The Making of a Cybertariat: Virtual Work in a Real World

EAN/UPC/ISBN Code 9780850365375


A new global labour force is being created working in call centres, homes and electronic sweatshops. New technologies are also transforming daily life. This book presents a coherent conceptual framework within which these developments can be understood. - Explains the impact of technology on the workplace, and relates its arguments and analyses to the work-situations of real people, showing how larger trends influence daily activities and shape the possibilities of collective action. - A portrait of working conditions experienced by both men and women, but focuses especially on the double impact on women both as workers and as consumers.. - Foreword by Colin Leys-a well-known figure in Marxist political analysis- describing the unique contribution of Huws"s work. In the development of a new feminist-influenced political economy - Huws has been engaged with the social meaning of the new digital technologies from their first introduction into the workplace in the 1970s. Avoiding technological determinism, Huws locates developments in a long economic and political trajectory, so that their significance for understanding globalisation processes stands out clearly.