。它借鉴了德国制造和交付平台中关于体力劳动的算法管理的多案例研究。在研究工人如何影响算法管理系统的使用时，技术政治学的概念发展为涉及三个不同的谈判领域：（1）监管领域，其中通常在国家行为者之间就生产技术的体制框架进行谈判，雇主协会和工会。（2）在执行领域，在该领域中，通常会在管理层和工作委员会之间就德国的生产模式商定技术部署策略。（3）挪用的舞台，其中，不同的组织技术文化为工作中的实际技术使用提供了竞争方案。尽管最新的工作数字化研究将工人概念化为数字化过程的对象，但本文将工人代理作为“来自下面的技术政治学”。因此，它说明了工人如何影响数字化项目的具体成果。