[Commlist] CfP: INDL-5: Features and futures of digital labor

      *INDL-5: Features and futures of digital labor*

Department of Sociology, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens

Department of Economic and Social Sciences, Telecom Paris, Polytechnic 
Institute of Paris

DiPLab (Digital Platform Labor), Telecom Paris, Polytechnic Institute of 
Paris

Labor Institute of the General Confederation of Greek Workers

International Labor Organization

The INDL (International Network on Digital Labor) project started as 
ENDL (the “E” standing for “European”) 5 years ago with an inaugural 
meeting in Paris. Since then, it has expanded internationally, and its 
members have organized larger conferences in Paris (2019), Toronto 
(2019), Milan (2020, online), and Edinburgh (2021, online). INDL's next 
conferencewill take place on November 3-5, 2022 in Athens and will be 
the first in-person meeting since the beginning of the Covid-19 
pandemic. The network encourages the participation of researchers in all 
academic stages and from any part of the world.

*Call for submissions*

The concept of digital labor is central to the digital transformation of 
society. New jobs like online freelancing, gig-work, and remote 
crowdwork are made possible by digital intermediaries. Under the impetus 
of work from home, conventional jobs have changed to teleconferencing 
and have introduced algorithmic management.

Despite the pervasiveness of this phenomenon, the notion of digital 
labor remains elusive. Different disciplines and fields in the social 
and economic sciences, political theory, law, and philosophy have 
attempted to capture the attributes of labor in the digital age. These 
academic endeavors take place against the backdrop of the rise of 
platformization of work and the introduction of new activities that 
produce data and meanings for large sociotechnical systems. Thus, 
digital labor not only necessitates the transformation of the 
traditional concepts and methodologies we employ to study this essential 
human activity but also calls for a new understanding of labor relations 
to overcome the looming threats of unfair remuneration, job instability, 
harsh working conditions, lack of social grounding and, very often, 
self-alienation. This conference aims to map these new working 
environments by connecting different disciplines and fostering dialogue 
around the nature of digital work, as well as the possible futures that 
academic research may help bring about.

Place: National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece

Dates: 3-5 November 2022

*Please send your abstract (max. 300 words excluding title) to*: 
contact@indl.network <mailto:contact@indl.network>

*Deadline for submission: *15/07/22

*Acceptance notification: *10/08/22

*For registration: *TBA

A non-exhaustive list of topics to be addressed by the conference:

1. New forms of digital labor

a. Atypical work and platforms

b. New types of contracts

c. Digital labor platforms and labor as a service

d. Platformization of remote work

e. Covid-19 and the great “work-from-home experiment”

2. The transformation of the working subject

a. Issues of personal identity (fragmentation, self-alienation)

b. Emergent classes (digital nomads, precariat, cybertariat etc.)

3. Digital labor and economic theory

a. Digital labor and value theory

b. Surveillance as value-producing mechanism

c. Cryptomining and new forms of capital accumulation

d. From commodification to ‘assetization’ of work

5. Digital labor and inequalities

6. Digital labor and the Global Souths

a. Coloniality

b. Global supply networks

c. Migrations

d. Labor arbitrage

e. Global workers’ competition

7. Digital labor and career development

a. What jobs are available to former platform workers?

b. Competency development

c. Formal and informal skills

d. Workforce polarization

e. Platform labor and unemployment/underemployment

8. Organizing digital workers

a. Negotiating the algorithm

b. Unions and platforms

c. Platform cooperativism

d. Global digital activism and platform labor

e. Labor regulations and digital markets

f. Patterns of professional regulation

g. Emerging working subjectivities

*Scientific committee:*

Paola Tubaro (CNRS), Antonio Casilli (Télécom Paris, Polytechnic 
Institute of Paris), Clément Le Ludec (Télécom Paris, Polytechnic 
Institute of Paris), Milagros Miceli (The DAIR Institute & 
Weizenbaum-Institut), Julian Posada (University of Toronto & Yale 
University), Uma Rani (International Labor Organization), Manolis 
Patiniotis (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens), Iraklis 
Vogiatzis (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens), Valia 
Aranitou (University of Crete), Christos Goulas (Labor Institute of the 
General Confederation of Greek Workers), Manos Spiridakis (University of 
the Peloponnese).

**
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