Ha! I ordered a paperback copy of the book this morning :-)
Looking forward t diving in... marc > Digital Labour and Karl Marx (Christian Fuchs): New paperback > > Fuchs, Christian. 2014. Digital Labour and Karl Marx. New York: Routledge. > ISBN 978-0-415-71615-4. > More information about the book: > http://fuchs.uti.at/books/digital-labour-and-karl-marx/ > > Participate in the journal tripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique > (http://www.triple-c.at)’s Karl Marx-lottery and win one of 6 copies of the > book (see the instructions at the end of this e-mail) > > How is labour changing in the age of computers, the Internet, and “social > media” such as Facebook, Google, YouTube, Weibo and Twitter? In Digital > Labour and Karl Marx, Christian Fuchs attempts to answer that question, > crafting a systematic critical theorisation of labour as performed in the > capitalist ICT industry. The book ''Digital Labour and Karl Marx'' shows that > labour, class and exploitation are not concepts of the past, but are at the > heart of computing and the Internet in capitalist society. It argues that we > therefore need an engagement with Karl Marx’s theory to understand digital > and social media today. > > The work argues that our use of digital media is grounded in old and new > forms of exploited labour. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Weibo and other social > media platforms are the largest advertising agencies in the world. They do > not sell communication, but advertising space. And for doing so, they exploit > users, who work without payment for social media companies and produce data > that is used for targeting advertisements. The book presents case studies > that show that users’ activities on corporate social media is just one form > of digital labour. Their usage is enabled by the labour of slaves and other > highly exploited workers extracting minerals in developing countries, > hardware assemblers in China, California and other parts of the world who > face extremely hard working conditions that remind us of the industrial > labour that Karl Marx described in 19th century Britain, low paid software > engineers and information service workers in developing countries who provide > labour for transnational ICT companies in the West, highly paid and highly > stressed software engineers at Google and other Western ICT companies, or > e-waste workers who disassemble computers under toxic conditions. > > The case studies in Fuchs’ book show that the profitability of ICT companies > is built on the lives and deaths of a global class of exploited workers whose > labour is anonymously connected an international division of digital labour. > Christian Fuchs, ''Production and use of digital media are embedded into > multiple forms of exploitation. The information society is first and foremost > a capitalist class society. The only solution is that we become conscious as > a new working class and find ways to overcome the realities of exploitation''. > > CONTENTS > > PART I Theoretical Foundations of Studying Digital Labour > > 1. Introduction > 2. An Introduction to Karl Marx’s Theory > 3. Contemporary Cultural Studies and Karl Marx > 4. Dallas Smythe and Audience Labour Today > 5. Capitalism or Information Society? > > PART II Analysing Digital Labour: Case Studies > > 6. Digital Slavery: Slave Work in ICT-Related Mineral Extraction > 7. Exploitation at Foxconn: Primitive Accumulation and the Formal Subsumption > of Labour > 8. The New Imperialism’s Division of Labour: Work in the Indian Software > Industry > 9. The Silicon Valley of Dreams and Nightmares of Exploitation: The Google > Labour Aristocracy and Its Context > 10. Tayloristic, Housewifized Service Labour: The Example of Call Centre Work > 11. Theorizing Digital Labour on Social Media > > PART III Conclusion > > 12. Digital Labour and Struggles for Digital Work:The Occupy Movement as a > New Working-Class Movement? Social Media as Working-Class Social Media? > > 13. Digital Labour Keywords > > Participate in the journal tripleC’s (http://www.triple-c.at) Karl > Marx-lottery and potentially win one of 6 copies of “Digital Labour and Karl > Marx”: send the 2 answer of the following 2 questions, your name and postal > address to [email protected] > How often can the term “means of communication” be found in a) Marx’s > “Capital, Volume 1” (excluding the index, the editor’s and translator’s > introductions, as well as excluding the “Results of the Immediate Process of > Production” included in some editions; including footnotes) and b) Marx’s > “Grundrisse” (including the table of contents and footnotes; excluding the > index, editor’s or translator’s introductions, including footnotes) > Closing date: Thursday, May 15. 18:00 BST > The winners will be drawn among the correct answers. If less than 6 sent-in > answers are correct, then those answers whose guess is closest will be > considered. > > > > _______________________________________________ > P2P Foundation - Mailing list > http://www.p2pfoundation.net > https://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation -- ---> A living - breathing - thriving networked neighbourhood - proud of free culture - claiming it with others ;) Other reviews,articles,interviews http://www.furtherfield.org/reviews.php Furtherfield – online arts community, platforms for creating, viewing, discussing and learning about experimental practices at the intersections of art, technology and social change. http://www.furtherfield.org Furtherfield Gallery – Finsbury Park (London). http://www.furtherfield.org/gallery Netbehaviour - Networked Artists List Community. http://www.netbehaviour.org http://identi.ca/furtherfield http://twitter.com/furtherfield _______________________________________________ P2P Foundation - Mailing list http://www.p2pfoundation.net https://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation
