[ICTs-and-Society] Uppsala conference: Plenary session 5 “Work, Class, Gender and,Proletarianization in the Age of Knowledge, the Internet and Communication” (Ursula Huws, Catherine McKercher)

[Paschal Preston]

Hi,
Thanks and congratulations to all for that really interesting set of  
postings and exchanges in recent weeks.  They promise a very interesting 
and stimulating conference, indeed.  I’m sorry that I will not be able 
to get to Uppsala and attend.

I have only managed to catch up and get opportunity to read through the 
recent posts  over the past few days. This is partly due to fall-out 
from being ‘situated’ and labouring in one of the “eyes of the storm” in 
terms of the destruction being wrought by the current ‘great western 
financial crisis’  [as some Asian scholars like to name it].  All of 
which, surprisingly enough,  leads me to suggest that you might give 
concepts like ‘crisis’ and restructuring, or even [‘predictable’ rather 
than ‘creative’] destruction a prominent airing during your conf. 
proceedings. A longer version of that suggestion follows immediately below.

Best wishes for a great conference,
Paschal Preston

For almost 20 years now, new ICTs [esp. as the ‘Internet’,  then Web 
2-00 or ‘Social Media’, or Twitter]  along with the concepts of 
information society and knowledge economy have together formed a (holy 
or unholy) ‘trinity’ at the heart of policy discussions and strategies 
related to ‘future’ economic and social development in European Union 
context. Yet, the meanings and roles of that ‘trinity’ are neither fixed 
nor eternal, and no more stable than the surrounding institutions which 
frame the EU and  Eurozone projects .....

But if communication scholars like myself look outside the furrows of 
our own little niches within the deepening divisions of intellectual 
labour [or don our ‘reflexive’ lenses] we quickly realise that new ICTs 
do not possess a monopoly when it comes to playing a ‘fundamental role’ 
in economic and societal development in Europe.    Indeed, even the most 
cursory content analysis will indicate that the Internet nor Twitter did 
not feature as a star actor [ or’ actant’] in  the most dramatic or 
‘fundamental’ news media stories of the past four years which directly 
relate to the  contours of economic and societal development in Europe.

At least since the advent of the current ‘great western financial 
crisis’, the  political economy and power-plays of finance, credit and 
money  are manifestly playing the most ‘fundamental‘ role in shaping the 
future economic and societal development in Europe and beyond. [That 
remains the key message even if we notice some interesting new shifts 
within the old Atlantic heartlands of global capitalism. For example, it 
now appears that the USA govt. is tilting more towards Keynesianism (and 
so faring better in terms of GDP and employment growth measures) than  
the states of ‘old Europe’,  despite all their previously presumed 
baggage or traditions of ‘social democracy’ ].

So, amidst this systemic crisis, it appears that the  political economy 
(or the plain ‘politics’ and ‘economics’)  of   the interplays between 
two old but fundamental ‘steering media’ (Habermas) of modern capitalist 
societies  ‘power’ and ‘money’ (incl. finance, credit etc)  operate as 
the key influences on the future shape and meanings of  core terms such 
as ‘Europe’  .

Indeed, the current financial and economic crisis has operated to raise 
the risks and  cast new doubts over the  future shape, meaning or even 
sustainability of certain key institutional arrangements that had been 
taken as givens within  communication study [and many other]  fields 
for  some decades – in ways that would have been unthinkable even five 
years ago.   These novel risks and doubts pertain to the very 
survivability of the  Eurozone or even the European Union project . They 
include questions and doubts concerning most prior assumptions that such 
supra-national entities could be governed in multi-lateral modes with at 
least some semblance to the principles of  liberal representative 
democracy.

As a result, we are now clearly in the setting of a relatively rare but 
major crisis whose ramifications extend way beyond the domains of 
concern  usually associated with the terms ‘financial’ or ‘economic’ .

Yet, it is far from clear that practitioners within the communication 
studies [or other  neighbouring fields]  have fully recognised the 
significance of  this crisis moment or embraced  its ramifications for 
key concepts or practices that has long been (previously) assumed to be 
mere matters of incremental change and adjustment within a prevailing 
furrow or paradigm.

Clearly, there may be a distinct bonus [ and other self-interests] for 
certain bankers or other financiers to ask ‘crisis, what crisis?’,  and 
so engage in denying the existence of this crisis and its ramifications. 
But such self-serving and blinkered  perspectives certainly do not 
apply  to academic researchers or many other practitioners within the 
communication policy and neighbouring fields.

In essence, the latter must recognise [and must be explicitly attentive 
to]  the existence  and implications of  the current deep and 
historically rare moment of  ‘crisis’ ( one that is as much political as 
it is financial and economic in scope).

Such deep crises may be rare but they are not unprecedented, and we can 
usefully appropriate certain implications which may be derived from 
close observers or prior episodes (e.g. Marx;  Schumpeter; Freeman).   
In particular, given  the present setting,  we would argue at the 
outset  that this kind of crisis moment implies the need for, and 
benefits of , adjusting analytical lens to accord greater recognition 
and engagement with:

.1)   A certain sidelining  of  the  salience [or ‘fundamental’]  role 
of   the ‘digital’ or technological moment (Internet) in well-grounded 
analyses of economic and societal development  [i.e.  as compared to the 
pre-crisis context ]

.2)  A corresponding  accentuation of the  ‘fundamental’ role of  
economic moments, especially  struggles over  ‘distribution’  and  the 
allocation of the costs and benefits of the devaluation of overvalued 
capital (the key economic aspect of ‘creative destruction’) ;
~~ This in turn implies a greater attention and sensitivity to issues of 
socio-economic inequality (not least those posed by the rising levels of 
mass unemployment and  state-based ‘austerity’ policies).

.3)  A corresponding  amplification of the  ‘fundamental’ role and 
salience of  ‘political’ and  ‘ideological’  (ideas, values and norms)  
moments   amidst the now intensified search for viable or sustainable 
new socio-technical paradigms to underpin any new phase of 
socio-economic development in Europe.

.4) This explicit recognition of the current ‘crisis setting’ together 
with the three specific implications for political economic analysis [as 
indicated above]  also entails  a fundamental interrogation, 
re-visioning, or reconstruction of key concepts related to specific 
media services/culture industries as domains of inquiry (‘meso’-level of 
analyses).

.5)   More specifically, the foregoing implies that there is a pressing 
need to engage anew with (interrogate in new light given the current 
crisis setting) certain key ideas, concepts and recent developmental 
trends related to :
.a) the relation between the Internet and public policy (now, in 
‘future’ and in past)
.b) the evolving  concepts of information society/knowledge economy and 
their relation to Future orientated strategies and policies for economic 
and societal development in Europe or indeed, the wider north-Atlantic 
core of old capitalism.

-----------------------------------------------------.
Paschal Preston
Director, COMTEC research unit,
Professor, School of Communication,
Dublin City University,
Glasnevin, Dublin 9, IRELAND
Tel: +353-1 700-5478
Email: Paschal.Preston at dcu.ie
Webpage: http://www.comms.dcu.ie/prestonp/
-----------------------------------------------------.



On 19/03/2012 10:42, Vass J.M. wrote:
> Dear All,
>
> This is an interesting discussion!  A lot would depend on the definition of the 'Cybertariat'.  On the face of it this would include everyone with Internet access.  The question is how does access lead to differences in outcome for lifecourse stability and cohesion (ie what are the performative criteria?).  Guy Standing's recent work on 'The Precariat' sees the Internet as partly generative of a class living in a state of lifecourse 'precariousness' as the social and economic cohesion and stability that once constituted social relations (for better or worse) is eroded.  At an abstract level we can speculate on the role of the Internet as fostering 'mobilities and flows' (in the Urry sense) or 'liquid modernity' (in the Bauman sense) or 'networks' (in the Castells sense).  But the theoretical narratives we have at present render the question of outcomes (positive and negative consequences) entirely 'undecideable'.  I think this is because the performative level of analysis is largely missing.  Thus, for example, we cannot distinguish between a flow in the sense given it by Parsons in a relatively stable and cohesive modern order and the sense given by say Urry.
>
> All the best
>
> Jeff
>
>
> Dr Jeff Vass
> Sociology and Social Policy
> University of Southampton
> UK
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: discussion-bounces at lists.icts-and-society.net [mailto:discussion-bounces at lists.icts-and-society.net] On Behalf Of Marcus Breen
> Sent: 18 March 2012 22:56
> To: christian.fuchs at uti.at
> Cc: discussion at lists.icts-and-society.net
> Subject: Re: [ICTs-and-Society] Uppsala conference: Plenary session 5 “Work, Class, Gender and,Proletarianization in the Age of Knowledge, the Internet and Communication” (Ursula Huws, Catherine McKercher)
>
> Thanks Christian,
>
> The definition of proletarianization is open. In Uprising I have suggested a new meaning that incorporates the unregulated circulation of culture and values that collide with and challenge established Enlightenment ideas that have previously delimited social relations. The question for critics - marxist or otherwise - is how to characterize life in the Internet era of popular mobilizations and global capital. It is an important debate which is not only about labor and exchange value. Much more complex.
>
> Cheers
>
> Marcus
>
> Marcus Breen
> Professor, Head of School
> Communication and Media
> Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
> Bond University, Gold Coast
> Australia
>
> On 18/03/2012, at 9:40 AM, "Christian Fuchs"<christian.fuchs at uti.at>  wrote:
>
>> Friday, May 4:
>> 09:00-10:30, lecture hall 4 (hörsal 4): Plenary session 5 “Work, Class,
>> Gender and Proletarianization in the Age of Knowledge, the Internet and
>> Communication” (Ursula Huws, Catherine McKercher)
>> Chair: Christian Christensen
>>
>> Plenary session 5 will feature talks by Ursuala Huws and Catherine
>> McKercher.
>> * Ursula Huws (University of Hertfordshire, UK): Virtual Work and the
>> Cybertariat in Contemporary Capitalism
>> * Catherine McKercher (Carleton University, Canada): A Feminist
>> Political Economy of Labour and Communication: Precarious Times,
>> Precarious Work.
>>
>> Ursula's and Catherine's talks will bring up questions such as the
>> following ones:
>> What is virtual work? What is its role in the global division of labour?
>> How are the boundaries between paid and unpaid work shifting? How does
>> proletarianization of virtual work look like? What kind of class is the
>> cybertariat? Why have both Feminism and Labour Studies been marginalized
>> in Communication Studies? What are gender aspects of precarious labour
>> and knowledge work? How does the relation between the workplace and the
>> home look today? How are neoliberal working conditions shaping the
>> situation for female knowledge workers? How can collective action
>> improve the situation of precarious freelance workers?
>>
>> Pre-conference discussions on these isues are welcome.
>>
>> URSULA HUWS
>> University of Hertfordshire, UK
>> Virtual Work and the Cybertariat in Contemporary Capitalism
>> ABSTRACT: This presentation will look at the emergence of ‘virtual
>> work’, examining the positions it occupies in global value chains,
>> including its place in mediating and shift-ing the boundaries between
>> paid and unpaid labour at either end of the chain: in pro-duction and in
>> consumption as well as in intermediate links. It will also examine the
>> interrelationship between the transformation of labour processes, the
>> contractual and spatial restructuring of value chains and the changing
>> global division of labour. Outlin-ing how a global reserve army of
>> information workers has developed in the last quar-ter-century, it will
>> conclude by asking whether this can be regarded as a common class, or
>> “cybertariat”.
>>
>> SPEAKER INFO: Ursula Huws is Professor of Labour and Globalisation at
>> the University of Hertfordshire Business School. University of
>> Hertfordshire Business School and Uni-versity of Hertfordshire Business
>> School and Director of Analytica Social and Economic Research. Her main
>> research interests are the social impacts of technological change, the
>> telemediated relocation of employment and the changing international
>> division of labour.
>>
>> CATHERINE McKERCHER
>> Carleton University, Canada
>> A Feminist Political Economy of Labour and Communication: Precarious
>> Times, Precarious Work
>>
>> ABSTRACT: As areas of research within communication studies, both
>> feminism and labour have typically been relegated to the margins. This
>> talk addresses the value of bringing together feminist and political
>> economic ways of thinking about labour in the media industry. In an era
>> increasingly characterized by non-standard work arrange-ments and
>> precarious labour, it recognizes the need to understand the relationship
>> of gender to the workplace and the relationship of the workplace and the
>> home. Specifically, I will examine the state of the freelance journalist
>> in North America, an occupa-tion that is increasingly seen as “women’s
>> work.” A number of conditions have given rise to the precariously
>> employed woman journalist, including declining employment in the news
>> business, increasing reliance on free content provided by student
>> interns, the feminization of the student body in journalism schools, and
>> the imposition of freelance contracts that demand more and more rights
>> over the freelancer’s work. Many young women journalists, especially
>> those with children, see freelance journalism as a way to maintain a
>> toehold in the creative class, offering flexibility and market-based pay
>> and the chance to work from home. The reality, however, is that
>> flexibility means precarity, and market-based pay lags significantly
>> behind the pay for full-time work. In recent years, freelancers have
>> begun exploring collective action in hopes of improving their social and
>> material conditions. This talk will conclude by pointing to some
>> promising developments in this area, including initiatives by
>> conventional trade unions to organize freelance locals and efforts to
>> create new forms of workers organizations for freelanc-ers.
>>
>> SPEAKER INFO: Catherine McKercher is Professor at the School of
>> Journalism and Communication at Carleton University. Her research
>> concentrates on labour in the communication industries, including labour
>> in journalism.
>>
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