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Page 1: Affective Labor

Affective labour: Past and present

Dr Melissa Gregg,

University of Sydney, Australia

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Prehistory

Informal labour, reproductive labour, care work. Domestic/ unregulated spheres

Relevant feminist scholarship:

- Philosophy: Home as historical basis for women‟s oppression (eg, Irigaray, Beauvoir, Young)

- The Sociology of Housework Oakley (1973)

- Marxist/ Materialist Feminism: Barrett (1980), Delphy (1984), Harstock (1983)

- Wages for housework campaigns (ongoing)

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Other kinds of “unfree” labour

- Undocumented migrants

- Conscription

- Containment

- Students

- Critically ill

- Work-fare regimes

(Cooper & Waldby 2009)

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Leopoldina Fortunati, 2007

immaterial labour includes „cleaning the house, cooking, shopping, washing and ironing clothes‟ and the labour required to produce individuals: „sex, pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding and care‟

the immaterial sphere also includes „affect, care, love, education, socialization, communication, information, entertainment, organization, planning, coordination, logistics‟ (144)

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Fortunati, cont‟d

• the adoption and use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in the home “remove[s] the human body from education, communication, information, entertainment and other immaterial aspects of domestic labor” (147)

• women‟s work should not be reduced to the body (affect) but nor should technology replace the human dimensions of care work

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Ehrenreich & Hochschild

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Cooper & Waldby, 2009

“Clinical labour” – cell harvesting, fertility outsourcing, commercial surrogacy, egg vending, etc

Coerced? Voluntary? Donated? Gift exchange?

Compensation or wages?

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“Clinical labour”

- highlights the limitations of Fordist models as social reproduction enters the formal market on a global scale

- emphasises the racial and class specificity of affective/ immaterial labour

- biological reproduction has been outsourced

(Cooper & Waldby 2009)

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Kathi Weeks, 2007

Regardless of whether it was ever adequate, especially under the conditions of post-Fordist production, the very same practices deemed unproductive in one site [now] directly produce value in another and thus this simple distinction between what is inside or outside the circuits of capitalist valorization becomes increasingly untenable (238)

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The working from home study2007-2009

27 workers, various ages/positions, public and private sector, all in

information, communication and education industries

Findings to be published in Work’s Intimacy, Polity Press (forthcoming 2010)

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Key findings

Workers who used online technology to work outside the office reported a significant impact on home life and an inability to “switch off” from work

Stress and anxiety was particularly apparent in mid-level employees and junior workers. Online technology exacerbated feelings of responsibility for timely communication within the organisation – leading to chronic email monitoring outside the office and difficulties with relaxation and sleep

Mid-level employees were dealing with large amounts of email generated within their own organisation by superiors with more financial and administrative support

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Key findings

Part-time workers reported regular work contact during days off. This was especially prominent in women looking after children at home.

Women felt “lucky” to work part-time even though they were regularly doing unrecognised work. The heightened pace of online communication had not been factored in to the roles of part-time office workers.

Most workers did not consider checking work email at home to be “work”.

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“I start at about half past six in the morning and do an hour or so before I leave to go to work and that‟s mainly just clearing emails and things like that so I can start the day ready to do „work‟.”

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“100 doesn‟t sound like a lot.”

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“Otherwise it would just get on top of me.”

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“You don‟t want to hold up the work.”

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“It almost gives me peace of mind that I don‟t have something really big waiting for me.”

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“I will sleep better if I spend an hour or an hour and a half at night just getting on top of that.”

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I think that the anxiety I have with emails is absolutely ridiculous. I just think it‟s stupid; I should get over it. I don‟t think it‟s something that‟s placed upon me; I think it‟s truly a personal manifestation.

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Affective labour in the digital era

anticipatory: strategies of preparation and recovery outside formal work hours to cope with ceaseless communication demands

prospective: networking and skills upgrades outside formal work hours to maintain employability through “churn” (employer, job role, or technology fashion)

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Technological change as state of exception

When I had the last interview I think I‟d probably just joined Facebook… And now Facebook is so old hat, and Twitter‟s the latest thing. You‟ve got to be on Twitter. That‟s actually part of my job – I do the tweets for [the corporation]. So whatever comes along next, you‟ve got to do it.

(Online journalist/ news producer)

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Technological change as state of exception

It‟s not really at the stage where we have to have a separate Twitter shift or anything like that. But if we want to do it properly – if it turns out to be something that‟s going to stick around and isn‟t just a fad, then we have to look at incorporating it formally into some kind of work flow system.

I was working the budget night and I was EP that night, and also Tweeting. I think next year if it‟s still around we‟ll probably have someone just doing Twitter. I was trying to do everything.

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In addition to established white collar affects…

…perhaps because he does not know where he is going, he is in a frantic hurry; perhaps because he does not know what frightens him, he is paralysed with fear.

C W Mills, White Collar (1973: xvi).

See also:

Richard Sennett, The Corrosion of Character (on anxiety)

Alan Liu, The Laws of Cool (on cubicle politics)

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And the impact of recession…

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“Nothing is certain in this environment. I think anyone in the corporate environment at the moment would be mad to think that their job was secure, moving forward… Never, ever assume that you‟ve got a job for life or a job for 12 months.”

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A labour politics to fit a state of exception…


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