Existing scholarly discussions of the influencer industry often take a critical stance, marked by a narrow, westernised and homogenised theme of precarity. This raises the need to explore the empirical dynamics of precarity—how it is understood, managed, and ultimately lived for influencers from different social and cultural contexts. Based on in-depth interviews with 15 Instagram influencers and 12 from Xiaohongshu (Red), this article reveals that influencers adopt a positionality I term “in and against the platform.” This approach involves both collaboration with and resistance to platform rules and rituals, ultimately enabling influencers to establish a sustainable way of living amid precarity. I argue that this “in and against” framework as a condition of labour not only highlights the active agency and creativity often overlooked in academic discussions but also complicates our understanding of precarity, opening up new possibilities for coexistence with this condition.

中文翻译：

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平台内外：Instagram 和小红书（红色）影响者的不稳定之路


现有对影响力行业的学术讨论往往采取批判立场，其特点是狭隘、西化和同质化的不稳定主题。这就提出了探索不稳定的实证动态的需要——来自不同社会和文化背景的影响者如何理解、管理和最终生活它。基于对 15 位 Instagram 网红和 12 位小红书网红的深度采访，本文揭示了网红采取的立场，我称之为“在平台内或反对平台”。这种方法涉及与平台规则和仪式的合作和抵制，最终使影响者能够在不稳定的情况下建立可持续的生活方式。我认为，这种作为劳动条件的“进与出”框架不仅凸显了学术讨论中经常被忽视的积极能动性和创造力，而且使我们对不稳定的理解变得复杂，为与这种条件共存开辟了新的可能性。