Digital Transformations and Gig Economies in Everyday Precarity

With support from the 2025 Tinker / CLACS Field Research Grant, I conducted two weeks of fieldwork in El Salvador (August 2–16, 2025). While I have made annual visits since 2022 to build relationships and gather context, this trip marked my first IRB-approved visit to initiate formal interviews and systematic data collection. Focused on San Salvador, the fieldwork examined the socio-environmental health impacts of cryptocurrency development and broader digital transformations. I conducted four formal interviews, including one with an environmental activist and three with professors at the Universidad de El Salvador (UES), the country’s oldest and most prestigious university. I also explored the expanding gig and platform economies, using and interviewing Uber drivers 17 times and inDrive drivers 6 times, including my first-ever Uber motorcycle ride, and experimenting with Uber Eats and other delivery platforms. My field notes documented the remaking of San Salvador’s historic district, the displacement of informal vendors, the influence of Chinese-backed urban development, and the perspectives of residents navigating these rapid changes. The visit coincided with heightened political uncertainty, as El Salvador’s legislature approved indefinite presidential reelection — a move widely seen as consolidating an official dictatorship. Despite this context, the trip produced meaningful collaborations, particularly with UES faculty, who invited me to co-develop a hybrid forum on digital transformations. These relationships are expanding into plans for joint publications with Salvadoran professors, and parallel efforts with colleagues in Oregon. This short-term visit, supported by Tinker/CLACS, therefore serves as a foundation for extended fieldwork and collaborative scholarship in 2026–27.