Processual epistemic burdens and the struggles for recognition: Epistemic injustice in the platform economy

This article asks how contemporary labor domination is sustained through the organization of knowledge, evidence, and procedure. Building on work in epistemic injustice, it introduces the concept of “processual epistemic burdens,” meaning the cumulative mental exhaustion and iterative cognitive labor imposed on disadvantaged actors who must repeatedly interpret events, assemble evidence, translate their experience in ways that are legible to relevant institutions and authorities, and defend their claims over time. Much of the epistemic injustice literature is oriented to discrete and episodic harms, yet insufficiently accounts for the protracted process by which the oppressed must struggle for recognition. Centering the platform gig economy as an archetypal case, this article shows how algorithmic opacity, fragmented accountability, and adversarial litigation compel workers to become perpetual investigators, translators, and litigants. Reconceptualizing domination as epistemically mediated, the article shows that reducing epistemic injustice in the digital economy requires a more equitable distribution of epistemic labor.