[ecrea] New book: 'Technologies of Labour and the Politics of Contradiction'

New book in the ‘Dynamics of Virtual Work’ Series by PalgraveMacmillan

(Series editors: Rosalind Gill and Ursula Huws)

*Technologies of Labour and the Politics of Contradiction*

Edited by:

Paško Bilić, Jaka Primorac and Bjarki Valtysson

Book is available at the following address:

https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783319762784

_About the book:_

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 Theoryas well as to 
trade-unionists and policy makers.

_Authors in the edited volume:_

Sabine Pfeiffer, Eran Fisher, Paško Bilić, Ivo Furman, Ingrid Forsler 
and Julia Velkova, Valerija Barada and Jaka Primorac, Lidia Arroyo, 
Brian Beaton, Reinhard Anton Handler, Raul Ferrer-Conill, Aleksander 
Sašo Slaček Brlek, Göran Bolin, Bjarki Valtýsson, Meil, Pamela.

__

_Book reviews:_

ʻWhat distinguishes this collection is its thematisation of the 
contradictions attending computerized and networked labour. This seems 
to suggest an orientation towards contestations, complications, 
paradoxes and ambivalences that might have been flattened out or 
neglected in partisan polemics. As such, it could mark a ‘maturing’ of 
the digital labour debates, and as such is to be welcomed.ʼ

*‒ Nick Dyer-Witheford*, University of Western Ontario, Canada

ʻIn a world dominated by social media, widespread algorithmic direction 
of human activities, and, imminently, sweeping robotisation, this 
empirically wide-ranging analysis of the labour-technology relationship 
could not be more timely or pressing.‚

*‒ Juliet Webster*, Work & Equality Research, UK

ʻTechnologies of Labour and the Politics of Contradiction provides an 
excellent contribution to current debates in the trend toward labour 
capture in digitalized environments. Bilić, Primorac and**Valtysson have 
gathered several extremely important case studies and theoretical 
interventions, bringing to light a range of worrying contradictions and 
volatility of labour markets where the future is yet undetermined, where 
artificial intelligence hints toward barbarism and extreme working 
conditions are hidden behind black box mythologies.ʼ

*‒ Phoebe V Moore*, Leicester University Business School, UK

_About the editors:_

*Paško Bilić*is 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, Croatia

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

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