Work and sensibilities. Mercantilization and processes of expropriation around digital labour

ADRIÁN SCRIBANO; PEDRO LISDERO

Atenas

Conferencia; 13th Conference of the European Sociological Association. (Un)Making Europe: Capitalism, Solidatities, Subjetivities. Atenas.; 2017

European Sociological Association

The expansion of a series of phenomena that link work and new media has resulted in (among others) the emergence of debates that cross different areas of knowledge. The notion of digital labour has revitalized discussions around critical studies of communications, but it has also been relevant to those inquiries of the metamorphosis of labor relations, or in even everyday life studies. Thus, one of the outstanding perspectives has problematized the forms of work necessary for the production, circulation and use of digital media (Fuchs & Sandoval, 2015). Following the questions that come from here, this paper explore the contributions of the sociology of the body and the emotions to understand the practices associated with digital labour. To do this: first, it explores a series of theoretical debates around the definition of these labour, in order to underline the relevance of re defining the area of exploitation linked to these practices. Second, it develops some arguments from a sociology of bodies and emotions perspective, which allows to understand in what sense the technological mediation linked to the expansion of ICTs constitutes a re-configuration of ?the politics of the senses? (look, see, observe, touch, etc.). Finally, it analyzes some cases of workers from the ICTs industries (from testimonies and records of virtual ethnography) that allow us to connect their daily experience with certain mechanisms of expropriation and mercantilization of the vitality of bodies.