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Employment: A Key Idea for Business and Society introduces a topic
that many of us take for granted yet is central to how we
understand business and management. Most people work for the
majority of their lives and in recent years, employment has become
a topic of popular debate, particularly asking what the future of
work could be. Much of this has focused on the role of technology
and automation, as well as the growth of the gig economy and new
forms of work. This book provides new ways to think about our own
experiences of work and debates on employment. The book covers the
history of employment, key changes to work, and a global
perspective. The major debates in employment are introduced,
providing theories for readers to develop their own perspectives.
In particular, the book reappraises management theory, the role of
workers' agency in changing work, surveys the state of current
research and methods, and sketches out the key changes on the
horizon for employment. This book will provide students with a
critical introduction to employment, equipping them with the
resources to research, understand, and rethink the topic.
Employment: A Key Idea for Business and Society introduces a topic
that many of us take for granted yet is central to how we
understand business and management. Most people work for the
majority of their lives and in recent years, employment has become
a topic of popular debate, particularly asking what the future of
work could be. Much of this has focused on the role of technology
and automation, as well as the growth of the gig economy and new
forms of work. This book provides new ways to think about our own
experiences of work and debates on employment. The book covers the
history of employment, key changes to work, and a global
perspective. The major debates in employment are introduced,
providing theories for readers to develop their own perspectives.
In particular, the book reappraises management theory, the role of
workers' agency in changing work, surveys the state of current
research and methods, and sketches out the key changes on the
horizon for employment. This book will provide students with a
critical introduction to employment, equipping them with the
resources to research, understand, and rethink the topic.
The liberating promise of big data and social media to create more
responsive democracies and workplaces is overshadowed by a
nightmare of election meddling, privacy invasion, fake news and an
exploitative gig economy. Yet, while regressive forces spread
disinformation and hate, 'guerrilla democrats' continue to foster
hope and connection through digital technologies. This book offers
an in-depth analysis of platform-based radical movements, from the
online coalitions of voters and activists to the Deliveroo and Uber
strikes. Combining cutting edge theories with empirical research,
it makes an invaluable contribution to the emerging literature on
the relationship between technology and society.
Artificial Intelligence is a seemingly neutral technology, but it
is increasingly used to manage workforces and make decisions to
hire and fire employees. Its proliferation in the workplace gives
the impression of a fairer, more efficient system of management. A
machine can't discriminate, after all. Augmented Exploitation
explores the reality of the impact of AI on workers' lives. While
the consensus is that AI is a completely new way of managing a
workplace, the authors show that, on the contrary, AI is used as
most technologies are used under capitalism: as a smokescreen that
hides the deep exploitation of workers. Going beyond platform work
and the gig economy, the authors explore emerging forms of
algorithmic governance and AI-augmented apps that have been
developed to utilise innovative ways to collect data about workers
and consumers, as well as to keep wages and worker representation
under control. They also show that workers are not taking this
lying down, providing case studies of new and exciting form of
resistance that are springing up across the globe.
The liberating promise of big data and social media to create more
responsive democracies and workplaces is overshadowed by a
nightmare of election meddling, privacy invasion, fake news and an
exploitative gig economy. Yet, while regressive forces spread
disinformation and hate, 'guerrilla democrats' continue to foster
hope and connection through digital technologies. This book offers
an in-depth analysis of platform-based radical movements, from the
online coalitions of voters and activists to the Deliveroo and Uber
strikes. Combining cutting edge theories with empirical research,
it makes an invaluable contribution to the emerging literature on
the relationship between technology and society.
Artificial Intelligence is a seemingly neutral technology, but it
is increasingly used to manage workforces and make decisions to
hire and fire employees. Its proliferation in the workplace gives
the impression of a fairer, more efficient system of management. A
machine can't discriminate, after all. Augmented Exploitation
explores the reality of the impact of AI on workers' lives. While
the consensus is that AI is a completely new way of managing a
workplace, the authors show that, on the contrary, AI is used as
most technologies are used under capitalism: as a smokescreen that
hides the deep exploitation of workers. Going beyond platform work
and the gig economy, the authors explore emerging forms of
algorithmic governance and AI-augmented apps that have been
developed to utilise innovative ways to collect data about workers
and consumers, as well as to keep wages and worker representation
under control. They also show that workers are not taking this
lying down, providing case studies of new and exciting form of
resistance that are springing up across the globe.
There has been an explosion of organising among workers many
assumed to be unorganisable, from delivery drivers in London to
tech workers in Silicon Valley. The culmination of years of
conversations on picket lines, in community centres, and in union
offices, with workers in Britain, the US, India, Argentina, South
Africa, Brazil, and across Europe, Troublemaking brings together
lessons from around the world. Precarious workers waste collectors
in Mumbai show that no worker is "unorganisable", cleaner
organising at LSE and St Mary's hospital in London and Sans-papier
workers in France indicate that demanding more at work can lead to
big wins. Struggles like The Water Wars in Cochabamba, Bolivia show
how we can use our power beyond the workplace. From these
movements, Lydia Hughes and Jamie Woodcock draw a number of lessons
about why organising at work is the first step in building another
world. They put forward three principles for organising. First, the
need for action. Struggles can change the world, but they also
change people who go through them. Rather than using action as a
last resort, we need action to build a movement. Second, the need
to build the rank-and-file of unions. Power comes from organising
at work, not in trusting others to do it on our behalf. Third,
democracy matters in organising. This is not only about winning,
but also developing the confidence to build another kind of world.
This is not a "how to" guide, but a set of principles for the
politics of organising.
In Marx at the Arcade, acclaimed researcher Jamie Woodcock delves
into the hidden abode of the gaming industry. In an account that
will appeal to hardcore gamers, digital skeptics, and the
joystick-curious, Woodcock unravels the vast networks of artists,
software developers, and factory and logistics workers whose seen
and unseen labor flows into the products we consume on a gargantuan
scale. Along the way, he analyzes the increasingly important role
the gaming industry plays in contemporary capitalism and the
broader transformations of work and the economy that it embodies.
Praise for Working the Phones: "A sharp reminder of the
difficulties faced by call-center workers." -The Financial Times
"Jamie Woodcock shows us what call-centers can tell us about
bleakness and resistance in the modern workplace." -VICE "Jamie
Woodcock's brilliant insider account of life in a British
call-center reveals the dirty realities of digital capitalism . . .
a book that is sure to become a classic." -Peter Fleming, author of
The Mythology of Work "Woodcock knows not only his theory but his
subject inside out. There's casualization, cruelty, and
regimentation, but also subversion, and his focus on employee
resistance offers a flicker of hope." -Times Higher Education In
Marx at the Arcade, acclaimed researcher Jamie Woodcock delves into
the hidden abode of the gaming industry. In an account that will
appeal to hardcore gamers, digital skeptics, and the
joystick-curious, Woodcock unravels the vast networks of artists,
software developers, and factory and logistics workers whose seen
and unseen labor flows into the products we consume on a gargantuan
scale. Along the way, he analyzes the increasingly important role
the gaming industry plays in contemporary capitalism and the
broader transformations of work and the economy that it embodies.
Jamie Woodcock is a sociologist of work, focusing on digital labor,
the gig economy, and resistance. He is currently a fellow at the
London School of Economics and is the author of the award-winning
Working the Phones (2016). He is on the editorial board of
Historical Materialism and an editor of Notes from Below, an online
journal of workers' inquiry.
*Shortlisted for the BBC Radio 4 Thinking Allowed Award for
Ethnography 2017* *Winner of the 2016 Labor History Best Book
prize* Over a million people in the UK work in call centres, and
the phrase has become synonymous with low-paid and high stress
work, dictatorial supervisors and an enforced dearth of union
organisation. However, rarely does the public have access to the
true picture of what goes on in these institutions. For Working the
Phones, Jamie Woodcock worked undercover in a call centre to gather
insights into the everyday experiences of call centre workers. He
shows how this work has become emblematic of the shift towards a
post-industrial service economy, and all the issues that this
produces, such as the destruction of a unionised work force,
isolation and alienation, loss of agency and, ominously, the
proliferation of surveillance and control which affects mental and
physical well being of the workers. By applying a sophisticated,
radical analysis to a thoroughly international 21st century
phenomenon, Working the Phones presents a window onto the methods
of resistance that are developing on our office floors, and
considers whether there is any hope left for the modern worker
today.
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