This article analyses crowdwork platforms where various forms of digital labour are outsourced to digital workers across the globe. The labour of these workers is, among other things, a crucial component in the production, development and support of artificial intelligence. Crowdwork platforms are an extreme example of new forms of automated measurement, management and control of labour allowing, in turn, for the creation of hyperflexible and highly scalable workforces. Particularly on so-called microtask platforms, work is characterised by decomposition, standardisation, automated management and surveillance, as well as algorithmically organised cooperation between a great number of workers. Analysing these platforms as a paradigmatic example of an emerging digital Taylorism, the article goes on to argue that this allows the platforms to assemble a deeply heterogeneous set of workers while bypassing the need to spatially and subjectively homogenise them. These platforms create a global on-demand workforce, working in their private homes or Internet cafes. As a result, crowdwork taps into labour pools hitherto almost inaccessible to wage labour. The second part of the article investigates this tendency by looking at two sets of workers: women shouldering care responsibilities, who now can work on crowdwork platforms while performing domestic labour, as well as digital workers in the Global South. While there are clear specifics of digital crowdwork, it is also an expression of broader transformations within the world of work, concerning, for example, new forms of algorithmic management just as the return of very old forms of exploitation such as the piece wage.

Altenried, M (2018) The digital factory. PhD Thesis, Goldsmiths, University of London, London.
Google Scholar
Altenried, M, Wallis, M (2018) Zurück in die Zukunft: Digitale Heimarbeit. Ökologisches Wirtschaften 4: 2427.
Google Scholar
AP (2018) Ai’s dirty little secret: It’s powered by people. Available at: https://apnews.com/31b235a9ed404e8c912ce8224e3929c0 (accessed 9 January 2020).
Google Scholar
Aytes, A (2013) Return of the crowds: Mechanical Turk and neoliberal states of exception. In: Scholz, T (ed.) Digital Labor: The Internet as Playground and Factory. London: Routledge, pp. 7997.
Google Scholar
Beerepoot, N, Kloosterman, R, Lambregts, B (2015) The Local Impact of Globalization in South and Southeast Asia. London: Routledge.
Google Scholar
Berg, J, Furrer, M, Harmon, E, et al. (2018) Digital Labour Platforms and the Future of Work: Towards Decent Work in the Online World. Geneva: International Labour Office.
Google Scholar
Bezos, J (2006) Opening keynote and keynote interview (Video). MIT Techtv, 27 September. Available at: http://techtv.mit.edu/videos/16180-opening-keynote-and-keynote-interview-with-jeff-bezos (accessed 27 July 2018).
Google Scholar
Brown, P, Lauder, H, Ashton, D (2012) The Global Auction: The Broken Promises of Education, Jobs, and Incomes. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Google Scholar
Easterling, K (2014) Extrastatecraft: The Power of Infrastructure Space. London: Verso Books.
Google Scholar
Fang, L (2019) Google hired gig economy workers to improve artificial intelligence in controversial drone-targeting project. The Intercept, 5 February. Available at: https://theintercept.com/2019/02/04/google-ai-project-maven-figure-eight/ (accessed 27 February 2019).
Google Scholar
Graham, M, Mann, L (2013) Imagining a silicon Savannah? Technological and conceptual connectivity in Kenya’s BPO and software development sectors. The Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries 56: 119.
Google Scholar | Crossref
Graham, M, Woodcock, J (2018) Towards a fairer platform economy: Introducing the fairwork foundation. Alternate Routes 29: 242253.
Google Scholar
Graham, M, Hjorth, I, Lehdonvirta, V (2017) Digital labour and development: Impacts of global digital labour platforms and the gig economy on worker livelihoods. Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research 23(2): 135162.
Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | ISI
Head, S (2005) The New Ruthless Economy: Work and Power in the Digital Age. New York: Oxford University Press.
Google Scholar | Crossref
Head, S (2014) Mindless: Why Smarter Machines Are Making Dumber Humans. New York: Basic Books.
Google Scholar
Irani, L (2015a) Difference and dependence among digital workers: The case of Amazon mechanical Turk. South Atlantic Quarterly 114(1): 225234.
Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI
Irani, L (2015b) The cultural work of microwork. New Media & Society 17(5): 720739.
Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | ISI
Kucklick, C (2011) SMS-Adler. Brandeins 4: 2634.
Google Scholar
Kuek, SC, Paradi-Guilford, C, Fayomi, T, et al. (2015) The Global Opportunity in Online Outsourcing. Washington, DC: World Bank.
Google Scholar
Marx, K (2004) Capital: A Critique of Political Economy, Vol. 1. London: Penguin Books.
Google Scholar | Crossref
Mezzadra, S, Neilson, B (2013) Border as Method, or, the Multiplication of Labor. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Google Scholar | Crossref
Nachtwey, O, Staab, P (2015) Die Avantgarde des digitalen Kapitalismus. Mittelweg 36(24): 5984.
Google Scholar
Shah, N (2016) Free basics by Facebook – An interview with Nishant Shah by Inga Luchs. Spheres: Journal for Digital Cultures. Available at: http://spheres-journal.org/interview-on-internet-org/ (accessed 27 July 2018).
Google Scholar
Shapiro, DN, Chandler, J, Mueller, PA (2013) Using mechanical Turk to study clinical populations. Clinical Psychological Science 1(2): 213220.
Google Scholar | SAGE Journals
Silberman, MS, Irani, L (2016) Operating an employer reputation system: Lessons from Turkopticon, 2008-2015. Comparative Labor Law & Policy Journal 37(3): 505541.
Google Scholar
Zuckerberg, M (2014) Is connectivity a human right? Available at: https://www.facebook.com/isconnectivityahumanright (accessed 27 July 2018).
Google Scholar
Access Options

My Account

Welcome
You do not have access to this content.



Chinese Institutions / 中国用户

Click the button below for the full-text content

请点击以下获取该全文

Institutional Access

does not have access to this content.

Purchase Content

24 hours online access to download content

Research off-campus without worrying about access issues. Find out about Lean Library here.

Your Access Options


Purchase

CNC-article-ppv for $37.50

Article available in:

Related Articles

Articles Citing this One: 0

Cookies Notification

This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies. Find out more.
Top