Lilo Meier receives EGOS That’s Interesting Award

Time pressure, lack of autonomy, and limited voice—these are some of the key concerns delivery drivers for platforms such as Uber or Flink frequently raise about their working conditions and the role of algorithms play in managing them. Organizational scholars call this phenomenon algorithmic control. But are there alternatives?

“There absolutely are,” says Lilo Meier. As part of her ethnographic field work, the organizational researcher spent over fifteen months observing the everyday operations of a Berlin-based platform cooperative. For her contribution to the knowledge on the digital platform economy, she received the That’s Interesting Award from the European Group for Organizational Studies (EGOS) on July 3, 2025. EGOS is Europe’s leading scholarly community for organization studies.

Algorithms vs. autonomous action

“When people hear the word ‘algorithm,’ they often think of rigid structures they must follow. Critique and resistance seem nearly impossible,” says Meier. “But the daily experiences of Berlin’s delivery bike riders show a different picture. Riders often outsmart the algorithm by acting autonomously. Rather than being pawns in an opaque game of chess, they continuously negotiate the rules of the game—allowing them to reach their destinations more quickly and safely.”

In practice, bikers frequently face challenges like construction sites, police checks, or delivery locations that are hard to find—situations the algorithm isn’t equipped to handle, Meier explains. “These examples clearly show that algorithms cannot function without human judgment and action.”

Meier’s research contributes to the exploration of alternative models of the economy in the context of digital capitalism. Her work also addresses broader questions related to human-technology interaction, the digital platform economy, and critical perspectives on emerging technologies.

About the That’s Interesting Award

The That’s Interesting Award is presented annually at the EGOS Colloquium, the central conference of the European Group for Organizational Studies. It recognizes scholarly contributions that offer challenging, original ideas and particularly creative arguments.

Meier’s publication, "Turning Platform ‘Glitches’ into Patchwork: Assembling Affective Encounters for Resistance in a Platform Cooperative," will soon be published in the journal Organization.