Abstract
The notion of digital labour has revitalized discussions around critical communication studies, but it has also been relevant to inquiries on the metamorphosis of labour relationships, and even in studies of everyday life in the context of Society 4.0. Addressing questions emerging from those insights, this chapter explores some contributions from the sociology of the body/emotions for understanding the practices and politics of sensibilities associated with digital labour. To do this, this chapter (i) explores various theoretical debates around the definition of digital labour, in order to underline the relevance of redefining forms of exploitation regarding related practices, (ii) develops arguments from the perspective of the sociology of bodies/emotions, which allow us to understand in what sense the technological mediation linked to the expansion of ICTs constitutes a reconfiguration of “the politics of the senses” (look, see, observe, touch etc.) and (iii) analyses cases of workers in ICT industries (based on testimonies and records of virtual ethnography) that allow us to connect their daily experience with certain mechanisms of expropriation and commodification of the vitality of bodies.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Some assumptions, characteristics and implications of Society 4.0 and politics of sensibilities have been developed in Chap. 1: “Introduction: politics of sensibilities, society 4.0 and digital labour”.
- 2.
For a gaze on sharing economy see in this book Chap. 8: “Sharing economy, sharing emotions in the Society 4.0. A study of the consumption and sensibilities in the Digital Era in China”.
- 3.
The data used in this article was gathered as part of a research project funded by CONICET: since 2007 we have been engaged in and completed, at least, more than 20 interviews with members of organizations linked to the sector in the city of Córdoba, Argentina, and a virtual ethnographic gathering of data from blogs, Facebook profiles and Web sites of the work organizations linked to Call Centres.
References
Andrejevic, M. (2012). Exploitation in the Data Mine. In C. Fuchs, B. Kees, A. Anders, & M. Sandoval (Eds.), Internet and Surveillance: The Challenges of Web 2.0 and Social Media (pp. 71–88). New York: Routledge.
Armano, E., Murgia, A., & Teli, M. (2017). Plataform capitalism e confini del lavoro negli spazi digitali. Milan: Mimesis.
Arwid, L. (2015). A Contribution to a Critique of the Concept Playbour. In E. Fisher & C. Fuchs (Eds.), Reconsidering Value and Labour in the Digital Age (pp. 63–79). Westminster: Palgrave Macmillan.
Aytes, A. (2013). Return of the Crowds: Mechanical Turk and Neoliberal States of Exception. In T. Scholz (Ed.), Digital Labor. The Internet as Playground and Factory (pp. 100–124). New York: Routledge.
Berg, J. (2016). Inclusive Labour Markets, Labour Relations and Working Conditions Branch. Conditions of Work and Employment Series, No. 74. Geneva: International Labour Office.
Bergvall-Kåreborn, B., & Howcroft, D. (2014). Amazon Mechanical Turk and the Commodification of Labour. New Technology, Work and Employment, 29(3), 213–223.
Braga, R. (2009). A vigança de Braverman: o infotaylorismo como contratempo. In R. Antunes & R. Braga (Eds.), Infoproletários. Degradaçao real do trabalho virtual (pp. 59–88). São Paulo: Boitempo.
Cherry, M. (2011). A Taxonomy of Virtual Work. Georgia Law Review, 45(4), 954–1009.
Cingolani, P. (2016). Capitalismo de plataforma: nuevas tecnologías de la comunicación e internacionalización del trabajo. Boletín Onteaiken, 22, 42–47.
Dyer-Witheford, N. (2015). Cyber-proletariat. Global Labour in the Digital Vortex. London: Pluto Press.
Fisher, E. (2012). How Less Alienation Creates More Exploitation? Audience Labour on Social Network Sites. tripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique-Journal for a Global Sustainable Information Society, 10(2), 171–183.
Fisher, E., & Fuchs, C. (Eds.). (2015). Reconsidering Value and Labour in the Digital Age. Westminster: Palgrave Macmillan.
Fuchs, C. (2014). Digital Labour and Karl Marx. London: Routledge.
Fuchs, C., & Sandoval, M. (2015). Digital Workers of the World Unite! A Framework for Critically Theorising and Analysing Digital Labour. TripleC, 12(2), 486–563.
Fumagalli, A. (2015). The Concept of Subsumption of Labour to Capital: Towards Life Subsumption in Bio-cognitive Capitalism. In E. Fisher & C. Fuchs (Eds.), Reconsidering Value and Labour in the Digital Age (pp. 224–245). Westminster: Palgrave Macmillan.
Graham, M., Hjorth, I., & Lehdonvirta, V. (2017). Digital Labour and Development: Impacts of Global Digital Labour Platforms and the Gig Economy on Worker Livelihoods. European Review of Labour and Research, 23(2), 135–162.
Hearn, A. (2010). Structuring Feeling: Web 2.0, Online Ranking and Rating, and the Digital “Reputation Economy”. Ephemera: Theory & Politics in Organization, 10(3/4), 421–438.
Huws, U. (2013). The Making of a Cybertariat: Virtual Work in a Real World. New York: Monthly Review Press.
Huws, U. (2014). Labor in the Global Digital Economy. The Cybertariat Comes of Age. New York: Monthly review Press.
Huws, U. (2015). A Review on the Future of Work: Online Labour Exchanges, or ‘Crowdsourcing’: Implications for Occupational Safety and Health. Bilbao: European Agency for Safety and Health at Work, Discussion Paper.
Huws, U. (2016). Working Online, Living Offline: Labour in the Internet Age. Work Organisation, Labour & Globalisation, 7(1), 1–11.
Irani, L. (2015). Difference and Dependence Among Digital Workers: The Case of Amazon Mechanical Turk. South Atlantic Quarterly, 114(1), 225–234.
Kosnik, A. (2013). Fandom as Free Labor. In T. Sholz (Ed.), The Internet as Playground and Factory (pp. 125–144). New York: Routledge.
McKenzie, W. (2013). Considerations on a Hacker Manifesto. In T. Sholz (Ed.), The Internet as Playground and Factory (pp. 91–99). New York: Routledge.
Meil, P., & Kirov, V. (2017). Policy Implications of Virtual Work. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Michailidou, M., & Kostala, E. (2016). Young Entrepreneurs and Creative Collectives: Greek New Media Workers in Constant Crisis. In J. Webster & K. Randle (Eds.), Virtual Workers and the Global Labour Market (pp. 57–76). London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Morini, C., & Fumagalli, A. (2010). Life Put to Work: Towards a Life Theory of Value. Ephemera: Theory & Politics in Organization, 10(3/4), 234–252.
Nixon, B. (2015). The Exploitation of Audience Labour: A Missing Perspective on Communication and Capital in the Digital Era. In E. Fisher & C. Fuchs (Eds.), Reconsidering Value and Labour in the Digital Age (pp. 99–114). Westminster: Palgrave Macmillan.
Olivier, F., & O’Neil, M. (2015). Digital Labour and Prosumer Capitalism. The US Matrix. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Ritzer, G., & Jurgenson, N. (2010). Production, Consumption, Presumption. Journal of Consumer Culture, 10(1), 13–36.
Scribano, A. (2017). Normalization, Enjoyment and Bodies/Emotions: Argentine Sensibilities. New York: Nova Science.
Smythe, D. W. (1977). Communications: Blindspot of Western Marxism. Canadian Journal of Political and Social Theory, 1(3), 1–27.
Terranova, T. (2013). Free Labor. In T. Scholz (Ed.), Digital Labor. The Internet as Playground and Factory (pp. 46–78). New York: Routledge.
Toffler, A. (1980). The Third Wave. New York: Bantam.
Vercellone, C. (Ed.). (2006). Capitalismo Cognitivo. Rome: Manifestolibri.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Scribano, A., Lisdero, P. (2019). Work and Sensibilities: Commodification and Processes of Expropriation Around Digital Labour. In: Scribano, A., Lisdero, P. (eds) Digital Labour, Society and the Politics of Sensibilities. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-12306-2_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-12306-2_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-12305-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-12306-2
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)