Overview

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.

Full Product Details

9781399502948

Table of Contents

Reviews

"This is an important book that will be useful to all those concerned with the past, present and future of work in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic. Roberts deploys a theoretically sophisticated class analysis to discern emergent trends in capital-labour relations amongst firms using digital technologies. -- ""Benjamin Selwyn, University of Sussex"""

Author Information

John Michael Roberts is Professor of Sociology and Communications at Brunel University. His previous books include, Contemporary Left-Wing Activism, vols 1 and 2 (edited with J. Ibrahim, Routledge 2019), New Media and Public Activism (Policy Press 2014) and Digital Publics: Cultural Political Economy, Financialisation, and Organisational Politics (Routledge 2014).

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