Digital Labour and Prosumer Capitalism

In the digital age tasks are increasingly modularised and consumers are increasingly becoming prosumers. Replacing digital labour and prosumption within an American context and the wider political economy, this volume presents a critical account of the forces which shape contemporary subjects, networks, and labour practices.

'This book will be of great interest to historians of the United States as they explore the cultural transformations of the digital age.' -Andrew Diamond, Paris-Sorbonne-University, France

'Digital capitalism marks an epochal moment of historical transition, both in society and in thought. Proliferating digital devices are enabling a rapidly growing share of all human activity to be appropriated by capital. What does this signify for labour? The contributors to this volume a welcome mix of seasoned analysts and younger scholars give us tools for forging the critical reason we will need in order to understand our swiftly changing reality.'

-Dan Schiller, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA

'Digital Labour and Prosumer Capitalism is a brilliant exploration of the contradictions within the social relations and the ideological underpinnings of technological utopianism and the so-called sharing economy.'

-David Bensman, Rutgers University, USA

'This collection is excellent reading for anyone wanting to better understand digital capitalism and why it needs to be replaced with an alternative, just, and democratic societal formation.'

-Christian Fuchs, University of Westminster, UK

Autorentext
Eve Bantman-Masum, Jean Jaurès University, France Thibaut Clément, University Paris Sorbonn, UK Adam Fish, Lancaster University, UK Eran Fisher, Open University, Israel Olivier Frayssé, University Paris Sorbonne, France Ursula Huws, University of Hertfordshire, UK Arwid Lund University of Uppsala, Sweden Vincent Mosco, Queen's University, Canada Mathieu O'Neil, University of Canberra, Australia Michael Palm, University of North Carolina, USA Marie-Christine Pauwels, University of Paris Ouest Nanterre la Défense, France Johan Söderberg, IFRIS/Paris-Est, France

Inhalt
Introduction: Hacked in the USA: Prosumption and Digital Labour; Olivier Frayssé and Mathieu O'Neil

1. Setting the Standards: the USA and Capitalism in the Digital Age; Ursula Huws
2. How the US Counterculture Redefined Work for the Age of the Internet; Olivier Frayssé
3. The Costs of Paying, or Three Histories of Swiping; Michael Palm
   4: Work and Prosumerism: Collaborative Consumption in the United States; Marie-Christine Pauwels
4. The Moral Technical Imaginaries of Internet Convergence in an American Television Network; Adam Fish
5. Migration Machine: Marketing Mexico in the Age of ICTs; Eve Bantman-Masum
6. The Dialectics of Prosumption in the Digital Age; Eran Fisher
7. 'Whistle While You Work.' Work, Emotion, and Contests of Authority at the Happiest Place on Earth; Thibaut Clément
8. The Coming of Augmented Property: A Constructivist Lesson for the Critics of Intellectual Property; Johan Söderberg
9. Wikipedians on Wage Labour within Peer Production; Arwid Lund
   Afterword: Towards Cloud Labour; Vincent Mosco