This panel critically examines the intersections of digital labor, platform economies, and identity formation in the Global South, with a particular focus on peripheral creator economies and gendered labor experiences. Collectively, the papers highlight how digital platforms mediate economic survival, social mobility, and self-representation in precarious labor markets, while also reinforcing systemic inequalities.

The first paper explores the experiences of OnlyFans creators in Chile, emphasizing how digital labor serves as both an economic opportunity and a site of exploitation, particularly for women navigating gendered stigmatization and algorithmic governance.

The second paper extends this analysis to platform-mediated food delivery work in Chile and Argentina, revealing how women and gender dissidents resist labor precarity and urban risk through informal solidarity networks. The third paper further investigates the entanglement of labor and content creation, focusing on Brazilian delivery-influencers who transform their daily struggles into digital narratives on YouTube, negotiating the dual pressures of gig work and social media visibility. Finally, the fourth paper examines gender differences in influencer content across Spain and Chile, demonstrating how digital narratives shape youth identity and reinforce traditional gender norms in online spaces.

Together, these papers challenge dominant, Global North-centric narratives of digital labor and influencer economies. They foreground the agency of marginalized workers while critically interrogating the structural forces that shape their experiences, offering new insights into the ways digital platforms mediate labor, identity, and resistance in the Global South.