Abstract:

 

 

 

This contribution is based on a fundamental assumption: the digital realm is neither ethereal nor purely virtual. Instead, the feasibility of global digital propagation and worldwide access to IT services and connectivity relies on the affordability of work and natural resources along global value chains (GVCs). This propagation correlates with increasing pressure on both workers and the environment. Far from being immaterial, digital propagation contributes to the overriding of the technosphere over the metabolic timescales of the biosphere (Edward, 2017). In essence, bits are atoms (Marrone et al., 2023), software cannot exist without hardware (Andrijasevic et al., 2021), and the digital sublime (Mosco, 2004) obscures the degrading working conditions and environmental exploitation.

 

Emphasizing the materiality of digital technologies is particularly illustrative when examining the International Division of Digital Labour (IDDL) (Fuchs, 2014), which reveals the coexistence of various modes of production, productive forces, and exploitation. This analytical perspective highlights not only digital work in the strict sense, both highly skilled and undervalued, but also the miners under forced labour regimes in the Global South, workers in refineries, and those in the electronics industry who produce the raw materials and semi-finished products that constitute digital devices and infrastructures. Furthermore, the IDDL is instrumental in shedding light on the resistance and mobilizations against the new "green" extractive practices (Dunlap, Jakobsen, 2020) within the context of digital and energy twin transitions.

 

In conclusion, this contribution aims to analyse the materiality of the digital and its socio-ecological noxiousness, considering the hidden costs in terms of working conditions, ecological exploitation, and energy metabolism.

 

 

Speaker: 

 

 

 

Giorgio Pirina holds a master's degree in Sociology from the University of Padua and a PhD in Sociology and Social Research from the University of Bologna. His research interests include the transformations of work in platform capitalism and the socio-ecological consequences of digital capitalism. He is currently employed as a postdoctoral research fellow at Ca' Foscari University of Venice, where he is engaged in the project "Exit – Exploring sustainable strategies to counteract territorial inequalities from an intersectional approach" (Horizon Europe). He is a member of a number of research networks, including "Keep the city ticking" (AAU – Aalborg University), "C.I.Do.S.Pe.L" (University of Bologna) and "Laris – Laboratory on Social Research"(Ca' Foscari University of Venice). He is the author of the book "Connessioni globali. Una ricerca sul lavoro nel capitalismo delle piattaforme" (2022), Franco Angeli.