The multi-level domestication processes of navigation apps: the case of Waze in Costa Rica
This research aims to enquire into the processes of domestication of Waze as a navigation app powered by a crowdsourcing geo-informational system. It deals with the social context that inform its adoption, the mechanisms that lead its inscription into daily life routines, and the meanings that users ascribe to the use of its navigation and map edition interface, exploring the way its use generates an impact in both car use and the road network, within the urban sprawl of Costa Rica’s Greater Metropolitan Area.
Theoretically, the research relies on the domestication of artefacts perspective developed by Knut Sorensen (1996), as well as notion of motility advanced by Vincent Kaufmann (2004). Methodologically, content analysis of both research documents and institutional reports, along with qualitative semi-structured interviews to end-users and map editors were carried out to collect the information that constitute the body of this research.
The results will be published in the form of research articles addressing the manyfold aspects contained within Waze’s network of users.
Main Research Interests
- Epistemology of Social Sciences
- Political economy of media
- Digital Technology
- Video game production
- Cultures of innovation
Research Results
My research explores the governmentality of unpaid work in crowdsourcing platforms, focusing on how digital businesses persuade users to voluntarily engage in productive activities. It examines the management techniques that shape crowd-workers’ behaviours, highlighting the contradictions and modulations enforced to discipline their performance and shape their identity. Specifically, it looks at the role of gamification, career structures, and user-managed organizations in conducting crowd-work. Through these assemblages, companies can align crowd-workers’ passions, cultural interests, and social identities with organizational goals, fostering loyalty and productivity. This process transforms users into willingly unpaid contributors, whose outputs generate surplus value for the company. Using the navigation system developed by Waze Inc. as a case study, the research illustrates how the company frames crowd-work as voluntary, appealing to leisure, community, and civic engagement in society. It couples individual desires for “personal disconnection”, social reconnection and life optimisation, reorientating users social and even labour times for crowd-work.
Curriculum Vitae
- Associate Professor University of Costa Rica
Pubilcations and Presentations
- Guevara-Villalobos, O. (forthcoming) Domesticating the system of automobility? Waze and the limits of navigation apps.