Autonomous cartographies of Danish platform housecleaning

Danish research on platform work has largely abstained from employing participatory methodologies and engaging migrant gig-workers to promote socially robust knowledge on the topic, while methodological nationalism premised on the figure of the citizen-worker has created many epistemological challenges regarding how knowledge on Nordic platform work has been produced to date (Andersen & Spanger 2024). This presentation introduces a methodological framework drawing on critical geography, for counter-mapping migrant platform housecleaners’ own spatio-temporal perceptions and aspirations vis-à-vis their participation in the Danish gig economy. This framework is meant to include and foreground migrants’ multiple situated approaches to gig work through participatory workshops conducting autonomous cartographies (cf. Counter Cartographies Collective et al. 2012). The goal of this approach is to defy singular definitions of platform labour in Denmark, while simultaneously producing knowledge from below and serving as a political intervention.
Based on an ongoing project and a pilot counter-cartographic workshop facilitated by the authors in the spring of 2025, the presentation will discuss the strengths, limitations, ethical considerations and social/political potential of such a methodological approach, siding with literature stressing the need to highlight -primarily migrant- gig workers’ resistance practices (e.g., Bonini & Trere 2024). The introduced framework prioritizes migrant workers’ collective needs as foundational for meaningful counter-politics and proposes interactive counter-maps as a supportive tool to collective organizing. Moreover, the presentation contributes to the discussion on researchers’ critical reflections upon the extractivist aspects of participatory research.