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“WITH A MACHINE HEART IN YOUR BREAST”: OFFICE CUBICLES’BONDAGE AND SPATIAL APPROPRIATION IN DIGITAL LABOUR |
CHEN Hao-ran, LUO Shen |
School of Marxism, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200241, China |
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Abstract Digital labour reshapes the contemporary global labour order. Previous critiques of digital labour have tended to focus on the subjective perspective of the human, neglecting the spatial perspective of the place. This article takes the human-machine-place relationship in the office cubicle as the object of study and draws on German critical theorist Rahel Jaeggi's concept of alienation-appropriation and qualitative research methods to develop relevant theories and case studies to gain a deeper understanding of the internal structure and interaction mechanisms in contemporary digital labour. This study, firstly, finds that there are three actors in the digital labour space: Humans, machines, and place. Multiple coupling and decoupling processes exist between them. In addition, computer-led office cubicles' bondage and employee-led spatial appropriation are the two main processes in the game of digital labour space, and everyday alienation and everyday resistance are intertwined in the digital labour space. Lastly, digital labour space is an important perspective for the critique of digital labour, which is conducive to complementing the study of human-place relations in digital labour, and exploring the relationship between digital labour and digital labour space. The digital labour space critique in this article is an effective complement to the critique of the digital labour subject and is conducive to further exploring the possible forms of emancipation of digital labour from the perspective of Marxist geography.
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Received: 01 March 2023
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