Gender and Work in South Africa

This chapter provides an overview of women’s participation in the post-apartheid South African economy. It documents rising labour-force participation among women, as well as an increase in the share of total and high-skilled employment held by women. However, it also highlights some of the persistent challenges, among them that women’s labour-force participation, access to (high-skilled) employment, and earnings remain well below men’s using the most recent labour force data available. A key constraint to women’s success in the labour market is the additional responsibility they face in the home. The chapter uses data from various sources to show that women retain primary responsibility for the household and the provision of care in South Africa. Finally, attention is drawn to how the Covid-19 crisis has not only exposed the value of this unpaid labour to society, but also the difficulty of performing this work alongside the demands of paid work.

The Chilean economy, an analysis of the dynamics of profits, investments and production: A Marxist approach

This article aims to examine the dynamics of the Chilean economy as a consequence of actions taken by companies whose aim is to make profits. As such, the economic analysis used is Marxist and makes use of those classical indicators described in Capital (Rate of Surplus-Value, Organic Composition of Capital and Rate of Profit). It is maintained that with the Marxist method, we can discover that behind the accumulation of incomes lies the fact that out of each 8 hours worked, only 3 finance wages and 5 benefit the owners of capital. That fraction of the unpaid labour received by capital but invested back as new capital, plus that ‘excess’ surplus value that is consequence of high copper prices, raises the physical, but not necessarily the value, capital-per-worker ratio. As a consequence, that relation of exploitation to capital accumulation, which Marx called the Rate of Profit, is found to fall, rise and then fall again. We understand that various approaches have been made to calculate the classical indicators and include some of them as alternative methods in our results.

AI Content Moderation, Racism and (de)Coloniality

The article develops a critical approach to AI in content moderation adopting a decolonial perspective. In particular, the article asks: to what extent does the current AI moderation system of platforms address racist hate speech and discrimination? Based on a critical reading of publicly available materials and publications on AI in content moderation, we argue that racialised people have no significant input in the definitions and decision making processes on racist hate speech and are also exploited as their unpaid labour is used to clean up platforms and to train AI systems. The disregard of the knowledge and experiences of racialised people and the expropriation of their labour with no compensation reproduce rather than eradicate racism. In theoretically making sense of this, we draw influences from Anibal Quijano’s theory of the coloniality of power and the centrality of race, concluding that in its current iteration, AI in content moderation is a technology in the service of coloniality. Finally, the article develops a sketch for a decolonial approach to AI in content moderation, which aims to centre the voices of racialised communities and to reorient content moderation towards repairing, educating and sustaining communities.

Gender disparities in Unpaid Household care labour: An Economic Estimate from Rural South India.

Worldwide women spend 4.5 hours daily on unpaid work while men spend about half of that time. The study aimed to estimate the time spent by both men and women on the various types of unpaid care labour find the economic estimates of unpaid labour. A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted for a period of 3 months in 2020 in the rural area of South India. 360 study participants of 15 -60 years were recruited using simple random sampling and enquired for the time spent on care activities using time use survey . Cumulative hours spent per year and its economic estimate was calculated using Oxfam global care calculator. Female participants did significantly higher hours of unpaid care (3596.5 hrs) as compared to male participants (2938.3 hours) (p <0.05). Economic estimates of unpaid care per year were significantly higher (INR 103641.8) for females as compared to males (INR 84610) (p< 0.005). The policy makers and administrators should develop policies which recognise, reduce, redistribute and represent unpaid labour work.

Rethinking digital labour: A renewed critique moving beyond the exploitation paradigm

A number of important topics, themes and concepts frequently recur in studies of digital labour over the past decade, such as exploitation, precarity, unpaid labour, gig economy and platform labour. The first generation of the critique has drawn 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. While these topics, themes and concepts have been beneficial in establishing a basis for critique, there is a danger that they may become rather familiar and potentially even a little stale. Therefore, this article suggests a need to renew the critique of digital labour, as the digital realm stabilises 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. Here, I concentrate on introducing our themed collection surrounding a renewed critique moving beyond a dichotomy of exploitation and labour agency. I also encourage different disciplines to enrich and renew studies of digital labour. JEL Codes: H049; N35, Z13

Is capitalism structurally indifferent to gender?: Routes to a value theory of reproductive labour

The contributions of Ellen Meiksins Wood to social property relations arguments have facilitated an enhanced understanding of the historical specificity of capitalism and its structuring conditions. Yet such arguments also have some questionable assumptions when it comes to theorising gender and so-called ‘extra-economic’ identities, most noticeably regarding capitalism as indifferent to gender relations. This article delves into such issues by delivering a set of quandaries about various aspects of the social property relations approach and its relevance to wider debates on economy and space. We contend that debates in Marxism Feminism and social reproduction theory therein should be elevated to centre stage in considerations of political economy and economic geography. Consequently, it is possible to dispense with the notion that capitalism is structurally indifferent to gender, which mars the social property relations approach. At the same time, however, there are tensions within Marxism Feminism, not least revolving around questions of value, the role of unpaid labour in the household, and wider theorising on the relationship between ‘market’ conditions and extra-economic relations of ‘state’ power. We explore two major contending routes to what we call a value theory of reproductive labour within Marxism Feminism and conclude that this reconnaissance provides an opportunity to initiate enhanced discussion on future political struggles against capital's requirements.

Understanding volunteer commitment to a project: testing a conceptual model

PurposeIn Australia, it is estimated that volunteers provide over $14.6 billion of unpaid labour to not-for-profit organisations. Much of the work that volunteers undertake is within a project context, yet the impact of a project and its environment on volunteer commitment is unknown. A conceptual model proposes three categories of factors that impact volunteer commitment to a project: purposeful, emotional and contextual. The purpose of this research is to empirically explore the conceptual model of volunteer commitment with volunteers working on projects in order to seek support for, and refine, the model.Design/methodology/approachThe research design was exploratory and Q methodology was used as a framework to collect and analyse data. Forty-one Australian volunteers engaged in project-based tasks participated in the study.FindingsRefinement of the initial conceptual model of volunteer commitment is required. The three categories that influence volunteer commitment to a project should be labelled “my contribution”, “relationships” and “the project”. The revised model shows early evidence that the project itself is the main commitment building factor.Originality/valueWhilst volunteer retention is not a new field of knowledge, research such as this further informs not-for-profit organisations in their volunteer recruitment and retention practices.

The Interlinkages Between Paid and Unpaid Labour: A Homage to Krishna Bharadwaj

In this article, I attempt to extend Krishna Bharadwaj’s insight on interlinked rural markets to the analysis of the interlinkages between paid and unpaid economic activities; in other words, between work and employment. Specifically, I argue that the gendered division of labour in India creates much greater involvement in unpaid labour for women, which in turn has direct and pervasive implications for their involvement in paid employment. Indeed, the interlinkage between the two is so profound that it is impossible to understand trends in one without assessing trends in the other. JEL Codes: J210, J220, J46, J710

Who Did You Meet at the Venice Biennale? Education-to-Work Transition Enhancers for Aspiring Arts Professionals in Australia

Precarious employment and unpaid labour are common features of the cultural and creative industries. While existing literature highlights the benefit of professional development in building careers, it focuses on self-driven rather than formalised activities. Social capital and social disadvantage are recognised as major factors limiting career success. Yet, it is unclear whether formalised professional development programs offer advantages to overcoming such barriers. This article examines a professional development scheme led by a government-funded cultural agency that provides cultural workers with opportunities to develop education-to-work ‘transition enhancers’. Using data from 45 participants in the Australia Council for the Arts’ Venice Biennale Professional Development Program, we find that the program enables access to three transition enhancers (professional experience, social connections and international experience). However, the program’s lack of structure ensures the benefits of participation are most effective for those who bring a proactive approach to engaging in events and building social relations.

Hobbyist Game Making Between Self-Exploitation and Self-Emancipation

Critics of both the game industry specifically and the cultural industries broadly have long drawn attention to how romantic ideals around creative and passionate work are exploited by cultural firms. Long hours, periods of contingent employment, and expectations of unpaid labour are all justified as the sacrifices that cultural workers make in order to ‘do what they love’. Drawing from interviews with 200 amateur game makers, a range of complex, and sometimes contradictory justifications of self-exploitation are identified. While some game makers speak of ambitions to one day get paid to make games, many others justify keeping their creative work separate from what they do for money as a form of self-emancipation.