Documents Nardi, Bonnie A. 3 results

"The current anxiety around the globe regarding automation and “the future of work”, the irrelevance of human labour and the superfluity of humans is based on recurring ideas about technology, work and economic value. Not quite novel, the debate on these ideas dates back to prominent thinkers, such as Karl Marx and John Maynard Keynes. To grasp the present moment, therefore, the authors revisit this debate within the broader history of capitalism. With a focus on labour and technology, they bring attention to the hidden forms of value creation in the current economy and to the blind spots of the historical debate, and envision various possible scenarios for the future."

"An exploration of a new division of labor between machines and humans, in which people provide value to the economy with little or no compensation.
The computerization of the economy—and everyday life—has transformed the division of labor between humans and machines, shifting many people into work that is hidden, poorly compensated, or accepted as part of being a “user” of digital technology. Through our clicks and swipes, logins and profiles, emails and posts, we are, more or less willingly, participating in digital activities that yield economic value to others but little or no return to us. Hamid Ekbia and Bonnie Nardi call this kind of participation—the extraction of economic value from low-cost or free labor in computer-mediated networks—“heteromation.” In this book, they explore the social and technological processes through which economic value is extracted from digitally mediated work, the nature of the value created, and what prompts people to participate in the process.
Arguing that heteromation is a new logic of capital accumulation, Ekbia and Nardi consider different kinds of heteromated labor: communicative labor, seen in user-generated content on social media; cognitive labor, including microwork and self-service; creative labor, from gaming environments to literary productions; emotional labor, often hidden within paid jobs; and organizing labor, made up of collaborative groups such as citizen scientists. Ekbia and Nardi then offer a utopian vision: heteromation refigured to bring end users more fully into the prosperity of capitalism."

"L'inquiétude que suscitent partout dans le monde l'automatisation et son influence sur l'«avenir du travail» découle de certaines idées répandues sur la technologie, l'activité humaine et la valeur économique. Le débat n'est pas nouveau et intéressait déjà des penseurs éminents comme Marx et Keynes. Pour mieux appréhender la situation actuelle, les auteurs réexaminent la question à la lumière de l'histoire du capitalisme. En mettant l'accent sur la place du travail et sur la technologie, ils décrivent des formes cachées de création de valeur dans l'économie contemporaine et abordent certains aspects encore inédits dans le débat historique, avant de présenter plusieurs scénarios possibles pour l'avenir."