Work and Sensibilities: Commodification and Processes of Expropriation Around Digital Labour

Abstract

The notion of digital labour has revitalized discussions around critical communication studies, but it has also been relevant to inquiries on the metamorphosis of labour relationships, and even in studies of everyday life in the context of Society 4.0. Addressing questions emerging from those insights, this chapter explores some contributions from the sociology of the body/emotions for understanding the practices and politics of sensibilities associated with digital labour. To do this, this chapter (i) explores various theoretical debates around the definition of digital labour, in order to underline the relevance of redefining forms of exploitation regarding related practices, (ii) develops arguments from the perspective of the sociology of bodies/emotions, which allow us to understand in what sense the technological mediation linked to the expansion of ICTs constitutes a reconfiguration of “the politics of the senses” (look, see, observe, touch etc.) and (iii) analyses cases of workers in ICT industries (based on testimonies and records of virtual ethnography) that allow us to connect their daily experience with certain mechanisms of expropriation and commodification of the vitality of bodies.