The Sage Handbook of Digital Labour
1st Edition
Will be published approx. on 10. January 2026
Book
Hardback
544 pages
978-1-5296-6983-1 (ISBN)
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
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
Reviews / Votes
This timely volume lays out in expansive detail the scope of digital labour studies--a field that draws from a range of interdisciplinary perspectives and a multiplicity of sites, both geographical and conceptual. By going beyond the confines of a technological definition of digital labour, the essays in the volume point to the many ways in which work shaped by digital infrastructures--in terms of form, place, product, and governance--needs to be studied and understood, if we are to re-imagine and mobilize for a just future of work. -- Usha RahmanMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 250 mm
Width: 175 mm
Thickness: 36 mm
Weight
1177 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-5296-6983-1 (9781529669831)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Ergin Bulut | Julie Yujie Chen | Rafael Grohmann
The Sage Handbook of Digital Labour
E-Book
12/2025
1st Edition
Sage Publications Ltd (Digital)
€109.99
Available for download
Persons
Ergin Bulut is Senior Lecturer in Media, Communications and Cultural Studies at Goldsmiths, University of London. He researches in the areas of political economy of media and cultural industries, videogame studies, and philosophy of technology. He is the author of award-winning book "A Precarious Game: The Illusion of Dream Jobs in the Video Game Industry" (Cornell UP, 2020).
Julie Yujie Chen is Assistant Professor in the Institute of Communication, Culture, Information, and Technology (ICCIT) at the University of Toronto, Canada. She is the co-author of Media and Management (University of Minnesota Press, 2021) and Super-sticky WeChat and Chinese Society (Emerald, 2018). She is also a founding editor of Platforms & Society. Her research explores the transformation of work and worker's subjectivity in relation to digital technology, capitalism, and globalisation.
Rafael Grohmann is an Assistant Professor of Media Studies (Critical Platform Studies) at the University of Toronto. He is leader of DigiLabour initiative and Research Associate at the University of Oxford. He is leading projects on worker-owned platforms, digital solidarity economies in Latin America, data work, cultural labor and artificial intelligence (AI). He is also a founding editor of Platforms & Society.
Kylie Jarrett is Professor in the School of Information and Communication Studies at University College Dublin. She is author of Digital Labor (2002, Polity), Feminism, Labour and Digital Media: The Digital Housewife (2016, Routledge) and co-author of #NSFW: Sex, Humor and Risk in Social Media (2019, MIT Press) and Google and the Culture of Search (2013, Routledge) along with various studies of the digital political economy. She is also editor of Dialogues on Digital Society.
Julie Yujie Chen is Assistant Professor in the Institute of Communication, Culture, Information, and Technology (ICCIT) at the University of Toronto, Canada. She is the co-author of Media and Management (University of Minnesota Press, 2021) and Super-sticky WeChat and Chinese Society (Emerald, 2018). She is also a founding editor of Platforms & Society. Her research explores the transformation of work and worker's subjectivity in relation to digital technology, capitalism, and globalisation.
Rafael Grohmann is an Assistant Professor of Media Studies (Critical Platform Studies) at the University of Toronto. He is leader of DigiLabour initiative and Research Associate at the University of Oxford. He is leading projects on worker-owned platforms, digital solidarity economies in Latin America, data work, cultural labor and artificial intelligence (AI). He is also a founding editor of Platforms & Society.
Kylie Jarrett is Professor in the School of Information and Communication Studies at University College Dublin. She is author of Digital Labor (2002, Polity), Feminism, Labour and Digital Media: The Digital Housewife (2016, Routledge) and co-author of #NSFW: Sex, Humor and Risk in Social Media (2019, MIT Press) and Google and the Culture of Search (2013, Routledge) along with various studies of the digital political economy. She is also editor of Dialogues on Digital Society.
Content
Introduction: Digital Labour as a Field of Inquiry - Ergin Bulut; Julie Yujie Chen; Rafael Grohmann; Kylie Jarrett
Section One: Foundations of Digital Labour
Section One Introduction - Ergin Bulut; Julie Yujie Chen; Rafael Grohmann; Kylie Jarrett
Chapter 1: Globalization and Information Work - Marcos Dantas
Chapter 2: The Social Factory of Data Capitalism: Cybernetics, Logistics, Labour - Ned Rossiter; Soenke Zehle
Chapter 3: Digital Labour, Precarity, and Employment Status: Continuity Through Change - Nicole Cohen
Chapter 4: Retooling ethics for a critical and just digital future - Aphra Kerr; Marguerite Barry
Chapter 5: Race, Digital Labor, and Gig: Concepts, Histories, and Solidarities for the Why (and How) We Study Race - Sareeta Amrute
Chapter 6: Platform Work and Gender Equality - Mayo Fuster Morell
Section Two: Digital Labour Infrastructures
Section Two Introduction - Ergin Bulut; Julie Yujie Chen; Rafael Grohmann; Kylie Jarrett
Chapter 7: An Infrastructural Optic to Digital Labour - Abel Guerra
Chapter 8: Mining for Digital Culture: Dispossessed lives through the lens of art - Evelyn Wan
Chapter 9: Data centers and labor politics: Political economy, geopolitics, and narratives of labor - Paola Ricaurte
Chapter 10: Materialities of Everyday Digital Labour - Prince K. Guma
Chapter 11: The Rise of Independent Work and the Challenges of Realizing Autonomy - Melissa Mazmanian; Maggie Jack; Ingrid Erickson
Chapter 12: Platform Mobilities: Migration and Digital Labor - Mira Wallis; Manuela Bojadzijev; Moritz Altenried
Section Three: Labour Transformations
Section Three Introduction - Ergin Bulut; Julie Yujie Chen; Rafael Grohmann; Kylie Jarrett
Chapter 13: Value Struggles in Digital Taylorism: Scientific Management and Social Mediation - Harry Pitts
Chapter 14: Rethinking Industrial Automation: Marxist Perspective - Yu Huang
Chapter 15: Dynamics of surveillance: Unveiling Surveillance in Workspaces and Work Management - Fabricio Barili
Chapter 16: Redefining skills in a digital age: Fragmentation and underutilization - Uma Rani; Raghav Mehrotra; Sona Mewati
Chapter 17: Affective computing, algorithmic affect management, and the quantified worker - Phoebe Moore; Gwendolin Barnard
Chapter 18: Labor's Odyssey Through Algorithmic Systems - Aneesh Aneesh; Shiv Issar
Chapter 19: Studying the gig economy 'beyond the gig': A research agenda - Niels van Doorn; Aaron Shapiro
Section Four: Sites of Production
Section Four Introduction - Ergin Bulut; Julie Yujie Chen; Rafael Grohmann; Kylie Jarrett
Chapter 20: Digital Labour Platforms and the Future of Care Work(ers) - Sai Amulya Komarraju
Chapter 21: Platformization and digitalization of journalists' work in Brazil - Roseli Figaro; Claudia Nonato
Chapter 22: Designing for Global Data Work - Mary L. Gray; Saiph Savage
Chapter 23: Silver Halmeoni Influencers in the Social Media Spotlight: Navigating Geriatric Cuteness, Labor, and Ageism - Jin Lee; Crystal Abidin
Chapter 24: Digital sex work and the contested boundaries of material and immaterial digital labour - Lorena Caminhas
Chapter 25: Digital labor and the inconspicuous production of artificial intelligence - Antonio Casilli
Chapter 26: Digitalisation and resistance in logistics work - Eric Florence; Juan Sebastian Carbonell
Chapter 27: Navigating the Sociotechnical Imaginaries of Brazilian Tech Workers - Kenzo Soares Seto
Section Five: Organisational Cultures
Section Five Introduction - Ergin Bulut; Julie Yujie Chen; Rafael Grohmann; Kylie Jarrett
Chapter 28: Seed Sowing in Nollywood: Labour, Precariousness, and the Promises of the Streaming Video Market in Nigeria - Godwin Simon; Kevin Sanson
Chapter 29: The Pain of Love: Passionate Work and Spousal Support as Digital Labor - Renyi Hong
Chapter 30: Play-at-Home Jobs: A Critical Feminist Viewership of Labour, Leisure & Livestreaming on Twitch - Christine H. Tran
Chapter 31: Qualculative practices of 'hustle' in platform labor - Cheryll Soriano
Chapter 32: The life/work mishmash in platform labour: Towards a livelihood approach - Ana Alacovska
Chapter 33: Professional Identity Formation of Social Media Creators - Tugce Bidav
Chapter 34: Digital Labour and Uneven Developments - Amir Anwar
Section Six: Workers' Organising
Section Six Introduction - Ergin Bulut; Julie Yujie Chen; Rafael Grohmann; Kylie Jarrett
Chapter 35: Unionisation of digital labour - Kurt Vandaele
Chapter 36: Turkopticon: From Software to Organizing (2009-2024) - Lilly Irani
Chapter 37: New Realms, New Responses: Alternative Worker Collectivization after Platforms - Noopur Raval
Chapter 38: Cooperatives for Worker Empowerment in the Digital Economy - Denise Kasparian; Sain Lopez-Perez
Section Seven: Researching Digital Labour
Section Seven Introduction - Ergin Bulut; Julie Yujie Chen; Rafael Grohmann; Kylie Jarrett
Chapter 39: Action-Research: The Fairwork Project - Oguz Alyanak, Alessio Bertolini, Funda Ustek-Spilda, Jonas Valente, Robbie Warin, Mark Graham
Chapter 40: Workers' Inquiry: A User's Guide - Callum Cant; Zeynap Karlidag; Clark McAllister; George Briley; Dante Philp
Chapter 41: Codigo Domestico in the flesh: Feminist oral history methodologies for digital care work research - Kruskaya Hidalgo Cordero
Chapter 42: Confronting methodological and ethical challenges in the study of algorithms and digital labour - Tiziano Bonini; Emiliano Trere
Chapter 43: Exploring Imaginaries on Digital Labour - Arturo Arriagada; Vanessa Richter
Chapter 44: Worker Advocacy and Data Collection: Methodological Sensibilities for Studying Digitally Mediated Work - Vera Khovanskaya
Conclusion: Digital Futures - Ergin Bulut; Julie Yujie Chen; Rafael Grohmann; Kylie Jarrett
Section One: Foundations of Digital Labour
Section One Introduction - Ergin Bulut; Julie Yujie Chen; Rafael Grohmann; Kylie Jarrett
Chapter 1: Globalization and Information Work - Marcos Dantas
Chapter 2: The Social Factory of Data Capitalism: Cybernetics, Logistics, Labour - Ned Rossiter; Soenke Zehle
Chapter 3: Digital Labour, Precarity, and Employment Status: Continuity Through Change - Nicole Cohen
Chapter 4: Retooling ethics for a critical and just digital future - Aphra Kerr; Marguerite Barry
Chapter 5: Race, Digital Labor, and Gig: Concepts, Histories, and Solidarities for the Why (and How) We Study Race - Sareeta Amrute
Chapter 6: Platform Work and Gender Equality - Mayo Fuster Morell
Section Two: Digital Labour Infrastructures
Section Two Introduction - Ergin Bulut; Julie Yujie Chen; Rafael Grohmann; Kylie Jarrett
Chapter 7: An Infrastructural Optic to Digital Labour - Abel Guerra
Chapter 8: Mining for Digital Culture: Dispossessed lives through the lens of art - Evelyn Wan
Chapter 9: Data centers and labor politics: Political economy, geopolitics, and narratives of labor - Paola Ricaurte
Chapter 10: Materialities of Everyday Digital Labour - Prince K. Guma
Chapter 11: The Rise of Independent Work and the Challenges of Realizing Autonomy - Melissa Mazmanian; Maggie Jack; Ingrid Erickson
Chapter 12: Platform Mobilities: Migration and Digital Labor - Mira Wallis; Manuela Bojadzijev; Moritz Altenried
Section Three: Labour Transformations
Section Three Introduction - Ergin Bulut; Julie Yujie Chen; Rafael Grohmann; Kylie Jarrett
Chapter 13: Value Struggles in Digital Taylorism: Scientific Management and Social Mediation - Harry Pitts
Chapter 14: Rethinking Industrial Automation: Marxist Perspective - Yu Huang
Chapter 15: Dynamics of surveillance: Unveiling Surveillance in Workspaces and Work Management - Fabricio Barili
Chapter 16: Redefining skills in a digital age: Fragmentation and underutilization - Uma Rani; Raghav Mehrotra; Sona Mewati
Chapter 17: Affective computing, algorithmic affect management, and the quantified worker - Phoebe Moore; Gwendolin Barnard
Chapter 18: Labor's Odyssey Through Algorithmic Systems - Aneesh Aneesh; Shiv Issar
Chapter 19: Studying the gig economy 'beyond the gig': A research agenda - Niels van Doorn; Aaron Shapiro
Section Four: Sites of Production
Section Four Introduction - Ergin Bulut; Julie Yujie Chen; Rafael Grohmann; Kylie Jarrett
Chapter 20: Digital Labour Platforms and the Future of Care Work(ers) - Sai Amulya Komarraju
Chapter 21: Platformization and digitalization of journalists' work in Brazil - Roseli Figaro; Claudia Nonato
Chapter 22: Designing for Global Data Work - Mary L. Gray; Saiph Savage
Chapter 23: Silver Halmeoni Influencers in the Social Media Spotlight: Navigating Geriatric Cuteness, Labor, and Ageism - Jin Lee; Crystal Abidin
Chapter 24: Digital sex work and the contested boundaries of material and immaterial digital labour - Lorena Caminhas
Chapter 25: Digital labor and the inconspicuous production of artificial intelligence - Antonio Casilli
Chapter 26: Digitalisation and resistance in logistics work - Eric Florence; Juan Sebastian Carbonell
Chapter 27: Navigating the Sociotechnical Imaginaries of Brazilian Tech Workers - Kenzo Soares Seto
Section Five: Organisational Cultures
Section Five Introduction - Ergin Bulut; Julie Yujie Chen; Rafael Grohmann; Kylie Jarrett
Chapter 28: Seed Sowing in Nollywood: Labour, Precariousness, and the Promises of the Streaming Video Market in Nigeria - Godwin Simon; Kevin Sanson
Chapter 29: The Pain of Love: Passionate Work and Spousal Support as Digital Labor - Renyi Hong
Chapter 30: Play-at-Home Jobs: A Critical Feminist Viewership of Labour, Leisure & Livestreaming on Twitch - Christine H. Tran
Chapter 31: Qualculative practices of 'hustle' in platform labor - Cheryll Soriano
Chapter 32: The life/work mishmash in platform labour: Towards a livelihood approach - Ana Alacovska
Chapter 33: Professional Identity Formation of Social Media Creators - Tugce Bidav
Chapter 34: Digital Labour and Uneven Developments - Amir Anwar
Section Six: Workers' Organising
Section Six Introduction - Ergin Bulut; Julie Yujie Chen; Rafael Grohmann; Kylie Jarrett
Chapter 35: Unionisation of digital labour - Kurt Vandaele
Chapter 36: Turkopticon: From Software to Organizing (2009-2024) - Lilly Irani
Chapter 37: New Realms, New Responses: Alternative Worker Collectivization after Platforms - Noopur Raval
Chapter 38: Cooperatives for Worker Empowerment in the Digital Economy - Denise Kasparian; Sain Lopez-Perez
Section Seven: Researching Digital Labour
Section Seven Introduction - Ergin Bulut; Julie Yujie Chen; Rafael Grohmann; Kylie Jarrett
Chapter 39: Action-Research: The Fairwork Project - Oguz Alyanak, Alessio Bertolini, Funda Ustek-Spilda, Jonas Valente, Robbie Warin, Mark Graham
Chapter 40: Workers' Inquiry: A User's Guide - Callum Cant; Zeynap Karlidag; Clark McAllister; George Briley; Dante Philp
Chapter 41: Codigo Domestico in the flesh: Feminist oral history methodologies for digital care work research - Kruskaya Hidalgo Cordero
Chapter 42: Confronting methodological and ethical challenges in the study of algorithms and digital labour - Tiziano Bonini; Emiliano Trere
Chapter 43: Exploring Imaginaries on Digital Labour - Arturo Arriagada; Vanessa Richter
Chapter 44: Worker Advocacy and Data Collection: Methodological Sensibilities for Studying Digitally Mediated Work - Vera Khovanskaya
Conclusion: Digital Futures - Ergin Bulut; Julie Yujie Chen; Rafael Grohmann; Kylie Jarrett