Introduction to Digital Labor

Digital technologies have had a profound influence on our economy, the ways we communicate, and the ways in which we work. This course will provide a lens through which to understand digital labor and digital work today. We will explore the ideological and cultural values of Silicon Valley and their role in shaping the new business models of the Internet Age (such as crowdsourcing, the sharing economy, and humans-as-a-service). We will examine the past, present, and future of mechanisms of workplace control (from clocks to algorithmic management) and the implications of the digital turn on spatial and material dimensions of labor. Finally, we will turn our attention toward possible futures of work, given the increasing presence of automation and artificial intelligence in the workplace. By engaging with social scientific analyses and popular media, students will leave the course with a greater appreciation of worker perspectives and challenges in the digital era.