Full Description
The emerging world of virtual work is not tied to physical workplaces or particular locations, but is dispersed and footloose. It is frequently precarious, and blurs the boundaries between work and non-work, production and consumption.
Contributors to this wide-ranging volume of case studies identify the growing and diverse army of virtual workers. Building from an overarching introduction which discusses the salient features of virtual work, this collection considers the challenges in analysing the class position of virtual workers.
Virtual Workers and the Global Labour Market features international examples of emerging occupations and working conditions in new media, gaming, journalism, advertising and branding, software development and offshore services. Cross-disciplinary insights from across the social sciences inform contributions on labour market entry, employment relations, precariousness, the dynamics of virtual teams, and cyberbullying, in order to illustrate the diversity of virtual work, its circumstances and its labour force.
Contents
Part I: Who are virtual workers?.- 1. Positioning virtual workers within space, time and social dynamics; Juliet Webster and Keith RandlePart II Virtual occupations, work processes and preparation for the virtual labour market.- 2. Engineering lifestyles: career choices in late modernity; Jörg Müller.- 3. Young entrepreneurs and creative collectives: Greek new media workers in constant crisis; Martha Michailidou and Eleni Kostala.- 4.Virtual innovation work: labour, creativity and standardisation; Sabine Pfeiffer, Daniela Wühr and Petra Schutt.- 5. It's on the cards: emerging employment relationships in online poker; Kaire Holts and Romina Surugiu.- 6. Recruitment, work and identity in community management: passion, precarity and play; Aphra Kerr.- Part III The conditions and experiences of virtual work.- 7. Rhythms of creativity and power in freelance creative work; Frederick H. Pitts.- 8. Towards more insecurity? Virtual work and the sustainability of creative labour; Jaka Primorac.- 9. The fragile professional identities of digital journalists in Romania; Romina Surugiu.- 10. Presence and absence in virtual team meetings: physical, virtual and social dimensions; Anu Sivunen.- 11. The presentation of self in a virtual world: working in Second Life; Stine Bengtsson.- 12. Cyberbullying at work: experiences of Indian employees; Premilla D'Cruz
