Crowdsourcing Platforms as Devices to Activate Subjectivities

Authors

  • Elisabetta Risi IULM University of Milan
  • Marco Briziarelli University of New Mexico
  • Emiliana Armano University of Milan

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1285/i20356609v12i3p767

Keywords:

Crowdsourcing Platforms, Freelance knowledge workers, Qualitative research, Subjectivities, Free Work

Abstract

Our contribution examines the phenomenon of crowdsourcing platforms and its shaping of workers' subjectivities. We focus on the process of soliciting unpaid services from (often precarious) knowledge workers operating through digital platforms, whose hope is to increase their employability chances. The paper presents and discusses the results of a qualitative research conducted during 2017-18 period, consisting of in-depth interviews with freelancers digital designers, who work in the Milan area, Italy. The findings contribute to enrich the conceptualization of 'free work' by acknowledging the process of platforms mediation and their distinctive way of activating subjects. We also claim that while the term 'crowd' highlights the collective and participatory dimension of 'crowdsourced' projects, it obscures the fundamental mechanisms in determining their success: competition among participants, as well as the logic behind the so-called jackpot economy.

Author Biographies

Elisabetta Risi, IULM University of Milan

Elisabetta Risi holds a PhD in Information Society from the Department of Sociology and Social Research, University of Milan Bicocca. She is a research fellow at IULM University and her research focuses on social adoption of innovation and work processes in the context of the platform society, with a social inquiry and mixed-methods approach. She has participated and organized conferences and workshops and she is the author of several paper on the relationship between communication practices, identity and precariousness. Her work has appeared in Rassegna Italiana di Sociologia, Sociologia del Lavoro, Mediascapes Journal, M@gma, and in many edited volumes.

Marco Briziarelli, University of New Mexico

Marco Briziarelli studies critical approaches to media and communication, especially as these fields intersect with broader issues in political and social theory, intellectual and cultural history. Dr. Briziarelli is currently interested in media and social movements, critical conceptualization of digital labor, and left wing populism.  His work has appeared in Communciation and Critical/Cultural Studies, Critical Studies in Media Communication, Triple C, Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies, Journalism, and in many edited volumes.  He is the author of several books:  The Red Brigades and the Discourse of Violence: Revolution and Restoration, Gramsci, Communication and Social Change, and soon to be published Spectacle 2.0:  Reading Debord in the Context of Informationalism Capitalism; Podemos and New Political Cycle.

Emiliana Armano, University of Milan

Emiliana Armano holds a PhD in Economic Sociology from the Department of Social and Political Sciences, University of Milan.  As Independent researcher collaborates in study into knowledge work and precariousness, with a social inquiry and co-research methodological approach. Her research focuses on the intertwining of work processes and production of subjectivity in the context of platform economy. Recently she published with Annalisa Murgia and Maurizio Teli, Platform Capitalism e confini del lavoro negli spazi digitali (Mimesis, 2017), and with Marco Briziarelli, Spectacle 2.0. Reading Debord in the Context of Digital Capitalism (Westminter University Press, 2017). E-mail: emi_armano@yahoo.it

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Published

15-11-2019

Issue

Vol. 12, No. 3 (2019). Special Issue on: Working as a platform: Labour needs, activation and representativeness in the era of digital transformation

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Special Issue

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