So much research went into preparing for Season 2 and there was no practical way to really call out all of the best articles and papers we read. There are a few that really stand out however, and we wanted to highlight one of those tonight in a special Calculus of IT Jort.

In this Jort, Mike and I took some time to discuss an article by Adrian Mengay (from the Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, Germany). The article is entitled: "Digitalization of Work and Heteronomy". From the abstract:

Digitalization has two very different effects on work. On the one hand, it leads to a re-Taylorization of work, de-qualification and a loss of workers autonomy. On the other hand, digitalization of work leads to new forms of indirect control and algorithmic control that can be used to manage and instrumentalize the supposed autonomy of workers to actually enable an unequal and exploitative labour process. This article discusses the questions of heteronomy related to the digitalization of work, presents central aspects of new forms of control (direct, indirect, and algorithmic) and explains why formalization, data centred decision making and flexible structures are used to control the labour process and improve
heteronomy of work.

If interested, you can download a copy here: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0309816820904032. Otherwise, we hope you enjoy the Jort!!

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