The Sage Handbook of Digital Labour

The Sage Handbook of Digital Labour is a comprehensive exploration of the multifaceted and evolving concept of digital labour. Originally coined in Marxist analyses to explain the exploitation of user data in the digital economy, the term has since expanded to encompass a wide range of paid work influenced by digital technologies. This includes traditional jobs transformed by platforms, new roles emerging in today's digital society, and cultural producers like influencers and online creators. The handbook also addresses the material aspects of digital labour, highlighting its dependence on traditional manufacturing and manual labour.

This volume brings together leading scholars from diverse disciplines to examine the intersections of labour and digital technologies. It approaches digital labour as an interdisciplinary field of inquiry, exploring the material and ideological conditions of work in contemporary society. The handbook aims to chart the extensive territory of digital labour studies, covering theoretical traditions, key concepts, emblematic sites of production, normative cultures, and worker subjectivities. It also showcases the spectrum of worker organizing repertoires and tactics across the world.

The handbook is organized into seven sections. Section 1 highlights major theoretical traditions, while Section 2 focuses on the material sites along production chains. Sections 3 and 4 delve into key concepts and sites of production, and Section 5 explores normative cultures and worker subjectivities. Section 6 examines worker organizing tactics, and Section 7 introduces research methods for scholars in the field. The volume concludes with discussions on how digital labour studies can provide unique perspectives to imagine digital futures.

The Sage Handbook of Digital Labour is an essential resource for scholars, practitioners, and students seeking to understand the complexities of digital labour. It provides a comprehensive and nuanced exploration of the field, equipping readers to engage with the theoretical and practical aspects of digital labour in a rapidly changing world.

Part 1: Theoretical Traditions
Part 2: Material Sites of Production
Part 3: Key Concepts in Digital Labour
Part 4: Emblematic Sites of Production
Part 5: Normative Cultures and Worker Subjectivities
Part 6: Worker Organizing Repertoires and Tactics
Part 7: Research Methods in Digital Labour Studies

Ergin Bulut is Senior Lecturer in Media, Communications and Cultural Studies at Goldsmiths, University of London. He researches in the areas of political economy of media and cultural industries, videogame studies, and philosophy of technology. He is the author of award-winning book "A Precarious Game: The Illusion of Dream Jobs in the Video Game Industry" (Cornell UP, 2020).

Julie Yujie Chen is Assistant Professor in the Institute of Communication, Culture, Information, and Technology (ICCIT) at the University of Toronto, Canada. She is the co-author of Media and Management (University of Minnesota Press, 2021) and Super-sticky WeChat and Chinese Society (Emerald, 2018). She is also a founding editor of Platforms & Society. Her research explores the transformation of work and worker′s subjectivity in relation to digital technology, capitalism, and globalisation.

Rafael Grohmann is an Assistant Professor of Media Studies (Critical Platform Studies) at the University of Toronto. He is leader of DigiLabour initiative and Research Associate at the University of Oxford. He is leading projects on worker-owned platforms, digital solidarity economies in Latin America, data work, cultural labor and artificial intelligence (AI). He is also a founding editor of Platforms & Society.

Kylie Jarrett is Professor in the School of Information and Communication Studies at University College Dublin. She is author of Digital Labor (2002, Polity), Feminism, Labour and Digital Media: The Digital Housewife (2016, Routledge) and co-author of #NSFW: Sex, Humor and Risk in Social Media (2019, MIT Press) and Google and the Culture of Search (2013, Routledge) along with various studies of the digital political economy. She is also editor of Dialogues on Digital Society.