Full Description
This book examines class relations through numerous empirical case studies, reports, and other sets of data before and during COVID-19. It is divided in four distinctive work processes the global 'productive' digital work process, which comprises areas like manufacturing; 'unproductive' commercial digital work, which comprises sectors like the creative industries, retail and services; digital gig work practices; and the state and public work sectors. Roberts maps class relations in these work processes to three types of digital work: digital labour (or, what is commonly known as platform labour); digitisation of labour (the application of digital technology to everyday work practices); and digitised labour (when automation and smart machines replace 'real' workers in an organisation). Situating the analysis within the broader and global perspective of neoliberalism and financialisation, it demonstrates how the use of digital technology in many workplaces and labour processes has benefited 'unproductive' global capital, particularly capital in the unproductive financial sector.
Contents
Introduction: Digital, Class, and Work Before and During COVID-19
Digital Prosumer Labour: Two Schools of Thought
Alienated Labour and Class Relations
Neoliberalism, Financialisation and Class Relations Before and During COVID-19
Productive Digital Work Before and During COVID-19
Unproductive Digital Work Before and During COVID-19
Creative Industries and Creative Classes Before and During COVID-19
Digital Labour in the Gig Economy Before and During COVID-19
Digital Work in the State and Public Sector Before and During COVID-19
Conclusions: Towards a Post-Covid-19 Politics of Class Struggle
