Spare Time as a New Form of Labor: Digital Professions and Capitalism
pdf (Русский)

Keywords

Theory of media, digital capitalism, digital professions, digital labor, late capitalism, Marxism, social philosophy, philosophy of culture, images of modernity, spare time

How to Cite

Afanasov, N. (2019). Spare Time as a New Form of Labor: Digital Professions and Capitalism. Galactica Media: Journal of Media Studies, 1(1), 43-61. https://doi.org/10.24411/2658-7734-2019-00002

Abstract

The article offers a critical approach to the current discussion on the increasing of spare time and the reducing of the amount of labor in the digital economy. A common place in the discussion about the development of modern capitalism, characterized mainly by automatisation and robotization of jobs, was the hypothesis of reducing the employment of workers. Based on this assumption, many social theorists have postulated the problem of "spare time", which in the future will be too extent. This will lead to a number of problems, including unemployment and the sense of uselessness of a person. The author calls into question this forecast, referring to the consideration of relevant phenomena for the modern social theory - "digital labor" and "digital professions". The article also offers a new view on the relationship between the post-industrial digital economy and the world of medi. Based on the Marxist analysis of the cultural logic of late capitalism, the article puts forward the thesis that the untapped media world, which culturally mediates capitalism, removes the contradiction between production and consumption. Cultural production is fundamentally not reducable to full automation, since it’s very structure includes consumption. As a result, free time imperceptibly also becomes productive work for a person.

https://doi.org/10.24411/2658-7734-2019-00002
pdf (Русский)

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