Professionals, purpose-seekers, and passers-through: How microworkers reconcile alienation and platform commitment through identity work

Digital microwork consists of remote and highly decontextualized labor that is increasingly governed by algorithms. The anonymity and granularity of such work is likely to cause alienation among workers. To date, we know little about how workers reconcile such potential feelings of alienation with their simultaneous commitment to the platform. Based on a longitudinal survey of 460 workers on a large microworking platform and a combination of quantitative and qualitative analyses, we show that (1) alienation is present in digital microwork. However, our study also finds that (2) workers’ commitment to the platform over time may alter their subjective perceptions of alienation. Drawing from qualitative statements, we show (3) how workers perform identity work that might help reconcile feelings of alienation with simultaneous platform commitment. Our findings contribute to solving the paradox of worker commitment to precarious platform labor, which is an issue frequently raised in the digital labor literature.

Not on air, but Online: The Labor Conditions of the Digital Journalist in U.S. Local Television Newsrooms

As American news preferences shift from broadcast to digital platforms, corporate-owned local television stations have hired digital teams to keep a growing array of mobile, social, web, and over-the-top platforms updated with revenue-generating and audience-friendly information. Yet, these workers are currently missing from the labor literature. Therefore, this exploratory study uses a political economy framework with a labor focus to begin to understand the day-to-day working conditions of these employees. Interviews outline workload issues including long hours of multitasking and nearly-constant connectivity even when off the clock, sped-up production expectations with a commodified information focus, and limited worker protections. The findings here aim to provide a starting point for digital journalism labor studies moving forward.

Organizational Dehumanization and Emotional Labor: A Cross-Cultural Comparison Between Vietnam and the United Kingdom

This study examined cross-cultural differences in the relationships between organizational dehumanization and both job satisfaction and turnover intentions through emotional labor (i.e., surface acting). In particular, we expected that power distance, that is, a critical value usually discussed as part of the national culture, would mitigate the deleterious effects of both organizational dehumanization and surface acting on job satisfaction and turnover intentions. Data were collected from employees in two countries that differ in power distance, namely Vietnam ( N = 235) and the United Kingdom ( N = 334). First, we found that perceptions to be dehumanized by one’s organization were indirectly related to poor job satisfaction and more turnover intentions through surface acting, regardless of the country. Second, our results showed that the deleterious effects of both organizational dehumanization and surface acting on work-related outcomes were weaker in Vietnam (a high power distance country) than in the United Kingdom (a low power distance country). Theoretical and practical implications are discussed from the perspective of organizational dehumanization and emotional labor literature.

Labor Out of Place: On the Varieties and Valences of (In)visible Labor in Data-Intensive Science

We apply the concept of invisible labor, as developed by labor scholars over the last forty years, to data-intensive science. Drawing on a fifteen-year corpus of research into multiple domains of data-intensive science, we use a series of ethnographic vignettes to offer a snapshot of the varieties and valences of labor in data-intensive science. We conceptualize data-intensive science as an evolving field and set of practices and highlight parallels between the labor literature and Science and Technology Studies. Further, we note where data-intensive science intersects and overlaps with broader trends in the 21st century economy. In closing, we argue for further research that takes scientific work and labor as its starting point.

BRIDGING, COACHING, AND BOUNDARY SPANNING: BROKERAGE AND INTERMEDIATION IN THE PHILIPPINE ONLINE PLATFORM LABOR ECONOMY

The increasing networked connectivity and affordability of technology facilitated the rise of digitally-mediated service work. Workers, mostly located in the Global South, can now directly obtain ‘gigs’ through online labor platforms and microwork intermediaries such as Upwork and Onlinejobs.ph. Within the Philippine digital labor economy, we see an emerging category of digital labor intermediaries—locally called peer mentors and coaches-- who are playing a significant role in the expansion and continued uptake of digital platform labor in the country. Building on and drawing connections between earlier works on the influencer economy (Abidin, 2015; Senft, 2013; and Marwick, 2013) and on labor migration brokerage literature (Shreshta & Yeoh, 2018; Lin, Lindquist, Xiang, & Yeoh, 2017), the paper conceptualizes digital labor brokerage arising within various ‘spaces of (labor) intermediation.’ Drawing from participant observation in online freelancing Facebook groups and interviews with these brokers and digital workers, we examine the transactional nature underlying the ‘producer-audience’ relationship of digital labor brokerage, the activation of trust and influence through mediated encounters, and the power dynamic underlying the digitally mediated symbolic and material power taking place between them and their respective teams. The paper seeks to contribute to the digital labor literature in two ways: 1) by characterizing the emergence of digital labor brokers in a digital labor supplying country in the global South, the role they play in the digital platform labor economy and the interventions that they engage; and 2) analyzing the structural conditions that facilitate the emergence of digital labor brokerage.

Role of camylofin and its combinations in obstetrics and gynaecological practice: a review of Indian evidence

Anti-spasmodic drugs like camylofin are used in obstetrics and gynaecological practice for broadly two conditions - spasmodic abdominal pain and management of prolonged labor. Camylofin has been in use in India for almost six decades. As a spasmolytic, camylofin has demonstrated good efficacy and tolerability, both in the management of abdominal spasmodic pain and in augmentation of labor. Literature evidences has suggested that camylofin has demonstrated a statistically significant superiority, such as higher spasmolytic potency compared to other anti-spasmodics like drotaverine, hyoscine and valethamate. In some studies, camylofin maintained the superior efficacy, despite being given as a single dose compared to repeat doses of comparator drugs. Also, in augmentation of labor, camylofin single dose demonstrated superior efficacy when the comparator arm was given a combination of two anti-spasmodic drugs i.e. hyoscine and valethamate in three doses at hourly intervals. Clinical studies in abdominal colic pain revealed significant superiority of the camylofin-paracetamol combination over dicylomine paracetamol combination, this despite the camylofin combination containing 300mg paracetamol as compared to the dicyclomine combination containing 500mg paracetamol. Similar results, highlighting better outcomes in abdominal colic of different types, was shown in studies comparing camylofin-diclofenac combination compared with hyoscine (in renal colic) and also camylofin-mefenamic acid combination compared with dicyclomine-mefenamic acid combination (in menstrual colic). All the above clinical study results resonate in the findings of a recent survey with gynaecologists across the country, which showed that camylofin is considered as the anti-spasmodic most suitable for female patients compared to drotaverine, dicyclomine and hyoscine. Given the availability of strong clinical trial data in Indian women patients, camylofin along with its combinations holds a strong place in the armamentarium of practicing obstetricians and gynaecologists and can be a preferred choice of therapy in treatment protocols of abdominal spasmodic pain and augmentation of labor.

The Spread of Anti-Union Business Coordination: Evidence from the Open-Shop Movement in the U.S. Interwar Period

What explains the development of repressive employer coordination? Classic historical American business and labor literature focuses on institutions of labor repression and employer associations, but little systematic examination of such associations exists, particularly during the interwar period. Similarly, recent political science literature on the origins of industrial institutions underemphasizes the importance of repressive employer associations. I use new quantitative subnational evidence from the U.S. interwar period, with data from the open-shop movement in the United States at the local level after World War I. I test a variety of families of hypotheses regarding variation in repressive employer coordination, with specific data measuring the threat posed by organized labor. I find that such threats posed by unions are correlated to repressive employer associations. The results have implications for understanding local-level variation in the business repression of labor movements in the early twentieth century and contribute to our understanding of labor repressive institutions and the incentives of firms to collectively act.