Young Canadians’ Apprenticeship Labour in User-Generated Content

Abstract

This article introduces a political-economic framework for analyzing young people’s production of user-generated content (UGC) as a kind of apprenticeship labour. Based on case studies of four young Montréalers engaged in creating user-generated content, the author developed the apprenticeship-type model of UGC labour to denote a process by which online immaterial labour or “free labour” coincides with self-directed and informal job training, channelled specifically toward a career in the creative industries. The 20- to 24-year-old participants’ online activity is seen as a non-remunerated training ground, driven by the promise of notoriety that begets autonomous future employment in areas such as fashion, music, and journalism. Throughout this process, young people must constantly negotiate their autonomy; negotiated autonomy is precisely what they are apprenticing into through UGC production, where uncertainty and flexibility serve as the hallmarks of new media working conditions.