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Summary
This is an empirical study on food delivery workers in Brussels. This research proposal is awaiting funding from the European Union. The study will analyse food-delivery couriers' situated practices and accounting for negative experiences. GIGRISK will also collect navigational data to explore how perceptions of risk influence their route choices, decisions to accept or reject orders, and avoidance of particular streets or areas.
What is GIGRISK?
GIGRISK is a research project investigating how gender shapes the ways food-delivery couriers experience risk, navigate urban spaces, and respond to negative experiences in the Brussels Capital Region.
Here, 'couriers' refers to riders and drivers working through food-delivery platforms.
What problem is it addressing?
This project shifts attention to the relationship between workers, urban environments, and digital platforms. By examining how couriers adapt their routes and delivery decisions after negative experiences, the study seeks to understand how emotional strain influences their navigational choices.
GIGRISK asks three questions:
1. Risk and gender
How do negative experiences shape couriers' perceptions of risk across genders?
2. Place and navigation
Which areas and places are associated with negative experiences?
3. Coping and mobility
How do couriers adapt their routes and navigation strategies in response?
Where is the research taking place?
The research will take place in the Brussels Capital Region. You can find a map of the study area here.
Why does it matter?
Traditional urban planning often overlooks how gender shapes people's experiences of public space. This is particularly important for food-delivery couriers, whose work requires them to spend extended periods navigating streets and public spaces. Yet little is known about how couriers perceive and respond to the risks they encounter while working.
So what?
Understanding these experiences can help researchers, planners, and policymakers design safer and more inclusive urban environments while improving our understanding of how platform work reshapes everyday mobility.
Who is conducting it?
GIGRISK is led by Jorge Castañeda, a qualitative researcher working at the intersection of sociology, urban planning, criminology, and cultural geography. His doctoral research examined the role of deviance in the production of gendered meanings in a Mexican strip club.
View researcher profile/CV
About the author and contact
[Contact picture]
Jorge Castañeda
Independent Researcher
Sociology | Urban Planning | Criminology