Topics :
1. explores some of the basic building blocks that labour unions use to build-up successful social media campaigns. It also explores some of the deeper social movement organizing skills necessary to move beyond ‘clicktivism’ or hashtag-activism in the service of sustainable social change. The readings for this week point directly to both the possibilities and limitations of using social media for positive social change.
2. Are new technologies disempowering workers? This week looks at everything from new digital surveillance technologies in the workplace, the use of algorithms to guide managerial decisions, as well as new forms of low-wage work in the knowledge/creative economy.
3. explores some of the leading theories that promise a ‘new’ postindustrial economy, including those addressing the increasing role of knowledge, innovation, and creativity in the 21st century workplace. While the mainstream literatures that address these issues are often couched in optimistic language, the underlying realities of expanding low-wage and precarious service work tell a different story. Along these lines, the emerging app-based ‘gig-economy’ – Uber, TaskRabbit, AskForTask, Fiver, Mechanical Turk, etc. – is becoming an important site of new labour market controversies.

4. Before exploring the creative/knowledge economy, it’s important to pause and consider the underlying physical infrastructure, human labour, and logistics that make it possible. This week we explore the material foundations underpinning our virtual worlds, examining the global supply chains that enable the digital technologies that pervade our lives to emerge.

5. Struggles for control over output and the distribution of profits between musicians and the major recording labels have been a feature of the industry since its beginnings. Patterns of exploitation have tended to match those in the labour market more broadly, with racialized musicians and women more likely to be undervalued and short-changed for their contributions. As technology develops and business models in the music industry shift, new opportunities and challenges are emerging for cultural producers. We will also examine the role of behind the scenes workers who are equally crucial to the music industry.