[Commlist] New book - The Fight Against Platform Capitalism

New book

THE FIGHT AGAINST PLATFORM CAPITALISM

AN INQUIRY INTO THE GLOBAL STRUGGLES OF THE GIG ECONOMY

Jamie Woodcock, Open University

So far platform work has been an important laboratory for capital. 
Management techniques, like the use of algorithms, are being tested with 
a view to exporting across the global economy and it is argued that 
automation is undermining workers’ agency. Although the contractual 
trick of self-employment has allowed platforms to grow quickly and keep 
their costs down, yet it has also been the case also that workers have 
also found they can strike without following the existing regulations.

This book develops a critique of platforms and platform capitalism from 
the perspective of workers and contributes to the ongoing debates about 
the future of work and worker organising. It presents an alternative 
portrait returning to a focus on workers’ experience, focusing on 
solidarity, drawing out a global picture of new forms of agency. In 
particular, the book focuses on three dynamics that are driving 
struggles in the platform economy: the increasing connections between 
workers who are no longer isolated; the lack of communication and 
negotiation from platforms, leading to escalating worker action around 
shared issues; and the internationalisation of platforms, which has laid 
the basis for new transnational solidarity.

CONTENTS

1. Introduction

2. Digital Workerism, a Framework

3. Transport Platform Workers

4. Online Workers

5. Understanding Platform Resistance

6. Conclusion: Why Struggles Against Platform Capitalism Matter

Notes | References | Index

SUBJECTS

Sociology of Work |Digital Sociology | Internet Studies

AUTHOR

JAMIE WOODCOCK is a senior lecturer at the Open University and a 
researcher based in London. He is the author of The Gig Economy (2019), 
Marx at the Arcade (2019) and Working the Phones (2017), also serving on 
the editorial boards of Notes from Below and Historical Materialism.

Published open access by the University of Westminster Press

https//www.uwestminsterpress.co.uk/site/books/10.16997/book51

Paperback 978-1-912656-94-3

UK  £19.99 US  $24.95 EUR €21

PDF 978-1-912656-95-0  ePub 978-1 912656-96-7 Kindle  978-1-912656-97-4

DOI: 10.16997/book51

This book is published in the Critical Digital and Social Media Studies 
Series

https//www.uwestminsterpress.co.uk/site/books/series/critical-digital-and-social-media-studies

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