Trebor Scholz (ed.): Digital Labor: The Internet as Playground and Factory (2012)
Filed under book | Tags: · biopolitics, gift economy, internet, labour, neoliberalism, participation, play, playbour, politics, social media, technology, value, web, youtube
“Digital Labor calls on the reader to examine the shifting sites of labor markets to the Internet through the lens of their political, technological, and historical making. Internet users currently create most of the content that makes up the web: they search, link, tweet, and post updates—leaving their “deep” data exposed. Meanwhile, governments listen in, and big corporations track, analyze, and predict users’ interests and habits.
This unique collection of essays provides a wide-ranging account of the dark side of the Internet. It claims that the divide between leisure time and work has vanished so that every aspect of life drives the digital economy. The book reveals the anatomy of playbor (play/labor), the lure of exploitation and the potential for empowerment. Ultimately, the 14 thought-provoking chapters in this volume ask how users can politicize their troubled complicity, create public alternatives to the centralized social web, and thrive online.”
Contributors: Mark Andrejevic, Ayhan Aytes, Michel Bauwens, Jonathan Beller, Patricia Ticineto Clough, Sean Cubitt, Jodi Dean, Abigail De Kosnik, Julian Dibbell, Christian Fuchs, Lisa Nakamura, Andrew Ross, Ned Rossiter, Trebor Scholz, Tizania Terranova, McKenzie Wark, and Soenke Zehle.
Publisher Routledge, 2012
ISBN 0415896959, 9780415896955
258 pages
Reviews: Sebastian Sevignani (triple C, 2013), Andreas Wittel (Inf, Comm & Soc, 2014), Stephanie Anne Brown (Transformative Works & Cult, 2014), Gregory J. Downey (J Assoc Info Sci & Tech, 2015).
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Jens Beckert, Patrik Aspers (eds.): The Worth of Goods: Valuation and Pricing in the Economy (2011)
Filed under book | Tags: · art, economy, fashion, finance, market, sociology, value
How do we place value on goods – and, importantly, why? Valuation and pricing are core issues in the market economy, but understanding of these concepts and their interrelation is weak. In response, The Worth of Goods takes a sociological approach to the perennial but timely question of what makes a product valuable.
Structured in three parts, it first examines value in the broader sense – moral values and how they are formed, and the relations between economic and non-economic values – discussing such matters as the value of an oil spill, the price of a scientific paper, value in ethical consumption, and imaginative value. The second part discusses the issues surrounding valuation in aesthetic markets, specifically wine, fashion models, art, and the creative industries. The third part analyzes valuation in financial markets – credit rating agencies, stock exchange markets, and industrial production.
This pioneering volume brings together leading social scientists to provide a range of theoretical tools and case studies for understanding price and the creation of value in markets within social and cultural contexts and preconditions. It is an important source for scholars in economics, sociology, anthropology, and political science interested in how markets work, and how value is established.
– Interdisciplinary contributions from sociology, economics, political science, and marketing
– Presents empirical studies of both financial and some unusual markets – wine, art, fashion
– Pioneering work at intersection of sociology, economics, and marketing
– Chapters by leading international scholars in economic sociology
– Revisits both established theories of value and current thinking
Publisher Oxford University Press, 2011
ISBN 0199594643, 9780199594641
346 pages
Georg Simmel: The Philosophy of Money (1900-) [German/English]
Filed under book | Tags: · labour, money, philosophy, sociology, value
In The Philosophy of Money, Georg Simmel puts money on the couch. He provides us with a classic analysis of the social, psychological and philosophical aspects of the money economy, full of brilliant insights into the forms that social relationships take. He analyzes the relationships of money to exchange, human personality, the position of women, and individual freedom. Simmel also offers us prophetic insights into the consequences of the modern money economy and the division of labour, in particular the processes of alienation and reification in work and urban life.
An immense and profound piece of work it demands to be read today and for years to come as a stunning account of the meaning, use and culture of money.
German edition: Philosophie des Geldes
Publisher Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig, 1900
554 pages
English edition
Translated by Tom Bottomore and David Frisby from a first draft by Kaethe Mengelberg
First published in 1978
With a Foreword by Charles Lemert
Publisher Routledge, London/New York, 2011
ISBN 9780415610117
596 pages
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