Venture Labor| The Internet’s Factory Floor: Political Economy for an Era of Communicative Abundance

Authors

  • Enda Brophy School of Communication, Simon Fraser University

Keywords:

communicative capitalism, political economy of communication, labor

Abstract

This article confronts the question of how we might renew the political economy of communication for an era of communicative abundance rather than scarcity. Drawing on Jodi Dean’s concept of “communicative capitalism,” I argue that, if capitalism has become more communicative, then the reinvigoration of political-economic critique necessitates the analysis of, engagement with, and support of the labor that generates profits in the media and communications industries.

Author Biography

Enda Brophy, School of Communication, Simon Fraser University

Enda Brophy is Assistant Professor in the School of Communication at Simon Fraser University. He is the author of Language Put to Work: The Making of the Global Call Centre Workforce (forthcoming from Palgrave Macmillan). With Greig de Peuter and Nicole Cohen he collaborates on Cultural Workers Organize (http://culturalworkersorganize.org/), a research project investigating labour responses to precarity in creative industries.

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Published

2017-05-09

Issue

Vol. 11 (2017)

Section

Forum

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