The Handbook of Digital Labor

Provides a global perspective on labor and technology, exploring resistance, solidarity, and alternatives in digital capitalism The Handbook of Digital Labor critically examines how digital technologies are reshaping work and employment around the globe. Bridging historical and contemporary perspectives, this timely volume explores the dynamics of labor within digital capitalism using a critical framework that illuminates the systemic challenges faced by workers across diverse sectors. Dozens of contributing authors address key challenges including surveillance, inequality, and environmental exploitation, while highlighting innovative forms of resistance and organizing. Organized into four sections—Working-Class Resistance, Digital Capitalism and Alternatives, Laboring under Digital Capitalism, and Theorizing Digital Labor—the Handbook offers a nuanced understanding of how workers navigate the intersection of technological advancement and capitalist development. In-depth chapters cover topics ranging from platform work to AI-driven labor processes—shedding light on the realities of digital labor. Equipping readers with the tools to critically engage with labor struggles across diverse industries and geographies, the Handbook of Digital Labor: Offers interdisciplinary insights from leading scholars in media, communication, labor studies, political economy, as well as unionists, activists, and other on-the-ground practitioners Presents both historical and contemporary analyses of labor conditions under digital capitalism Advocates for actionable strategies to empower labor movements and build equitable and sustainable alternatives Features real-world case studies of worker resistance and solidarity across platforms and industries Emphasizing both theory and praxis, the Handbook of Digital Labor is ideal for advanced undergraduate and graduate students, junior faculty, and researchers in media studies, labor sociology, and public policy. It is a vital resource for courses on digital labor, political economy, and social change within communications and technology programs. Labor organizers, policymakers, and industry professionals will find it an indispensable guide to navigating the complexities of work in the digital age.

Notes on Contributors x Acknowledgments xviii Introduction xix Jack Linchuan Qiu, ShinJoung Yeo, and Richard Maxwell Section I Working-Class Resistance 1 1 The Laboring of Labor Communication Research 3 Vincent Mosco 2 The Party's Over: Organizing Across the Contracting Divide at Google 18 Seamus B. Grayer and Enda Brophy 3 Organizing the Unorganized: The Case of Korean Truck Drivers—An Interview with Wol-san Liem 38 ShinJoung Yeo 4 "The Coal Machine/What Will a Coal Miner Do?" Automation, Financialization, and Union Mobilization in Underground US Coal Mining 57 Ericka Wills 5 Pathways to Worker Empowerment in the Digital Age: A Comparative Analysis of Unions and Co-operatives 77 Greig de Peuter and Nicole S. Cohen Section II Digital Capitalism and Alternatives 97 6 Digital Capitalism in the 2020s: Dividing the World 99 Dan Schiller 7 Labor and Surveillance: The Productivity of Being Watched 119 Mark Andrejevic 8 "We Don't Need Unions at Amazon.com": Historical Context and the Struggle to Organize an E-Commerce Giant 132 Timothy J. Minchin 9 From "Barefoot Electrician" to "Electronic Supervisor": Technology and Labor Politics in the Information Industry of China 158 Hongzhe Wang and Changwen Chen 10 Cybersyn: Into Alternative Digital Futures, Through a Chilean Rear-view Mirror 179 Jie Xiong 11 Regional Disadvantage: The Ongoing Exodus from Silicon Valley 201 Melissa Gregg Section III Laboring under Digital Capitalism 217 12 Global Inequalities in the Production of Artificial Intelligence: A Four-Country Study on Data Work 219 Antonio A. Casilli, Paola Tubaro, Maxime Cornet, Clément Le Ludec, Juana Torres-Cierpe, and Matheus Viana Braz 13 Platform-mediated Informal Employment, the State, and Labor Politics in China 233 Jenny Chan 14 "There is No Future in this Business." Further Platformization of Ride-hailing Service in China and the State's Intervening Policies under the COVID-19 Outbreak 248 Yanning Huang, Hanlin Chen, Qinyi Chen, Ruotong Jia, Jiaming Liu, Xueer Yan, and Yushu Yin 15 "It's Not A Job That You Can Take Off": Freedom and Precarity of Sex Workers in the Platform Economy 264 Margherita Di Cicco 16 "Calibrated Servitude": Agency, Relational Practice, and Postcolonial Dynamics in Cloudwork 290 Cheryll Ruth R. Soriano 17 The Digital Hustle: Precarity Beyond Platforms 307 Julia Ticona 18 Control and Flexibility in the Age of Globalized Production 324 Intan Suwandi Section IV Theorizing Digital Labor 349 19 Digital Labor and Digital Capitalism: A Critical Political Economy Perspective 351 Christian Fuchs 20 Digital Labor and the Domestic Sphere 372 Leopoldina Fortunati and Arlen Austin 21 Labor and Value 392 Adam Arvidsson 22 Circuits of Labor: A Holistic Model for the Making and Unmaking of Class Through the iPhone 403 Jack Linchuan Qiu, Melissa Gregg, and Kate Crawford Index 421