DIGC202 Fourth Tumblr Post
This week in DIGC202 examines the role of labour in global networks. Wilson discusses the global division of labour, immaterial labour vs. material labour, precarity, white collar workers and free labour. These are issues that until now, I’d never really given much thought to. I had previously visited all these concepts in an academic sense; however I’d never really applied them to my own life and post-university career. In reading Deuze’s article, it becomes clear that the type of work, duration of work and lifestyles that accompany work in the years to come will change dramatically from what we have previously known. In class, Ellen and I compared this essay to an article in the Daily Telegraph about a homeless man who makes approximately $400 a day begging. There are 192 comments posted on this article and the majority of them are quite negative. This aligns with Deuze’s argument that working appears to be the normal human condition and not working is unusual. Deuze further adds that those who do not work are either pitied or loathed.
The amount of work that we will take on in the future is also analysed this week in DIGC202. Gregg looks at the flipside to the most prominent effects of communication technologies; that being constantly contactable isn’t necessarily a good thing. Gregg states that while a positive discourse surrounds the “flexibility” or being able to work anywhere, anytime, this is often exploited and workers feel obliged to work for longer hours and more continuously. The distinction between home and work is becoming less defined. Caitlin also made the point that we are conditioned to do this from an early age (in Australia), where the concept of homework is instilled in us throughout our whole education.
The Bill Moyer’s interview with David Simon is a particularly interesting transcript. An entire post could be dedicated to that interview alone. Simon’s views on the social pyramid and larger political systems that dictate how we work, live and engage with each other (in the t.v. show “The Wire”) are indicative of larger political practices that seem to be endemic in western culture.
