[ecrea] Digital Labour and Prosumer Capitalism: The US Matrix

Digital Labour and Prosumer Capitalism: The US Matrix.

Fraysse, O. & O’Neil, M. (eds) Palgrave, 2015.


 From the back cover:

The global dimension of recreational and professional uses of
information and communication technologies makes them look universal and
almost ahistorical. Aiming to reterritorialize globalized issues, this
collection interrogates new forms of digital labour as economic facts
and as ideological justifications for the social order, both of which
emerged in the United States.

Digital Labour and Prosumer Capitalism features contributions from some
of the leading theorists of value and labour in the digital age, as well
as incisive case studies of swiping technologies, collaborative
consumption, and convergent media. It explores the two core dynamics at
the heart of digital work: tasks, or services, are broken down into
components or modularized, and users work for no pay and become
“prosumers”. Placing digital labour and prosumption within the wider
political economy, this volume presents a deeply contextualized critical
account of the forces which shape contemporary subjects, networks, and
work practices. The enrolment of consumers into production undermines
labour rights, benefiting US digital corporations. Yet digital labour
may ultimately challenge the capitalist logic, as user disregard for
property rights extends from bits to atoms.


What the people said:

“Digital capitalism marks an epochal moment of historical transition,
both in society and in thought. Proliferating digital devices are
enabling a rapidly growing share of all human activity to be
appropriated by capital. What does this signify for labour? The
contributors to this volume – a welcome mix of seasoned analysts and
younger scholars – give us tools for forging the critical reason we will
need in order to understand our swiftly changing reality.”

-Dan Schiller, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA


“Digital Labour and Prosumer Capitalism is a brilliant exploration of
the contradictions within the social relations and the ideological
underpinnings of technological utopianism and the so-called sharing
economy.”

— David Bensman, Rutgers University, USA


“This collection is excellent reading for anyone wanting to better
understand digital capitalism and why it needs to be replaced with an
alternative, just, and democratic societal formation.”

-Christian Fuchs, University of Westminster, UK


Authors:

Olivier Frayssé is Professor of American Studies at Paris-Sorbonne
University, France.

Mathieu O’Neil is Associate Professor of Communication at the University
of Canberra, Australia and Adjunct Research Fellow at the Australian
National University, Australia.


Sample chapter here:

http://www.palgrave.com/resources/sample-chapters/9781137473899_sample.pdf


More information here:

http://www.palgrave.com/page/detail/digital-labour-and-prosumer-capitalism-olivier-frayss%C3%A9/?K=9781137473899


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