International Journal of Communication Publishes a Special Section on Worker Resistance in Digital Capitalism

After years of enthusiasm, the political promises of a long wave of worker struggles within and against the digital economy must be evaluated critically. Local manifestations of worker resistance show the multiple tactics and sources of solidarity that underpin a renewed challenge to the power of global digital capital.  

Guest-edited by Julie Chen, Alessandro Delfanti, and Michelle Phan, this Special Section on Worker Resistance in Digital Capitalism aims to provide a better understanding of collective action in the global digital economy.  

This Special Section features studies from Brazil, India, Indonesia, United Kingdom, the United States, and the Philippines tracking the challenges and conditions of possibility for worker organizing. The authors examine both mundane and novel tactics adopted by workers for labor action, solidarity building, and construction of alternatives to digital capitalism’s power. Be it in food delivery, video production, care, or legal work, these struggles cannot be separated from their local specificities. Structural constraints encountered by workers include postcolonial conditions, local economic regimes, global divisions of labor, institutional privileges or barriers, and the identity of the workers themselves.

Together, the contributions to this Special Section suggest that struggles in the digital economy are politically, economically, and culturally situated. Yet, multiple sources of solidarity have the potential to cross the differences described in the articles. 

We invite you to read these articles that published in the International Journal of Communication on June 6, 2023. Please log into ijoc.org to read the papers of interest. We look forward to your feedback! 
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Worker Resistance in Digital Capitalism—Introduction
Julie Chen, Alessandro Delfanti, Michelle Phan

Algorithmized Not Atomized: The Distributed Solidarity of Jakarta’s Gig Workers
Rida Qadri 

Communication and Work From Below: The Role of Communication in Organizing Delivery Platform Workers
Rafael Grohmann, Mateus Mendonça, Jamie Woodcock 

On the Shoulders of Automation: A Worker’s Inquiry Into the Hybrid Nature of the Legal Managed Services Industry (LPO/ALSP)
Sreyan Chatterjee

Solidarity and Resistance Meet Social Enterprise: The Social Logic of Alternative Cloudwork Platforms 
Cheryll Ruth Soriano

A Politics of Judgement?: Alienation and Platformized Creative Labor 
Michael L. Siciliano

Platform Counterpublics: Networked Gossip and Resistance Beyond Platforms 
Julia Ticona, M. Ryan Tsapatsaris
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Larry Gross, Editor 
Kady Bell-Garcia, Managing Editor
Chi Zhang, Managing Editor, Special Sections
Julie Chen, Alessandro Delfanti, and Michelle Phan, Guest Editors

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