[Air-L] CFP Economic and Labour Relations Review_Special Issue: Rethinking Digital Labour

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*Call for Papers: Rethinking Digital Labour *

Call for submissions to a special collection in *The Economic and Labour
Relations Review*

Abstract submission deadline: 15 August 2020

Full paper submission deadline: 15 January 2021

Guest Editor: Bingqing Xia (East China Normal University)

A number of important topics, themes and concepts frequently recur in
studies of digital labour, such as exploitation, precariousness (Standing
2011), ‘the gig economy’ (Graham 2019), and unpaid labour, including those
of digital ‘users’ (Terranova 2004) and audiences. Concepts of immaterial,
affective and emotional labour have been widely prevalent (Hardt and Negri
2000, 2005). This first generation of critical research has drawn, often
valuably so, on a variety of Marxist, post-structuralist and Weberian
sources to question prevailing neo-liberal and centrist models centred on
values of efficiency and the supposed empowerment of workers and users.
Some debates in East Asia follow this tendency to explore labour issues in
the digital economy, such as platform workers (Chen and Kimura 2019, Chen
2018, Steinberg 2019, Shibata 2019) and workers in the technology assembly
factories (Pun 2005, Qiu 2016, Sacchetto and Andrijasevic, 2015).

While these topics, themes and concepts have been beneficial in
establishing a basis for critique, there is a danger that, at least in the
form they have been applied, they may become rather familiar and in some
cases potentially even a little stale. If so, this suggests a need to renew
critique of digital labour, as the digital realm stabilizes around a set of
key global players and platforms and as labour activists continue to face
serious obstacles to success in an era of authoritarian populism. With its
broad scale in the valorization of digital work, here, we concentrate our
arguments on the professional workers in the information and communication
technologies (ICT) related industries. Some digital labour debates in East
Asia suggest certain issues that may contribute to renewal. For example,
some authors have examined how creative labour in digital domains, such as
creative labour in the ‘platform capitalism’ (Stevens 2019, Luthje 2019)
and digital entrepreneurs (Leung and Cossu 2019), offers the bottom-up
potential of innovation. It is important to address a renewed critique that
beyond the rigid theoretical binaries that have long characterized digital
labour debates on exploitation and labour agency.

We don’t yet know the socio-economic consequences of COVID-19, but it may
well make worse the quality of the working life of some platform workers,
such as ride-hailing and food delivery workers, who often lack adequate
access to employment-insurance benefits or sick leave. COVID-19 may change
current digital labour debates in East Asia, including how to reform labour
markets, welfare systems, and government policies to ensure greater dignity
of digital working lives. It is necessary to seek for certain agents
supporting digital labourers’ own rights that may lead to an alternative of
capitalism.

We call for papers that seek to move beyond the theoretical and conceptual
vocabulary that has dominated the first two decades of critical research on
digital labour. We have particular interests in research exploring the
agency beyond the paradigm on exploitation in East Asia, such as the
socio-cultural dynamics of digital labour, reproduction of global
inequality through digital work, and possible responses, the agents
originate from inequalities of gender, race, and ethnicity. We also welcome
papers addressing how COVID-19 may change the current digital labour
debates in East Asia.

        The print version of the resulting journal issue will be published
in Volume 32(3) of *The Economic and Labour Relations Review*, September
2021, although individual articles may be published earlier as accepted.

In line with *ELRR* policy of recognising the particular difficulties faced
by women and First Nations/minority scholars during COVID-19 isolation, the
journal will be looking for balanced representation in the published
collection, and will continue to consider relevant high-quality submissions
for publication in subsequent issues in cases where authors were prevented
by COVID-19 related circumstances from meeting the relevant deadlines

Among the issues that might be explored are the following, many of which
have certainly been present in earlier research, but often in an
unconsolidated or under-developed way. This list is only indicative, and we
would welcome fresh ideas from any area of critical research, and from any
critical perspective.

l   Changes in digital labour regulation and policy

l   Immigrant digital labour markets and justice for migrant digital workers

l   Agency initiated from inequalities of gender, race and ethnicity that
may lead to an alternative to or form of capitalism

l   Questions of *working dignity* in digital domains

l   Maker culture and digital entrepreneurship

l   Socio-cultural dynamics of digital labour

l   Crises of digital work

l   Alternative approaches to contesting digital work

l   Theories of subjectivity and agency in relation to digital labour that
build on or go beyond the Marxist paradigm

l   Reproduction of social/global inequality through digital work and
possible responses

Papers that draw on empirical research and theoretical overviews are
equally welcome. We particularly welcome articles that engage with the
topic of digital labour in East Asia. Submitting authors should review the
scope statement of *The Economic and Labour Relations Review*, which can be
found at https://journals.sagepub.com/home/elr.



*Process*

Before submitting papers, authors should send an abstract of up to 500
words setting out their topic, and an outline of their argument and
theoretical/methodological basis to the Guest Editor and Journal
Editors-in-Chief listed below. We would encourage anyone thinking of
submitting an abstract to contact the special issue Guest Editor via the
following email address: bqxia at comm.ecnu.edu.cn

In consultation with the Editor-in-Chief and Executive Editors, the Guest
Editor will select the articles that potentially best fit the special
issue, based on peer review. Invitations will then be sent out to submit a
full paper. An online workshop will be arranged in order to guide the
development of the papers selected. Articles will be double-blind peer
reviewed upon completion and subject to regular Editorial Board oversight.

*Timeline:*

15 August 2020: abstract submissions

15 September 2020: invitations to submit a full paper sent

Online workshop: a date to be determined in October 2020

15 January 2021: first full paper submissions deadline

15 March 2021: reviews and decisions returned to authors

31 May 2021: deadline for final versions

>From 30 June 2021 onwards: articles published Online First

1 September 2021: Publication of collection in Volume 32(3)

(Note: ELRR articles are published online ahead of print at any time of the
year, following completion of the processes of review, revision, further
review, acceptance, copy-editing and page proof finalisation).

Papers should be submitted through Sagetrack
https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/elrr. The journal’s formatting
requirements can be found at
https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/the-economic-and-labour-relations-review/journal202205#submission-guidelines
.



*Editors*

Bingqing Xia (East China Normal University, Shanghai) bqxia at comm.ecnu.edu.cn

Anne Junor (University of New South Wales, Australia) a.junor at unsw.edu.au
<a.junor at unsw.edu.au>

Al Rainnie (University of South Australia) al.f.rainnie at gmail.com



*References:*

Chen JY (2018). Thrown under the bus and outrunning it! The logic of Didi
and taxi drivers’ labour and activism in the on-demand economy. *New Media
& Society* 20(8): 2691–2711.

Chen L and Kimura F (2019) *Developing the Digital Economy in ASEAN*.
London: Routledge.

Graham M and Anwar MA (2019) The global gig economy: towards a planetary
labour market? *First Monday* 24(4):
https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/9913/7748.

Hardt M and Negri A (2000) *Empire*. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University
Press.

Hardt M and Negri A (2005) *Multitude*. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University
Press.

Leung W-F and Cossu A (2019) Digital entrepreneurship in Taiwan and
Thailand: Embracing precarity as a personal response to political and
economic change. *International Journal of Cultural Studies* *22*(2):
264–280.

Luthje B (2019). Platform capitalism ‘made in China’? Intelligent
manufacturing, Taobao villages and the restructuring of work. *Science,
Technology, and Society* 24(2): 199-217.

Pun N (2005) *Made in China: Women Factory Workers in a Global
Workplace.* Durham,
GA: Duke University Press.

Qiu J (2016.)*Goodbye iSlave: A Manifesto for Digital Abolition.*Urbana, IL:
 University of Illinois Press.

Sacchetto D and Andrijasevic R (2015) Beyond China: Foxconn’s assembly
plants in Europe. *South Atlantic Quarterly*114(1): 215–224.

Shibata S (2019) Paradoxical autonomy in Japan’s platform economy. *Science,
Technology and Society* 24(2): 271-287.

Standing G (2011) *The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class*. London:
Bloomsbury.

Steinberg M (2019) *The Platform Economy: How Japan Transformed the
Consumer Internet*. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Stevens, H. (2019) The quotidian labour of high tech: Innovation and
ordinary work in Shenzhen. *Science, Technology and Society* 24(2):
218-236.

Terranova T (2004). *Network Culture: Politics for the Information Age*.
London: Pluto Press.


Dr. Bingqing Xia

Lecturer, School of Communication, East China Normal University, Shanghai,
China