Economy

Subjectivity in the "Gig Economy": From the entreprecariat to base union militancy by Jamie Woodcock

This article addresses the issue of the rise of the “gig-economy“ where temporary positions are endorsed instead of long-term work contracted jobs and also the relationship between this phenomenon and the digital mediated entrepreneurialism. It establishes the relationships among the development of the “gig-economy“, the digital context that this one lies in and the effect that both have on the rise of the Entreprecariat. Self-employed/independent workers are attracted for a job where they find a precarious sense of flexibility and are stuck to a platform that is in need of real demands made online. The deprivation of rights imposed to self-employed riders was used as a tool in the food-delivery sector. Workers that found themselves in this contractless situation claimed their right to organize strikes without the need to follow trade union rules.

economy
politics
emerging classes

Digital labour the internet as playground and factory (Chapter: Free Labor) by Tiziana Terranova

A critical concept of the essential role played by free labor and how the digital labor is implemented in its complicated relation to the capitalist society.

economy
new media
labour

From Autonomism to Post-Autonomia: From Class Composition to a New Political Anthropology? by Joost de Bloois & Frans Willem Korsten

This essay is a summary of the historical and ideological development of Post-Autonomia starting from the operaist and autonomist movements to its international situation. Where the beginning of the '80s signed the closure of the opening of an era of uncertainty and precarization, instead of a new horizon of self-valorization and autonomy, Post-Autonomia tries to resynthesize the old discourse and translate it to face to the new complexity of the relation between capitalism, state, multitude and subjectivity with the intent of delineate the role of the new non-subject in constant transformation.

economy
politics
labour
entrepreneurship

Assembly (Chapter 9: Entrepreneurship of the Multitude) by Michael Hardt & Antonio Negri

In chapter 9 of “Assembly”, Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri attempt to redefine the meaning of “entrepreneurship”. The “entrepreneurship of the multitude” as proposed by the authors, is capable of forming new social combinations, pointing to autonomous social production and reproduction.

economy
politics
space

The Corrosion of Character: The Personal Consequences of Work in the New Capitalism (Chapter 1, 2) by Richard Sennet

The relation between work, time and the more personal aspect of life is a focal point in Sennet’s book. The state of today’s economy, described as “flexible capitalism”, has forced a constant rotation of jobs, cities, and friends which can be stimulating but can also contribute to an unstructured and meaningless life. The author addresses these problems by analyzing his encounter with Rico, a successful man suffering from the uncertainty of life and the lack of longstanding values in society.

economy
emerging classes