Metaphors of free labor: a typology of unpaid work in the media sector

Abstract

Over the last decade, free labor has emerged as a key analytical tool for understanding new or semi-new forms of labor in the contemporary digital economy. This article critiques and develops this concept, with specific reference to work in the media industries, by presenting a historically grounded typology of free labor that also highlights some of the analytical problems with the current use of the concept. Our typology presents seven metaphors of free labor based on historical instances of roles people have taken on when performing unpaid labor: those of The Slave, The Carer, The Apprentice, The Prospector, The Hobbyist, The Volunteer, and The Patsy. A key conclusion is that free labor is performed by different actors at either end of increasingly complex and temporally stretched out value chains. This necessitates a more fine-grained and historicized use of the concept of free labor.

Corporate representations of the child worker: Swedish company websites offering sales opportunities to schoolchildren

“…The companies emphasize that everyone in a selling school class must be dedicated to contributing towards the optimal sell and earn result, and that it is important to encourage one another. As such, children are positioned as active unified team players helping the group to attain its goal, positioning the individual more or less as an unselfish volunteer working to reach an altruistic goal in favour of others (Fast et al 2016). Yet if the work leads to attainment of the set financial goal the individual will eventually participate in the school trip as a reward.…”

“…Yet if the work leads to attainment of the set financial goal the individual will eventually participate in the school trip as a reward. In these circumstances the child worker is rather positioned as a hobbyist volunteer given affective payoff and being "paid in fun" (Fast et al 2016). This means every child must set an individual goal of selling eight salamis, 18 boxes of biscuits, 17 sportswear items or 15 flower packages.…”

“…By positioning parents as integrally involved they are represented as performing free labour as a carer in the emotional sphere. Involvement is undertaken for the sake of the own child, as well as a volunteer working altruistically for the sake of the school class as a whole (see Fast et al 2016).…”

Redistribución económica y precariedad. El caso de los anfitriones de Airbnb. / Economic redistribution and precariousness. The case of Airbnb hosts

“…Pero las voces críticas parecen señalar lo contrario. Plantean que las economías colaborativas y el conjunto de las economías y plataformas digitales están extendiendo los procesos de explotación y generando nuevas formas de trabajo no remunerado (Scholtz, 2016;Slee, 2015;Fuchs, 2010;Humphreys y Grayson, 2008;Ritzer y Jurgenson, 2010;Comor, 2010;Fast, Örnebring y Karlsson, 2016;Terranova, 2000). El tipo de trabajo que se desarrolla sobre estas nuevas formas de trabajo está exento de cualquier derecho laboral propio del trabajo asalariado de la economía tradicional, y la responsabilidad respecto al desempleo, la vejez, la enfermedad o la educación se transfiere del empleador al trabajador, siendo el trabajador el encargado de financiar su cobertura sanitaria, su seguro por desempleo o su pensión (Scholz, 2016;Kalamar, 2013;Slee, 2015).…”

Of Hackers and Cities: How Selfbuilders in the Buiksloterham Are Making Their City

“…Third, governments across the world are adopting 'participatory' policy agendas in an attempt to harness a purported do-it-yourself civic attitude for expenditure reduction and legitimising policy. However, critical voices argue that this often entails pseudo-participation or that it exploits people's free labour cloaked behind hip-sounding labels like 'co-creation' or 'sharing economy' (Fast et al 2016;Scholz 2013;Terranova 2000). Fourth, a variety of factors-ongoing rapid urbanisation in our 'urban age', climate change and natural disasters, the monetary crisis-have exposed the need to build resilient cities.…”