The Sage Handbook of Digital Labour
Purchase
Description
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
Contents
Introduction: Digital Labour as a Field of Inquiry
Introduction: Digital Labour as a Field of Inquiry
Section One: Foundations of Digital Labour
- Section One Introduction
- Chapter 1: Globalization and Information Work
- Chapter 2: The Social Factory of Data Capitalism: Cybernetics, Logistics, Labour
- Chapter 3: Digital Labour, Precarity, and Employment Status: Continuity Through Change
- Chapter 4: Retooling ethics for a critical and just digital future
- Chapter 5: Race, Digital Labor, and Gig: Concepts, Histories, and Solidarities for the Why (and How) We Study Race
- Chapter 6: Platform Work and Gender Equality
Section Two: Digital Labour Infrastructures
- Section Two Introduction
- Chapter 7: An Infrastructural Optic to Digital Labour
- Chapter 8: Mining for Digital Culture: Dispossessed lives through the lens of art
- Chapter 9: Data centers and labor politics: Political economy, geopolitics, and narratives of labor
- Chapter 10: Materialities of Everyday Digital Labour
- Chapter 11: The Rise of Independent Work and the Challenges of Realizing Autonomy
- Chapter 12: Platform Mobilities: Migration and Digital Labor
Section Three: Labour Transformations
- Section Three Introduction
- Chapter 13: Value Struggles in Digital Taylorism: Scientific Management and Social Mediation
- Chapter 14: Rethinking Industrial Automation: Marxist Perspective
- Chapter 15: Dynamics of surveillance: Unveiling Surveillance in Workspaces and Work Management
- Chapter 16: Redefining skills in a digital age: Fragmentation and underutilization
- Chapter 17: Affective computing, algorithmic affect management, and the quantified worker
- Chapter 18: Labor's Odyssey Through Algorithmic Systems
- Chapter 19: Studying the gig economy ‘beyond the gig’: A research agenda
Section Four: Sites of Production
- Section Four Introduction
- Chapter 20: Digital Labour Platforms and the Future of Care Work(ers)
- Chapter 21: Platformization and digitalization of journalists' work in Brazil
- Chapter 22: Designing for Global Data Work
- Chapter 23: Silver Halmeoni Influencers in the Social Media Spotlight: Navigating Geriatric Cuteness, Labor, and Ageism
- Chapter 24: Digital sex work and the contested boundaries of material and immaterial digital labour
- Chapter 25: Digital labor and the inconspicuous production of artificial intelligence
- Chapter 26: Digitalisation and resistance in logistics work
- Chapter 27: Navigating the Sociotechnical Imaginaries of Brazilian Tech Workers
Section Five: Organisational Cultures
- Section Five Introduction
- Chapter 28: Seed Sowing in Nollywood: Labour, Precariousness, and the Promises of the Streaming Video Market in Nigeria
- Chapter 29: The Pain of Love: Passionate Work and Spousal Support as Digital Labor
- Chapter 30: Play-at-Home Jobs: A Critical Feminist Viewership of Labour, Leisure & Livestreaming on Twitch
- Chapter 31: Qualculative practices of ‘hustle’ in platform labor
- Chapter 32: The life/work mishmash in platform labour: Towards a livelihood approach
- Chapter 33: Professional Identity Formation of Social Media Creators
- Chapter 34: Digital Labour and Uneven Developments
Section Six: Workers' Organising
- Section Six Introduction
- Chapter 35: Unionisation of digital labour
- Chapter 36: Turkopticon: From Software to Organizing (2009-2024)
- Chapter 37: New Realms, New Responses: Alternative Worker Collectivization after Platforms
- Chapter 38: Cooperatives for Worker Empowerment in the Digital Economy
Section Seven: Researching Digital Labour
- Section Seven Introduction
- Chapter 39: Action-Research: The Fairwork Project
- Chapter 40: Workers’ Inquiry: A User’s Guide
- Chapter 41: Código Doméstico in the flesh: Feminist oral history methodologies for digital care work research
- Chapter 42: Confronting methodological and ethical challenges in the study of algorithms and digital labour
- Chapter 43: Exploring Imaginaries on Digital Labour
- Chapter 44: Worker Advocacy and Data Collection: Methodological Sensibilities for Studying Digitally Mediated Work
- Conclusion: Digital Futures
Description
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
Contents
Introduction: Digital Labour as a Field of Inquiry
Introduction: Digital Labour as a Field of Inquiry
Section One: Foundations of Digital Labour
- Section One Introduction
- Chapter 1: Globalization and Information Work
- Chapter 2: The Social Factory of Data Capitalism: Cybernetics, Logistics, Labour
- Chapter 3: Digital Labour, Precarity, and Employment Status: Continuity Through Change
- Chapter 4: Retooling ethics for a critical and just digital future
- Chapter 5: Race, Digital Labor, and Gig: Concepts, Histories, and Solidarities for the Why (and How) We Study Race
- Chapter 6: Platform Work and Gender Equality
Section Two: Digital Labour Infrastructures
- Section Two Introduction
- Chapter 7: An Infrastructural Optic to Digital Labour
- Chapter 8: Mining for Digital Culture: Dispossessed lives through the lens of art
- Chapter 9: Data centers and labor politics: Political economy, geopolitics, and narratives of labor
- Chapter 10: Materialities of Everyday Digital Labour
- Chapter 11: The Rise of Independent Work and the Challenges of Realizing Autonomy
- Chapter 12: Platform Mobilities: Migration and Digital Labor
Section Three: Labour Transformations
- Section Three Introduction
- Chapter 13: Value Struggles in Digital Taylorism: Scientific Management and Social Mediation
- Chapter 14: Rethinking Industrial Automation: Marxist Perspective
- Chapter 15: Dynamics of surveillance: Unveiling Surveillance in Workspaces and Work Management
- Chapter 16: Redefining skills in a digital age: Fragmentation and underutilization
- Chapter 17: Affective computing, algorithmic affect management, and the quantified worker
- Chapter 18: Labor's Odyssey Through Algorithmic Systems
- Chapter 19: Studying the gig economy ‘beyond the gig’: A research agenda
Section Four: Sites of Production
- Section Four Introduction
- Chapter 20: Digital Labour Platforms and the Future of Care Work(ers)
- Chapter 21: Platformization and digitalization of journalists' work in Brazil
- Chapter 22: Designing for Global Data Work
- Chapter 23: Silver Halmeoni Influencers in the Social Media Spotlight: Navigating Geriatric Cuteness, Labor, and Ageism
- Chapter 24: Digital sex work and the contested boundaries of material and immaterial digital labour
- Chapter 25: Digital labor and the inconspicuous production of artificial intelligence
- Chapter 26: Digitalisation and resistance in logistics work
- Chapter 27: Navigating the Sociotechnical Imaginaries of Brazilian Tech Workers
Section Five: Organisational Cultures
- Section Five Introduction
- Chapter 28: Seed Sowing in Nollywood: Labour, Precariousness, and the Promises of the Streaming Video Market in Nigeria
- Chapter 29: The Pain of Love: Passionate Work and Spousal Support as Digital Labor
- Chapter 30: Play-at-Home Jobs: A Critical Feminist Viewership of Labour, Leisure & Livestreaming on Twitch
- Chapter 31: Qualculative practices of ‘hustle’ in platform labor
- Chapter 32: The life/work mishmash in platform labour: Towards a livelihood approach
- Chapter 33: Professional Identity Formation of Social Media Creators
- Chapter 34: Digital Labour and Uneven Developments
Section Six: Workers' Organising
- Section Six Introduction
- Chapter 35: Unionisation of digital labour
- Chapter 36: Turkopticon: From Software to Organizing (2009-2024)
- Chapter 37: New Realms, New Responses: Alternative Worker Collectivization after Platforms
- Chapter 38: Cooperatives for Worker Empowerment in the Digital Economy
Section Seven: Researching Digital Labour
- Section Seven Introduction
- Chapter 39: Action-Research: The Fairwork Project
- Chapter 40: Workers’ Inquiry: A User’s Guide
- Chapter 41: Código Doméstico in the flesh: Feminist oral history methodologies for digital care work research
- Chapter 42: Confronting methodological and ethical challenges in the study of algorithms and digital labour
- Chapter 43: Exploring Imaginaries on Digital Labour
- Chapter 44: Worker Advocacy and Data Collection: Methodological Sensibilities for Studying Digitally Mediated Work
- Conclusion: Digital Futures
Reviews
The Sage Handbook of Digital Labour
December 2025 | 584 pages | Sage UK
| Format | Published Date | ISBN | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hardcover | 27/06/2025 | 9781529669831 | $185.00 |
| 180 Day Ebook | 28/10/2025 | 9781036202439 | $77.00 |
| Lifetime | 28/10/2025 | 9781036202439 | $111.00 |
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
Table Of Contents:
- Introduction: Digital Labour as a Field of Inquiry
- Section One: Foundations of Digital Labour
- Section One Introduction
- Chapter 1: Globalization and Information Work
- Chapter 2: The Social Factory of Data Capitalism: Cybernetics, Logistics, Labour
- Chapter 3: Digital Labour, Precarity, and Employment Status: Continuity Through Change
- Chapter 4: Retooling ethics for a critical and just digital future
- Chapter 5: Race, Digital Labor, and Gig: Concepts, Histories, and Solidarities for the Why (and How) We Study Race
- Chapter 6: Platform Work and Gender Equality
- Section Two: Digital Labour Infrastructures
- Section Two Introduction
- Chapter 7: An Infrastructural Optic to Digital Labour
- Chapter 8: Mining for Digital Culture: Dispossessed lives through the lens of art
- Chapter 9: Data centers and labor politics: Political economy, geopolitics, and narratives of labor
- Chapter 10: Materialities of Everyday Digital Labour
- Chapter 11: The Rise of Independent Work and the Challenges of Realizing Autonomy
- Chapter 12: Platform Mobilities: Migration and Digital Labor
- Section Three: Labour Transformations
- Section Three Introduction
- Chapter 13: Value Struggles in Digital Taylorism: Scientific Management and Social Mediation
- Chapter 14: Rethinking Industrial Automation: Marxist Perspective
- Chapter 15: Dynamics of surveillance: Unveiling Surveillance in Workspaces and Work Management
- Chapter 16: Redefining skills in a digital age: Fragmentation and underutilization
- Chapter 17: Affective computing, algorithmic affect management, and the quantified worker
- Chapter 18: Labor's Odyssey Through Algorithmic Systems
- Chapter 19: Studying the gig economy ‘beyond the gig’: A research agenda
- Section Four: Sites of Production
- Section Four Introduction
- Chapter 20: Digital Labour Platforms and the Future of Care Work(ers)
- Chapter 21: Platformization and digitalization of journalists' work in Brazil
- Chapter 22: Designing for Global Data Work
- Chapter 23: Silver Halmeoni Influencers in the Social Media Spotlight: Navigating Geriatric Cuteness, Labor, and Ageism
- Chapter 24: Digital sex work and the contested boundaries of material and immaterial digital labour
- Chapter 25: Digital labor and the inconspicuous production of artificial intelligence
- Chapter 26: Digitalisation and resistance in logistics work
- Chapter 27: Navigating the Sociotechnical Imaginaries of Brazilian Tech Workers
- Section Five: Organisational Cultures
- Section Five Introduction
- Chapter 28: Seed Sowing in Nollywood: Labour, Precariousness, and the Promises of the Streaming Video Market in Nigeria
- Chapter 29: The Pain of Love: Passionate Work and Spousal Support as Digital Labor
- Chapter 30: Play-at-Home Jobs: A Critical Feminist Viewership of Labour, Leisure & Livestreaming on Twitch
- Chapter 31: Qualculative practices of ‘hustle’ in platform labor
- Chapter 32: The life/work mishmash in platform labour: Towards a livelihood approach
- Chapter 33: Professional Identity Formation of Social Media Creators
- Chapter 34: Digital Labour and Uneven Developments
- Section Six: Workers' Organising
- Section Six Introduction
- Chapter 35: Unionisation of digital labour
- Chapter 36: Turkopticon: From Software to Organizing (2009-2024)
- Chapter 37: New Realms, New Responses: Alternative Worker Collectivization after Platforms
- Chapter 38: Cooperatives for Worker Empowerment in the Digital Economy
- Section Seven: Researching Digital Labour
- Section Seven Introduction
- Chapter 39: Action-Research: The Fairwork Project
- Chapter 40: Workers’ Inquiry: A User’s Guide
- Chapter 41: Código Doméstico in the flesh: Feminist oral history methodologies for digital care work research
- Chapter 42: Confronting methodological and ethical challenges in the study of algorithms and digital labour
- Chapter 43: Exploring Imaginaries on Digital Labour
- Chapter 44: Worker Advocacy and Data Collection: Methodological Sensibilities for Studying Digitally Mediated Work
- Conclusion: Digital Futures