Through the Reproductive Lens : Labour and Struggle at the Intersection of Culture and Economy
Affiliation: Maynooth University, IE
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Chapter from the book: Chandler D. & Fuchs C. 2019. Digital Objects, Digital Subjects: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Capitalism, Labour and Politics in the Age of Big Data.
As work and leisure have become increasingly intertwined in big data capitalism, the politics of the sphere of social reproduction have also come into view. This chapter examines the insights that can be generated by exploring these politics, both for understandings of digital labour but also contemporary sociopolitics. Drawing on the underlying principles that animate Jarrett’s book The Digital Housewife, it emphasises the importance of queer, feminist, and postcolonial approaches to reproductive work for understanding contemporary capitalism and its sites of struggle. It focuses on three key arenas which are re-drawn when the politics of reproduction are considered: history, value and subjects.