From 14-16 June 2019, Thomas Allmer (University of Stirling) and Karem Schamberger (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, LMU) blocked a seminar at the Department of Media and Communication at LMU Munich under the title Digitale Arbeit und Kapitalismus.

Twenty-five students of the LMU and of the Netzwerk Kritische Kommunikationswissenschaft illuminated local, national and international phenomena like Gig Economy, digital slave work, electronic garbage, possible alternatives and political possibilities through short theoretical introductions, guest lectures from professionals and intensive workshops.

Laura Meschede, prize-winning investigative journalist (publishing among others in Süddeutsche Zeitung Magazin), talked about her undercover research at Amazon Mechanical Turk. Thomas Gürlebeck, ver.di Secretary at the Amazon site in Graben in the vicinity of Augsburg, talked about possibilities of trade union organisation and resistance in digital capitalism.

The photo shows the students’ collection of notions referring to the topic of digital labour.

Read more…