Digital Labor: The Internet as Playground and Factory

Digital Labor......Page 2
Digital Labor......Page 3
Contents......Page 5
Acknowledgments......Page 7
Introduction......Page 8
About the Organization of This Book......Page 11
Notes......Page 17
References......Page 18
PART IThe Shifting Sites of Labor Markets......Page 19
1In Search of the Lost Paycheck......Page 20
Formerly Known as Employment......Page 24
Distributed Workplaces......Page 29
Computers Are Not to Blame......Page 32
Marx or Not?......Page 36
Two Ends of the Chain Gang......Page 41
Notes......Page 43
2Free Labor......Page 46
The Digital Economy......Page 49
Knowledge Class and Immaterial Labor......Page 54
Collective Minds......Page 58
Ephemeral Commodities and Free Labor......Page 62
The Net and the Set......Page 68
A New Conclusion: The Liberation of Free Labor February 2012......Page 70
Notes......Page 72
3The Political Economy of Cosmopolis......Page 78
On Political Economy......Page 79
The Crowd......Page 83
References......Page 89
4Considerations on a Hacker Manifesto......Page 91
Notes......Page 98
PART IIInterrogating Modes of Digital Labor......Page 99
5Return of the Crowds......Page 100
Docile Automata......Page 103
Return of the Crowds......Page 111
Crowdsourcing as a Neoliberal Exception Apparatus......Page 114
Concluding Remarks......Page 118
Notes......Page 119
References......Page 122
6Fandom as Free Labor......Page 125
Fanatics or Workers?......Page 126
Hebdige: Subcultural Style......Page 128
Thornton: Taste Cultures......Page 130
Jenkins: Fascination/Frustration......Page 132
Hills: Fans and Exchange-Value......Page 134
Fan Volunteerism......Page 139
Fan Compensation......Page 141
Notes......Page 142
References......Page 144
7The Digital, Labor, and Measure Beyond Biopolitics......Page 145
Nanotechnology and Measuring Matter’s Affects......Page 146
Bodies, Affect, and Media Technology......Page 148
Prehension, Media Technologies, and Measure......Page 151
Aesthetics, Measure, and the Object......Page 157
Notes......Page 160
References......Page 162
8Whatever Blogging......Page 164
1......Page 165
2......Page 167
3......Page 169
4......Page 170
5......Page 172
6......Page 175
7......Page 178
8......Page 181
9......Page 186
Notes......Page 188
PART IIIThe Violence of Participation......Page 191
9Estranged Free Labor......Page 192
Privacy Issues......Page 194
Exploitation and Free Labor......Page 196
Digital Alienation......Page 199
Mobilizing the Critique of Exploitation......Page 208
Notes......Page 209
References......Page 211
10Digitality and the Media of Dispossession......Page 213
Notes......Page 233
11Don’t Hate the Player, Hate the Game......Page 237
A Short History of Racial Identity in Virtual Worlds: From Public to For-Profit......Page 241
The Racialization of Player-Workers in MMOs......Page 243
Machinima as User-Generated Racial Narrative: The Media Campaign against Chinese Player-Workers in WoW......Page 245
Avatarial Capital: The Disenfranchisement of Player-Workers and the Neoliberal Discourse of Colorblindness in MMOs......Page 250
Conclusion......Page 254
Notes......Page 255
References......Page 258
PART IVOrganized Networks in an Age of Vulnerable Publics......Page 260
12Thesis on Digital Labor in an Emerging P2P Economy......Page 261
13Class and Exploitation on the Internet......Page 265
Participatory Web as Ideology......Page 267
Class and the Web......Page 271
Toward a Communist Internet in a Communist Society......Page 277
Notes......Page 279
References......Page 280
14Acts of Translation......Page 282
Exodus from the General Intellect......Page 283
The Task of the Translator......Page 286
Labor, Code, Logistics......Page 289
From Generation to Seriality......Page 292
Algorithmic Futures......Page 294
Notes......Page 297
Further Reading......Page 303
Contributors......Page 309
Index......Page 313