Lorenzo Cini

Università degli Studi di Napoli "Federico II", Department of Social Sciences and Statistics, Faculty Member

European University Institute, Political and Social Sciences, Graduate Student

Scuola Normale Superiore, Faculty of Political and Social Sciences, Post-Doc

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Lorenzo is a Senior Assistant Professor in Economic and Labour Sociology in the Department of Social Sciences, University Federico II of Naples. Prior to joining Federico II, he was a Lecturer in Employment Relations and HRM at the Cork University Business School, University College Cork, Ireland.

Lorenzo is Editorial Board member of the ABS4 journal Work, Employment & Society.

His main research interests are labour movements and conflicts in the current transformations of the world of work. His research has been published in leading international journals, such as Organization; Economic and Industrial Democracy; Theory and Society; New Technology, Work and Employment; European Journal of Industrial Relations, and Work, Employment and Society, as well as academic university press, such as Bristol University Press.

Lorenzo holds a PhD in social and political science from the European University Institute (EUI) of Florence.
Supervisors: Professor Donatella della Porta
Phone: +393495031280

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Journal Articles by Lorenzo Cini

Mobilising operaismo in the digital age: Continuities and ruptures with the 1960s 'mass worker' struggles

Capital & Class, 2025

This article examines whether the recent surge in labour mobilisations within the gig economy rep... more This article examines whether the recent surge in labour mobilisations within the gig economy represents genuinely novel forms of worker resistance, or whether it is a reconfiguration of established patterns of collective action. To achieve this, the article analyses the relationship between workers' struggles and changes to the labour process, comparing contemporary gig workers' mobilisations with those of the 'mass worker' in Western Europe in the 1960s. To explore these dynamics, we employ the notion of class composition, a political and analytical tool developed within the Italian workerist tradition (operaismo) to capture the interplay between technological change, labour processes, and collective resistance. Through this lens, the analysis identifies continuities and ruptures between the mobilisations of mass and gig workers in three key areas: the actors involved; the action repertoires deployed; and the demands articulated. Crucially, we develop a taxonomy of the two waves of mobilisation, emphasising their similarities and differences. This taxonomy provides a framework for understanding how transformations in the labour process in the digital age are shaping new forms of collective action and protest.

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'Misbehaving for Deliveroo. How couriers' digital manipulation boosts the platform's business'

Organization, 2025

Workplace misbehaviour has always been troublesome for employers. Workers have often exhibited co... more Workplace misbehaviour has always been troublesome for employers. Workers have often exhibited conducts, such as absenteeism, pilferage, soldiering, sabotage and vandalism, that are foreign to companies' norms and detrimental to their profits. Hence, various managerial theories have been developed over time with the aim of eliminating them. However, misbehaviour is still observed in the contemporary workplace. This study shows that, in platform work, where workers are controlled remotely by algorithms, platforms no longer seek to eliminate it, but even encourage its proliferation. Notably, it is argued that algorithmic control stirs the generation of specific forms of misbehaviour that are consistent with companies' interests. Taking Deliveroo in Ireland and Italy as a case study, the paper illustrates how four types of manipulation of the platform's digital infrastructure performed by couriers (i.e. the utilization of multiple Deliveroo accounts, the utilization of bots, the rental of other people's accounts, the tricking of Deliveroo's accounts system) are central to the expansion of its network effects. Building on labour process theory, these acts are referred to as 'compliant misbehaviour'-encompassing a set of worker misconducts that violate company-specific norms, but whose effects are fully beneficial to platforms' economic interests. To develop the compliant misbehaviour concept, the author has carried out qualitative research fieldwork (indepth interviews, daily observation of couriers' activities, document analysis) in both Ireland and Italy between 2022 and 2023. The theoretical elaboration of this concept is the main contribution of the paper.

format_quotePlatform work tolerates diverse forms of misconduct that align with corporate interests, illustrating a new form of management tolerance amid control by algorithms.format_quote

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New theories and politics for working class organizing in the gig and precarious world of work

Economic and Industrial Democracy, 2023

The emergence of labour conflicts across different sectors of the gig and precarious economy is c... more The emergence of labour conflicts across different sectors of the gig and precarious economy is challenging established industrial relations (IR) frameworks and some of its political implications. Despite its analytical merits, Kelly's union-centred mobilization theory appears insufficient to explain these mobilizations, characterized by informal networks and self-organization. Evidence from the sectors of logistics and cloudwork, where processes of digitalization have been rampant in recent years, shows that there is a need to build a more processual account of worker mobilizations in which non-institutional factors play a major role. Drawing on the European social movement tradition, in this article the authors consider two factors, supportive communities and political activism traditions, as key to understanding critical cases of mobilization in the gig economy and renewing IR theories of collective action through a class-based approach.

format_quoteThe central role of supportive communities and political activism traditions is assessed in mobilization episodes among logistics and cloudwork sectors.format_quote

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How algorithms are reshaping the exploitation of labour-power: insights into the process of labour invisibilization in the platform economy

Theory and Society, 2023

Marx conceives of capitalism as a production mode based on the exploitation of labour-power, whos... more Marx conceives of capitalism as a production mode based on the exploitation of labour-power, whose productive consumption in the labour process is considered as the main source of value creation. Capitalists seek to obscure and secure workers' contribution to the production process, whereas workers strive to have their contribution fully recognized. The struggle between capitalists and workers over labourtime is thus central to capital's valorization process. Hence, capital-labour antagonism is structured over the capture and exploitation of unpaid labour-time. Building on Marx's labour value theory, as well as on some of its contemporary interpretations, I call this struggle over labour-time capture a process of 'invisibilization' of labour. I claim that this invisibilization process is still a relevant form of surplusvalue extraction in contemporary capitalism, especially in the platform economy, characterized by remote but pervasive control by algorithms. The rediscovery of this form of surplus-value extraction and its manifestation in platform labour is the main contribution of this study. To corroborate this contribution, I compare the case of platform labour with that of textile-clothing, where value production is more clearly based on the classical forms of surplus-value extraction (i.e., absolute and relative). This comparison helps to cast a new light on the nexus between work-process transformations and surplus-value creation, which is the core of the Marxian labour theory of value, and which-I argue-is crucial to understanding contemporary capitalist developments.

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(Re)mobilizing Labour. A Lesson from Recent Labour Struggles in Italy

Social Movement Studies, 2021

Social movement studies and labour scholarship have been developed as separate research fields, t... more Social movement studies and labour scholarship have been developed as separate research fields, the former exploring the mobilizations of the so-called “new” social movements, the latter the “old” labour movements. However, such a sharp disciplinary distinction does not do justice to the interwoven character that social mobilizations may often take on in their formation processes and outcomes. This distinction seems especially untenable today given the return and proliferation of struggles on labour issues, where bottom-up forms of worker organizing and social movement types of action have been mixed, giving rise to a new array of labour actors and mobilizations. In short, the time seems ripe to spur on a scholarly prolific discussion between scholars of social movement and labour studies. In this profile, I start to do so by accounting for the case of the ongoing worker struggle at the GKN plant in the outskirts of Florence (Italy), where workers have been carrying out a bottom-up mobilization, consisting of the factory occupation and other radical forms of action. Both labour and social movement scholars can learn from this struggle, as it encompasses features whose interpretation cannot be confined to only one of the two disciplines, but it necessitates their integration. “Remobilizing labour” entails, therefore, to stimulate a prolific conversation between these two communities of scholars on the topic of workers' collective organizing. With this contribution, I hope to be opening up the way for such kinds of studies to come.

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With or without U(nions)? Understanding the diversity of gig workers' organizing practices in Italy and the UK

European Journal of Industrial Relations, 2021

Since 2016, mobilizations of gig workers across European countries have become increasingly commo... more