Technologies of Labour and the Politics of Contradiction

This book is situated in the nexus between technology, labour and politics. It focuses on contradictions as heuristic devices that uncover struggles, frictions and ambiguities of digitalization in work and labour environments. Topics include contradictions in automation, internet platforms, digital practices, creative industries, communication industries, human interaction, democratic participation and regulation. Three cross-cutting themes can be identified within the diverse chapters represented in the book. First, many authors argue that labour and economic valorisation occur outside of the traditional concept of working space and time. Second, digital technology is not fixed under capital. It is malleable and mouldable. Third, many political tensions are occurring without organized awareness or dissent. The book will, therefore, be of interest to researchers and students in the fields of sociology of work, media studies, cultural studies, gender studies, science and technology studies and Critical Theory as well as to trade-unionists and policy makers.

Focuses on the intersections between digital technology, labour and politics Illustrates the ways in which diverging visions of technology bring to attention an underlying politics of contradiction Examines how digital technics are embedded in our society and how they alter the contexts, organizations, practices and routines of human work, work-life balance and labour

Autorentext
Pako Bili is a Research Associate at the Department for Culture and Communication, Institute for Development and International Relations (IRMO) in Zagreb, Croatia Jaka Primorac is Senior Research Associate at the Department for Culture and Communication, Institute for Development and International Relations (IRMO), Zagreb, Croati

Bjarki Valtysson is Associate Professor at the Department of Arts and Cultural Studies at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark

Klappentext

'This book could mark a 'maturing' of the digital labour debates, and as such is to be welcomed.'

Nick Dyer-Witheford, University of Western Ontario, Canada

'This empirically wide-ranging analysis of the labour-technology relationship could not be more timely or pressing.'

Juliet Webster, Work & Equality Research, UK

'An excellent contribution to current debates in the trend toward labour capture in digitalized environments.'

Phoebe V Moore, Leicester University Business School, UK

This book is situated in the nexus between technology, labour and politics. It focuses on contradictions as heuristic devices that uncover struggles, frictions and ambiguities of digitalization in work and labour environments. Topics include contradictions in automation, internet platforms, digital practices, creative industries, communication industries, human interaction, democratic participation and regulation. Three cross-cutting themes can be identified within the diverse chapters represented in the book. First, many authors argue that labour and economic valorisation occur outside of the traditional concept of working space and time. Second, digital technology is not fixed under capital. It is malleable and mouldable. Third, many political tensions are occurring without organized awareness or dissent. The book will, therefore, be of interest to researchers and students in the fields of sociology of work, media studies, cultural studies, gender studies, science and technology studies and Critical Theory as well as to trade-unionists and policy makers.

Inhalt

1. Technology, Labour and Politics in the 21st Century: Old struggles in New Clothing; Pako Bili, Jaka Primorac, Bjarki Valtysson.- 2. Industry 4.0: Robotics and Contradictions; Sabine Pfeiffer. 3.- From Ford to Facebook: Time and Technologies of Work; Eran Fisher.- 4. The Production of Algorithms and the Cultural Politics of Web Search; Pako Bili.- 5. Algorithms, Dashboards and Datafication: A Critical Evaluation of Social Media Monitoring; Ivo Furman.- 6. Efficient Worker or Reflective Practitioner? Competing Technical Rationalities of Media Software Tools; Ingrid Forsler and Julia Velkova.- 7. In the Golden Cage of Creative Industries: Public-Private Valuing of Female Creative Labour; Valerija Barada and Jaka Primorac.- 8. Digital Inclusion for Better Job Opportunities? The Case of Women E-Included through Lifelong Learning Programmes; Lidia Arroyo Prieto.- 9. A Recent Story About Uber; Brian Beaton.- 10. Protocols of Control: Collaboration in Free and Open Source Software; Reinhard Anton Handler.- 11. Playbour and the Gamification of Work: Empowerment, Exploitation and Fun as Labour Dynamics; Raul Ferrer-Conill.- 12. Audience Metrics as a Decision-making Factor in Slovene Online News Organizations; Aleksander Sao Slaek Brlek.- 13. Media Use and the Extended Commodification of the Lifeworld; Göran Bolin.- 14. Regulation, Technology, and Civic Agency: The Case of Facebook; Bjarki Valtysson.- 15. Spinning the Web: The Contradictions of Researching and Regulating Digital Work and Labour; Pamela Meil.