 Rethinking digital labour: A renewed critique moving beyond the exploitation paradigmBingqing Xia The Economic and Labour Relations Review, 2021, vol. 32, issue 3, 311-321 Abstract: A number of important topics, themes and concepts frequently recur in studies of digital labour over the past decade, such as exploitation, precarity, unpaid labour, gig economy and platform labour. The first generation of the critique has drawn on a variety of Marxist, post-structuralist and Weberian sources to question prevailing neo-liberal and centrist models centred on values of efficiency and the supposed empowerment of workers and users. While these topics, themes and concepts have been beneficial in establishing a basis for critique, there is a danger that they may become rather familiar and potentially even a little stale. Therefore, this article suggests a need to renew the critique of digital labour, as the digital realm stabilises around a set of key global players and platforms and as labour activists continue to face serious obstacles to success in an era of authoritarian populism. Here, I concentrate on introducing our themed collection surrounding a renewed critique moving beyond a dichotomy of exploitation and labour agency. I also encourage different disciplines to enrich and renew studies of digital labour. JEL Codes: H049; N35, Z13 Keywords: Autonomist Marxism; digital labour; exploitation paradigm; gig economy; platform labour (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:ecolab:v:32:y:2021:i:3:p:311-321 DOI: 10.1177/10353046211038396 Access Statistics for this article More articles in The Economic and Labour Relations Review |
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