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Abel Guerra

Abel Guerra

LSE Fellow

Department of Media and Communications

Email
a.goncalves-guerra@lse.ac.uk
Office Hours
Office Hours: Thursdays 11am-12pm, 4.30pm-5.30pm
Languages
English, Portuguese, Spanish
Key Expertise
Platform labour and urbanism; Critical Data Studies

About me

Abel Guerra is an LSE Fellow in Global Media and Communication. He first joined the department as a PhD Researcher in 2021, and has recently finalised his thesis “Chasing cities: platforms and knowledge-making between datafication and lived urban histories.

Abel’s research has focused on Uber and the production of different ways of knowing and experiencing urban space, focusing on the platform’s operations in Brazil. This work drew on decolonial and feminist approaches and interpretive methods to address the practices and perspectives of three different social worlds involved in Uber’s web: Uber Engineers themselves, Brazilian researchers and policy makers and Uber drivers in São Paulo city. His work provides a framework to address platform power and digital technology through the lenses of global power and knowledge production inequalities, neoliberal reason and bottom-up practices. In addition to that, Abel is also interested in feminist and gender studies debates, with ongoing research on transgender perspectives and online transphobic politics and cultures.

Before joining LSE as a fellow, Abel taught at both LSE and Goldsmiths University. He holds a master’s and a bachelor’s degree in media and communications from Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, in Brazil, where he is a member of the research group R-EST - Sociotechnical Network Studies.

Expertise Details

Platform labour and urbanism; Critical Data Studies; Global South; Feminist and decolonial approaches

Publications

Journal Articles

Guerra, A. (2025). Rethinking fieldwork in critical algorithm research: slippery positionalities and generative vulnerabilities. Journal of Gender Studies. doi.org/10.1080/09589236.2025.2459240

Guerra, A. & D’Andréa, C. F. B. (2023). Crossing the algorithmic 'Red Sea': Brazilian ubertubers' ways of knowing surge pricing. Information, Communication and Society. doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2022.2109979

Grohmann, R.; Pereira, G. Guerra, A.; Abilio, L. C.; Moreschi, B.; Jurno, A. (2022). Platform scams: Brazilian workers’ experiences of dishonest and uncertain algorithmic management. New Media and Society, 24(7). doi.org/10.1177/14614448221099225

Guerra, A. D’Andréa, C. F. B. (2020). Dimensões algorítmicas do trabalho plataformizado: cartografando o preço dinâmico da Ube. E-COMPÓS. doi.org/10.30962/ec.2046

Guerra, A. Duarte, F. da C. P. (2020). Plataformização e trabalho algorítmico: contribuições dos Estudos de Plataforma para o fenômeno da uberização. Revista Eptic, 22 (2): 38–55. https://ufs.emnuvens.com.br/eptic/article/view/12129

Guerra, A. (2020). Plataformização e produção biopolítica do espaço: cartografando a infiltração da Uber no Brasil. Revista Indisciplinar, 6 (1): 290–313. doi.org/10.35699/2525-3263.2020.26332

Book Chapters

Guerra, A. (Forthcoming, 2025). An Infrastructural Optic to Digital Labour. In: Bulut, E., Chen J;., Grohmann, R., & Jarrett, K. SAGE Handbook of Digital Labour

Guerra, A.; Pereira, G.; Grohmann, R. Moreschi, B.; Jurno, A.; Abilio, L. (2023) Resisting platform scams in Brazil. In: Tierra Comun Network (eds.). Resisting Data Colonialism, a Practical Intervention. Institute of Networks and Cultures - Theory on Demand Series

Guerra, A.; D’Andrea, C. (2023) Atravessando o “mar vermelho” algorítmico: ubertubers e seus modos de conhecer o preço dinâmico da uber. In: Tozi, F. (ed) Plataformas digitais e novas desigualdades socioespaciais. Max Limonad.

Guerra, A. (2021). Gerenciando incertezas às próprias custas: motoristas Uber sob a Pandemia no Brasil. In: Milan, S. Treré, E. Masiero, S. (eds.). Covid-19 from the margins: pandemic invisibilities, policies and resistances in the datafied society. Institute of Networks and Cultures - Theory on Demand Series

D’Andréa, C.; Guerra, A. (2021). A mobilidade urbana entre dados, plataformas, infraestruturas: o caso do Uber Movement e do Uber Transit. (forthcoming). In: Rena et al. Urbanismo Biopolítico.

Conference Proceedings

Guerra, A. (2024). Visualising 10 thousand cities? uber's data stories on knowing urban space. In: AoIR Selected Papers of Internet Research, 2024, doi.org/10.5210/spir.v2024i0.13950.

Guerra, A.; D’Andréa, C. (2021) Algorithmic imaginaries in the making: Brazilian ubertubers encounters with surge pricing algorithms. In: AoIR Selected Papers of Internet Research, 2021. doi.org/10.5210/spir.v2021i0.12177

Guerra, A.; Duarte, F. da C. P. (2019). Trabalho plataformizado, assimetrias e vigilância: notas sobre as ações e tensionamentos da mediação algorítmica no trabalho dos motoristas Uber. In: VI Simpósio Internacional LAVITS: “Assimetrias, e (In)Visibilidades: Vigilância, Gênero e Raça.

Guerra, A.; Duarte, F. da C. P. (2019). Plataformização do trabalho: um estudo sobre as redes em ação no trabalho dos motoristas Uber In: XXXXII Congresso Brasileiro de Ciências da Comunicação.

Teaching

Teaching

In 2025/26, Abel is teaching MC408 (AT) and MC4M1 (WT).

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