1. By: Riah Sethna & Aaron

2. THIS WEEKS READINGS:
Dowling, E., Nunes, R. & Trott, B. (2007).
Immaterial and affective labour. Ephemera:
theory & politics in organization, 7(1), 1-281.
Fuchs, C. (2010). Labour in informational
capitalism and on the Internet. The Information
Society, 26 (3), 179-196.

4. IMMATERIAL AND AFFECTIVE LABOUR
Capitalism has drastically transformed over the past few
decades. This transformation has caused a change in the:
a) nature,
b) form, and
c) organization of labour
- Because of these developments, topics such as immaterial and
affective labour are increasingly becoming the objects of debate and
discussion.
- This paper is a space for engagement with several theories of
immaterial and affective labour across many disciplines.

5. IMMATERIAL & AFFECTIVE LABOUR:
NEGRI & HART
“Since the production of services results in no material
and durable good, we define the labor involved in this
production as immaterial labor — that is, labor that
produces an immaterial good, such as a service, a
cultural product, knowledge, or communication.”
Two main aspects:
1.Manipulation of symbols (i.e. IT work, production of knowledge, problem-
solving, etc.).
2.Manipulation of affects (production of emotions, well-being, smiles, etc.).

6. NEGRI AND HART: POST-WORKERISM
1. A shift in sovereignty from the nation-
state to Empire
2. The supposed end of imperialism
3. The emergence of the multitude as the
revolutionary subject of the post-
Fordist era

7. MARK COTE AND JENNIFER PYBUS:
MYSPACE AS IMMATERIAL LABOUR
“Mark Cote and Jennifer Pybus look into the
phenomenon of MySpace as a place in which young
adults „learn‟ to immaterial labour – in what that entails in
terms of developing and maintaining networks and
fashioning a flexible „self-brand‟ that functions as the
digital interface of an individual‟s subjectivity – pointing
to affect as the binding force that makes immaterial
production cohere.”
- (Dowling, Nunes, Trott 5)

8. ?? QUESTION: ??
Would you consider social
networking as a form of
„labour‟? Consider the
amount of work that we
put into curating our own
identities, can we classify
profile creation and wall
maintenance as a job?

9. KRISTIN CARLS AND EMMA DOWLING
CONTROL MECHANISMS IN ‘SOCIAL’ JOBS
Carls: Researching shop assistants in retail chains in
Italy.
Dowling: Conducting an inquiry into affective labour in the
restaurant
Industry.
“While the kind of work done, they argue, is certainly
more expressive and social than that of the assembly
line, this does not necessarily mean that the autonomy
this entails substantially subverts the relation with
capital.”
- (Dowling, Nunes, Trott 3)

10. ?? QUESTION: ??
How have previously
social places of
employment (such as
restaurants and shops)
become standardized
and impersonal?

11. CONCLUSION:
“The most optimistic ideas put forward by books such as
Empire (2001) were partly the product of a moment of
intensification of struggle in the late 1990s. That many
today should take a more sober – sometimes sombre –
note reflects a less hospitable environment, where many
of the advances of that period seemed to have been
stalled or reached dead-ends.”
- (Dowling, Nunes, Trott 5 )
Questioning immaterial labour, due to considerations about
the harsh realities of the modern job market.
Negri and Hardt: too optimistic and idealistic?

12. Labour in Informational
Capitalism and on the
Internet.