Bücher der Reihe Dynamics of Virtual Work

This book reorients the lens of global creative economies in order to focus on ecological articulations of cultural production ecosystems. While numerous volumes and studies exist of how cities and regions all over the world produce culture, this volume uses a creative ecosystems perspective to articulate and underpin examples of sustainable growth and development with respect to cultural production.This volume offer a distinctive, in-depth understanding of how creative and cultural policy works in cities from around the world ¿ not solely from academic or policy perspectives but including practitioners as well. The book aims to question and reformulate policy as it has been developed through creative industries approaches and instead offer up different examples and approaches to regional development with a focus on cultural production. The book carves a creative economy policy-oriented path of development that reflects the real world.

This book looks at the history of work and the meanings that are attached to it over time. Taking as its basis a number of international surveys and interviews conducted in Europe, the authors consider the significance of work for Europeans today.Over the years the meaning of work has changed. It has become more highly diversified, and it is today invested with high expectations that conflict with organisational developments and the changing nature of the labour market. The authors use a generational perspective to explore whether it is possible to reconcile the contemporary ΓÇ£ethosΓÇ¥ of work, especially with regards to women and young people, with organisations that are increasingly under pressure to be profitable and productive.Reinventing Work in Europe will be of interest to scholars and students in the areas of sociology of work, employment and organizations, labour studies, digital economy, and political economy.    

Rebecca Saunders focuses on pornography in order to investigate the impact of digital forms of capitalism on contemporary sexuality and reveals the centrality of pornography to the digital attention economy, affective economics, the information economy, the creative industries and neoliberalism.

This volume explores current interventions into the digital labour theory of value, proposing theoretical and empirical work that contributes to our understanding of Marx's labour theory of value, proposes how labour and value are transformed under conditions of virtuality, and employ the theory in order to shed light on specific practices.

This book provides a unique contribution to the controversial discussion that surrounds the digitalisation and virtualisation of work. With a focus on the new formation of space and place, it critically discusses the idea that places in the context of work are increasingly losing their importance, and becoming more arbitrary with new technical possibilities. Theoretical considerations that deal conceptually with the understanding of space and work are taken into account, as well as empirical results from different professional and work fields across various regions of our globalised world. The book is applicable to researchers and students of sociology of work, media and communications, organization studies, workplace studies, labour process studies, economics, human geography, anthropology and learning sciences.Chapter 1, 4 and 11 are available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

Why do ordinary people who used to engage in domestic and leisure activities for free now try to make a profit from them? How and why do people commodify their free time? This book explores the marketization of blogging, cooking, craftwork, gardening, knitting, selling second-hand items, sexcamming, and more generally the economic use of free time. It outlines how the development of web platforms, the current economic context and post-Fordist values can account for this extension of market and labor.Drawing on a range of interviews, ethnographic observations, and quantitative surveys, the contributors question the empowering effects of commodification, with a specific focus on how gender and class inequalities affect the social meanings of extra money. Ultimately, the collective findings demonstrate how commodification pervades even the most mundane social activities. This research will be invaluable to scholars and students with a focus on gender and digital sociology, the sociology of work and labour, and the marketization of leisure.

This book relates Wikipedians' conceptions of their activities in terms of play, game, work and labour, to their views on Wikipedia and capitalism.

This book is situated in the nexus between technology, labour and politics. The book will, therefore, be of interest to researchers and students in the fields of sociology of work, media studies, cultural studies, gender studies, science and technology studies and Critical Theory as well as to trade-unionists and policy makers.

This book details qualitative research focusing on Internet startups, digital entrepreneurship, race and sex discrimination, and the sharing economy.

Why do ordinary people who used to engage in domestic and leisure activities for free now try to make a profit from them? How and why do people commodify their free time? This book explores the marketization of blogging, cooking, craftwork, gardening, knitting, selling second-hand items, sexcamming, and more generally the economic use of free time. It outlines how the development of web platforms, the current economic context and post-Fordist values can account for this extension of market and labor.Drawing on a range of interviews, ethnographic observations, and quantitative surveys, the contributors question the empowering effects of commodification, with a specific focus on how gender and class inequalities affect the social meanings of extra money. Ultimately, the collective findings demonstrate how commodification pervades even the most mundane social activities. This research will be invaluable to scholars and students with a focus on gender and digital sociology, the sociology of work and labour, and the marketization of leisure.

In this long-awaited book, Ursula Huws brings together the results of decades of prescient research on labour market transformation to provide an authoritative overview of the impacts of technological, economic, social and political change on working life in the 21st century.Placing current upheavals in global labour markets firmly in their historical context, she debunks myths about the impacts of artificial intelligence on labour, pointing to the processes whereby new employment is created, as well as old jobs destroyed, while never underestimating the contradictory impacts of digitalisation on work organisation, resistance, adaption and innovation.This book is underpinned by a clear conceptual framework, that analyses the dynamics of the restructuring of capitalism and labour, taking full account of unpaid social reproductive work, and integrating a feminist analysis whilst also pointing to new forms of commodification that will shape the future. Labour in Contemporary Capitalism will be an invaluable resource and point of reference for students and scholars studying the sociology of labour, economic structures, technology, and globalisation.

This critical, international and interdisciplinary edited collection investigates the new normal of work and employment, presenting research on the experience of the workers themselves. The collection explores the formation of contemporary worker subjects, and the privilege or disadvantage in play around gender, class, age and national location within the global workforce. Organised around the three areas of: creative working, digital working lives, and transitions and transformations, its fifteen chapters examine in detail the emerging norms of work and work activities in a range of occupations and locations. It also investigates the coping strategies adopted by workers to manage novel difficulties and life circumstances, and their understandings of the possibilities, trajectories, mobilities, identities and potential rewards of their work situations. This book will appeal to a wide range of audiences, including students and academics of the sociology of work and labor history, and those interested in understanding the implications of the 'new normal' of work and employment.

This book will appeal to scholars in the Sociology of Work and Digital Labour Studies and anyone interested in learning about monitoring and surveillance, automation, the gig economy and the quantified self in the workplace.

Creative hubs have become a cornerstone of economic and cultural policy with only the barest amount of discussion or scrutiny. This volume offers the first interrogation of creative hubs, with ground-breaking critical writing from a combination of established scholars and new voices. Looking across multiple sites trans-nationally, and combining theoretical and empirical reflections, it asks: what are creative hubs, why do they matter, and are they making the world a better place?Creative Hubs in Question discusses creative hubs in relation to debates about creative cities, co-working spaces and workers' co-operatives. Featuring case studies from Argentina to the Netherlands, and Nigeria to the UK, the contributions address how hubs are situated in relation to projects of equality and social justice, and whether and in what ways they change the experiences of the creatives who work in them. Drawing on a range of disciplinary perspectives including sociology, geography, economics, media and communications, culture and creative industries, critical policy studies, gender studies, race and ethnicity, and urban studies, this collection will be of interest to policy makers, academics, scholars, students and practitioners across these fields.

This collection presents an array of policy debates and implications emerging from virtual work.

This volume approaches questions about gender and the politics of appearance from a new perspective by developing the notion of aesthetic labour. Bringing together feminist writing regarding the ‘beauty myth’ with recent scholarship about new forms of work, the book suggests that in this moment of ubiquitous photography, social media, and 360 degree surveillance, women are increasingly required to be ''aesthetic entrepreneurs’, maintaining a constant state of vigilance about their appearance. The collection shows that this work is not just on the surface of bodies, but requires a transformation of subjectivity itself, characterised by notions of personal choice, risk-taking, self-management, and individual responsibility. The book includes analyses of online media, beauty service work, female genital cosmetic surgery, academic fashion, self-help literature and the seduction community, from a range of countries.   Discussing beauty politics, postfeminism, neoliberalism, labour and subjectivity, the book will be of interest to scholars and students with an interest in Gender, Media Studies, Cultural Studies, Sociology, Social Psychology and Management Studies. “This highly engaging, smart, and wide-ranging collection analyzes how, under the self-governing mandates of neoliberalism, the demands that girls and women regulate and control their bodies and appearance have escalated to new, unforgiving levels.  A special strength of the book is its emphasis on the rise of ‘aesthetic labour’ as a global, transnational and ever-colonizing phenomenon that seeks to sweep up women of all races, ages and locales into its disciplinary grip.  Highly recommended.” -Susan  J Douglas, University of Michigan, USA the inherited responsibility that remains women’s particular burden to manage.” -Melissa Gregg, Intel Corporation, USA “This book incisively conceptualizes how neo-liberalist and postfeminist tendencies are ramping up pressures for glamour, aesthetic, fashion, and body work in the general public. In a moment when YouTube ‘makeup how to’ videos receive millions of hits; what to wear and how to wear it blogs clock massive followings; and staying ‘on brand’ is sold to us as the key to personal and financial success, ‘aesthetic entrepreneurship’ is bound to become a go-to concept for anyone seeking to understand the profound shifts shaping labor and life in the 21st century.” -Elizabeth Wissinger, City University of New York, USA  

This book is situated in the nexus between technology, labour and politics. The book will, therefore, be of interest to researchers and students in the fields of sociology of work, media studies, cultural studies, gender studies, science and technology studies and Critical Theory as well as to trade-unionists and policy makers.

This critical, international and interdisciplinary edited collection investigates the new normal of work and employment, presenting research on the experience of the workers themselves. The collection explores the formation of contemporary worker subjects, and the privilege or disadvantage in play around gender, class, age and national location within the global workforce. Organised around the three areas of: creative working, digital working lives, and transitions and transformations, its fifteen chapters examine in detail the emerging norms of work and work activities in a range of occupations and locations. It also investigates the coping strategies adopted by workers to manage novel difficulties and life circumstances, and their understandings of the possibilities, trajectories, mobilities, identities and potential rewards of their work situations. This book will appeal to a wide range of audiences, including students and academics of the sociology of work and labor history, and those interested in understanding the implications of the ¿new normal¿ of work and employment.

This edited volume seeks to enhance our understanding of the concepts of space and place in the study of digital work. It argues that while digital work is often presented as 'placeless', work always takes place somewhere with a certain degree of local embeddedness. Contributors to this collection address restructuring processes that bring about delocalised digital work and point out limitations to dislocation inherent in the work itself, and the social relations or the physical artefacts involved. Exploring the dynamics of global value chains and shifts in the international division of labour, this book explores the impact these have on employment and working conditions, workers' agency in shaping and coping with changes in work, and the new competencies needed in virtual organisational environments. Combining different disciplinary perspectives, the volume teases out the spatial aspects of digital work at different scales ranging from team level to that of global production networks.

This book will appeal to scholars in the Sociology of Work and Digital Labour Studies and anyone interested in learning about monitoring and surveillance, automation, the gig economy and the quantified self in the workplace.

This volume approaches questions about gender and the politics of appearance from a new perspective by developing the notion of aesthetic labour. Bringing together feminist writing regarding the ΓÇÿbeauty mythΓÇÖ with recent scholarship about new forms of work, the book suggests that in this moment of ubiquitous photography, social media, and 360 degree surveillance, women are increasingly required to be ''aesthetic entrepreneursΓÇÖ, maintaining a constant state of vigilance about their appearance. The collection shows that this work is not just on the surface of bodies, but requires a transformation of subjectivity itself, characterised by notions of personal choice, risk-taking, self-management, and individual responsibility. The book includes analyses of online media, beauty service work, female genital cosmetic surgery, academic fashion, self-help literature and the seduction community, from a range of countries.   Discussing beauty politics, postfeminism, neoliberalism, labour and subjectivity, the book will be of interest to scholars and students with an interest in Gender, Media Studies, Cultural studies, Sociology, Social Psychology and Management Studies. ΓÇ£This highly engaging, smart, and wide-ranging collection analyzes how, under the self-governing mandates of neoliberalism, the demands that girls and women regulate and control their bodies and appearance have escalated to new, unforgiving levels.  A special strength of the book is its emphasis on the rise of ΓÇÿaesthetic labourΓÇÖ as a global, transnational and ever-colonizing phenomenon that seeks to sweep up women of all races, ages and locales into its disciplinary grip.  Highly recommended.ΓÇ¥-Susan  J Douglas, University of Michigan, USA the inherited responsibility that remains womenΓÇÖs particular burden to manage.ΓÇ¥-Melissa Gregg, Intel Corporation, USAΓÇ£This book incisively conceptualizes how neo-liberalist and postfeminist tendencies are ramping up pressures for glamour, aesthetic, fashion, and body work in the general public. In a moment when YouTube ΓÇÿmakeup how toΓÇÖ videos receive millions of hits; what to wear and how to wear it blogs clock massive followings; and staying ΓÇÿon brandΓÇÖ is sold to us as the key to personal and financial success, ΓÇÿaesthetic entrepreneurshipΓÇÖ is bound to become a go-to concept for anyone seeking to understand the profound shifts shaping labor and life in the 21st century.ΓÇ¥-Elizabeth Wissinger, City University of New York, USA 

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.