The Making of a Cybertariat

The workplace has been changed in recent decades by the rise of digital technologies.Parts of a single labor process can be moved around the world, with implications not only for individual workplaces, but for the working class as a whole.Computer operators in India process medical transcriptions for doctors in the United States at one-eighth of what U.S. computer operators would earn, and at four times the salary of an Indian schoolteacher.

Within advanced capitalist countries, the workplace has been made more flexible through cell phones, e-mail, freelancing, and outsourcing. The process often makes the situation of the workers more precarious, as they are forced to pay for the tools of their trade, are expected to be constantly accessible to workplace demands, and are isolated from their fellow workers.

Ursula Huws's The Making of a Cybertariat examines this process from a number of perspectives, including those of women in the workplace and at home.