New book: Digital Work in the Planetary Market

Fairwork Director Professor Mark Graham and Researcher Fabian Ferrari are pleased to announce the publication of Digital Work in the Planetary Market, a new book highlighting the embedded and disembedded, material and immaterial, and territorialised and deterritorialised natures of digital work. The book has received an award from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) enabling it to be published open-access by MIT Press.

With more than five billion people connected to the Internet, and high-speed connections available everywhere—from Manhattan to Mozambique, from Antarctica to the International Space Station—this book explores how changing connectivities are transforming the networks of work and the experience of workers in these networks. Instead of assuming that almost-ubiquitous connectivity is flattening the world and creating an equality of opportunities, contributors show how work that is carried out in a planetary-scale market continues to be shaped by a range of wider systems, networks, and processes that conspire to create distinct winners and losers.

Professor Mark Graham, Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, and book editor said:

“It’s been a great pleasure to have the opportunity to edit Digital Work in the Planetary Market with Fabian Ferrari. We examine the commodification of the job market and the implications for work and workers when jobs are commodified beyond local markets. For anyone with an interest in the transformation of work in the digital age and the impact on labour markets and the gig economy, this book is a must read.”

The contributors touch on a variety of issues, including content moderation, autonomous vehicles, and voice assistants. They first look at the new experience of work, finding that, despite its planetary connections, labour remains geographically sticky and embedded in distinct contexts. They go on to consider how planetary networks of work can be mapped and problematized, discuss the productive multiplicity and interdisciplinarity of thinking about digital work and its networks, and, finally, imagine how planetary work could be regulated.

Fabian Ferrari, Doctoral Candidate, Oxford Internet Institute, and book editor adds:

“Thanks to the brilliant work of our contributors, Digital Work in the Planetary Market provides a multifaceted overview of digital work and its uneven power relations.”

Book Contributors

Sana Ahmad, Payal Arora, Janine Berg, Antonio A. Casilli, Julie Chen, Christina Colclough, Fabian Ferrari, Mark Graham, Andreas Hackl, Matthew Hockenberry, Hannah Johnston, Martin Krzywdzinski, Johan Lindquist, Joana Moll, Brett Neilson, Usha Raman, Jara Rocha, Jathan Sadowski, Florian A. Schmidt, Cheryll Ruth Soriano, Nick Srnicek, James Steinhoff, Jara Rocha, JS Tan, Paola Tubaro, Moira Weigel, Lin Zhang.

Digital Work in the Planetary Market, edited by Professor Mark Graham and Fabian Ferrari and published by the MIT Press is available now open-access.  The book is also available to download chapter by chapter from MIT Press Direct. Pre-orders are available at MIT Press.

Note

This blog has been adapted and republished from an original press release from the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford.