The SAGE Handbook of Digital Labour, edited by Ergin Bulut, Julie Chen, Kylie Jarrett, and CLCF Co-Director Rafael Grohmann, is out! Check it out:
Description
The Sage Handbook of Digital Labour is a comprehensive exploration of the multifaceted and evolving concept of digital labour. Originally coined in Marxist analyses to explain the exploitation of user data in the digital economy, the term has since expanded to encompass a wide range of paid work influenced by digital technologies. This includes traditional jobs transformed by platforms, new roles emerging in today’s digital society, and cultural producers like influencers and online creators. The handbook also addresses the material aspects of digital labour, highlighting its dependence on traditional manufacturing and manual labour.
This volume brings together leading scholars from diverse disciplines to examine the intersections of labour and digital technologies. It approaches digital labour as an interdisciplinary field of inquiry, exploring the material and ideological conditions of work in contemporary society. The handbook aims to chart the extensive territory of digital labour studies, covering theoretical traditions, key concepts, emblematic sites of production, normative cultures, and worker subjectivities. It also showcases the spectrum of worker organizing repertoires and tactics across the world.
The handbook is organized into seven sections. Section 1 highlights major theoretical traditions, while Section 2 focuses on the material sites along production chains. Sections 3 and 4 delve into key concepts and sites of production, and Section 5 explores normative cultures and worker subjectivities. Section 6 examines worker organizing tactics, and Section 7 introduces research methods for scholars in the field. The volume concludes with discussions on how digital labour studies can provide unique perspectives to imagine digital futures.
Part 1: Theoretical Traditions
Part 2: Material Sites of Production
Part 3: Key Concepts in Digital Labour
Part 4: Emblematic Sites of Production
Part 5: Normative Cultures and Worker Subjectivities
Part 6: Worker Organizing Repertoires and Tactics
Part 7: Research Methods in Digital Labour Studies
Table of Contents
| Authors | Chapter |
|---|---|
| Ergin Bulut; Julie Yujie Chen; Rafael Grohmann; Kylie Jarrett | Introduction: Digital Labour as a Field of Inquiry |
Section One: Foundations of Digital Labour
| Authors | Chapter |
|---|---|
| Ergin Bulut; Julie Yujie Chen; Rafael Grohmann; Kylie Jarrett | Section One Introduction |
| Marcos Dantas | Chapter 1: Globalization and Information Work |
| Ned Rossiter; Soenke Zehle | Chapter 2: The Social Factory of Data Capitalism: Cybernetics, Logistics, Labour |
| Nicole Cohen | Chapter 3: Digital Labour, Precarity, and Employment Status: Continuity Through Change |
| Aphra Kerr; Marguerite Barry | Chapter 4: Retooling ethics for a critical and just digital future |
| Sareeta Amrute | Chapter 5: Race, Digital Labor, and Gig: Concepts, Histories, and Solidarities for the Why (and How) We Study Race |
| Mayo Fuster Morell | Chapter 6: Platform Work and Gender Equality |
Section Two: Digital Labour Infrastructures
| Authors | Chapter |
|---|---|
| Ergin Bulut; Julie Yujie Chen; Rafael Grohmann; Kylie Jarrett | Section Two Introduction |
| Abel Guerra | Chapter 7: An Infrastructural Optic to Digital Labour |
| Evelyn Wan | Chapter 8: Mining for Digital Culture: Dispossessed lives through the lens of art |
| Paola Ricaurte | Chapter 9: Data centers and labor politics: Political economy, geopolitics, and narratives of labor |
| Prince K. Guma | Chapter 10: Materialities of Everyday Digital Labour |
| Melissa Mazmanian; Maggie Jack; Ingrid Erickson | Chapter 11: The Rise of Independent Work and the Challenges of Realizing Autonomy |
| Mira Wallis; Manuela Bojadzijev; Moritz Altenried | Chapter 12: Platform Mobilities: Migration and Digital Labor |
Section Three: Labour Transformations
| Authors | Chapter |
|---|---|
| Ergin Bulut; Julie Yujie Chen; Rafael Grohmann; Kylie Jarrett | Section Three Introduction |
| Harry Pitts | Chapter 13: Value Struggles in Digital Taylorism: Scientific Management and Social Mediation |
| Yu Huang | Chapter 14: Rethinking Industrial Automation: Marxist Perspective |
| Fabricio Barili | Chapter 15: Dynamics of surveillance: Unveiling Surveillance in Workspaces and Work Management |
| Uma Rani; Raghav Mehrotra; Sona Mewati | Chapter 16: Redefining skills in a digital age: Fragmentation and underutilization |
| Phoebe Moore; Gwendolin Barnard | Chapter 17: Affective computing, algorithmic affect management, and the quantified worker |
| Aneesh Aneesh; Shiv Issar | Chapter 18: Labor’s Odyssey Through Algorithmic Systems |
| Niels van Doorn; Aaron Shapiro | Chapter 19: Studying the gig economy ‘beyond the gig’: A research agenda |
Section Four: Sites of Production
| Authors | Chapter |
|---|---|
| Ergin Bulut; Julie Yujie Chen; Rafael Grohmann; Kylie Jarrett | Section Four Introduction |
| Sai Amulya Komarraju | Chapter 20: Digital Labour Platforms and the Future of Care Work(ers) |
| Roseli Figaro; Claudia Nonato | Chapter 21: Platformization and digitalization of journalists’ work in Brazil |
| Mary L. Gray; Saiph Savage | Chapter 22: Designing for Global Data Work |
| Jin Lee; Crystal Abidin | Chapter 23: Silver Halmeoni Influencers in the Social Media Spotlight: Navigating Geriatric Cuteness, Labor, and Ageism |
| Lorena Caminhas | Chapter 24: Digital sex work and the contested boundaries of material and immaterial digital labour |
| Antonio Casilli | Chapter 25: Digital labor and the inconspicuous production of artificial intelligence |
| Eric Florence; Juan Sebastian Carbonell | Chapter 26: Digitalisation and resistance in logistics work |
| Kenzo Soares Seto | Chapter 27: Navigating the Sociotechnical Imaginaries of Brazilian Tech Workers |
Section Five: Organisational Cultures
| Authors | Chapter |
|---|---|
| Ergin Bulut; Julie Yujie Chen; Rafael Grohmann; Kylie Jarrett | Section Five Introduction |
| Godwin Simon; Kevin Sanson | Chapter 28: Seed Sowing in Nollywood: Labour, Precariousness, and the Promises of the Streaming Video Market in Nigeria |
| Renyi Hong | Chapter 29: The Pain of Love: Passionate Work and Spousal Support as Digital Labor |
| Christine H. Tran | Chapter 30: Play-at-Home Jobs: A Critical Feminist Viewership of Labour, Leisure & Livestreaming on Twitch |
| Cheryll Soriano | Chapter 31: Qualculative practices of ‘hustle’ in platform labor |
| Ana Alacovska | Chapter 32: The life/work mishmash in platform labour: Towards a livelihood approach |
| Tugce Bidav |
Chapter 33: Professional Identity Formation of Social Media Creators |
| Amir Anwar | Chapter 34: Digital Labour and Uneven Developments |
Section Six: Workers’ Organising
| Authors | Chapter |
|---|---|
| Ergin Bulut; Julie Yujie Chen; Rafael Grohmann; Kylie Jarrett | Section Six Introduction |
| Kurt Vandaele | Chapter 35: Unionisation of digital labour |
| Lilly Irani | Chapter 36: Turkopticon: From Software to Organizing (2009-2024) |
| Noopur Raval | Chapter 37: New Realms, New Responses: Alternative Worker Collectivization after Platforms |
| Denise Kasparian; Sain Lopez-Perez | Chapter 38: Cooperatives for Worker Empowerment in the Digital Economy |
Section Seven: Researching Digital Labour
| Authors | Chapter |
|---|---|
| Ergin Bulut; Julie Yujie Chen; Rafael Grohmann; Kylie Jarrett | Section Seven Introduction |
| Oguz Alyanak, Alessio Bertolini, Funda Ustek-Spilda, Jonas Valente, Robbie Warin, Mark Graham | Chapter 39: Action-Research: The Fairwork Project |
| Callum Cant; Zeynap Karlidag; Clark McAllister; George Briley; Dante Philp | Chapter 40: Workers’ Inquiry: A User’s Guide |
| Kruskaya Hidalgo Cordero | Chapter 41: Código Doméstico in the flesh: Feminist oral history methodologies for digital care work research |
| Tiziano Bonini; Emiliano Trere | Chapter 42: Confronting methodological and ethical challenges in the study of algorithms and digital labour |
| Arturo Arriagada; Vanessa Richter | Chapter 43: Exploring Imaginaries on Digital Labour |
| Vera Khovanskaya | Chapter 44: Worker Advocacy and Data Collection: Methodological Sensibilities for Studying Digitally Mediated Work |
| Ergin Bulut; Julie Yujie Chen; Rafael Grohmann; Kylie Jarrett | Conclusion: Digital Futures |

