This edited volume seeks to enhance our understanding of the concepts of space and place in the study of digital work. It argues that while digital work is often presented as 'placeless', work always takes place somewhere with a certain degree of local embeddedness. Contributors to this collection address restructuring processes that bring about delocalised digital work and point out limitations to dislocation inherent in the work itself, and the social relations or the physical artefacts involved. Exploring the dynamics of global value chains and shifts in the international division of labour, this book explores the impact these have on employment and working conditions, workers' agency in shaping and coping with changes in work, and the new competencies needed in virtual organisational environments. Combining different disciplinary perspectives, the volume teases out the spatial aspects of digital work at different scales ranging from team level to that of global production networks.

Autorentext

Jörg Flecker is a professor of sociology and head of the sociology department at the University of Vienna, Austria. For more than 15 years he has worked on delocalization of ICT-enabled work and restructuring of service value chains.

Inhalt

Introduction; Jörg Flecker.- Part 1. Delocalisation of digital work.- 1. The production of 'placelessness': digital service work in global value chains; Jörg Flecker and Annika Schönauer.- 2. New topologies of engineering work:  informatisation, virtualisation and globalisation in the automotive industry; Mascha Will-Zocholl.- 3. Algorithms that divide and unite: Delocalisation, identity, and collective action in 'microwork'; Vili Lehdonvirta.- Part 2. The changing international division of labour and regional development.- 4. 'Clouds' in the desert? Central and Eastern Europe in the new division of labour for business services and software development; Graham Hollinshead and Jane Hardy.- 5. Missing Links in Service Value Chain Analysis The Case of Call Centers in the Brazilian Banking Sector; Martina Sproll.- 6. Local development policies and labour market in the dynamics of virtual value chains: the case of IT Sector in the municipality of Londrina (Paraná, Brazil); Simone Wolff.- 7. Creating space: The role of the State in the Indian IT related offshoring sector; Ernesto Noronha and Premilla D'Cruz.- Part 3. Dynamics of virtual organisations and mediatised work.- 8. 'My company's invisible' Creating trust and belonging amongst the transient places and spaces of virtual work; Nora Koslowski.- 9. Towards a model of collective competencies for global and virtual collaboration; Thomas Ryser, Elisabeth Angerer and Hartmut Schulze.- 10. Spatial phenomena of mediatised work; Caroline Roth-Ebner.