The Digital Hustle: Digital Technologies & The Politics of Invisibility in Precarious Work

• In Event: 413 - Section on Organizations, Occupations and Work Refereed Roundtable Session. Table 01. Culture and Organizations
  In Refereed Roundtable 100min: Table 13. Precarity

Abstract

The study of precarious, flexible, and insecure low wage work has become a central interest for scholars of work and occupations (Cooper 2014, Kalleberg 2009, 2013, Pugh 2013). Increasingly, these workers are relying on mobile technologies such as smartphones to find and coordinate work (Smith 2015). While we know a lot about the ways these devices affect high status workers’ experiences (Chesley 2005, Neff 2012, Perlow 2012), we know little about the experiences of low-status workers. Without knowledge about the crucial role these technologies play in the lives of low-status workers, sociologists risk endorsing a narrative that views ownership of advanced technologies as a luxury for the poor. Through 86 interviews with high and low status workers across the U.S., this paper explores the role that personal technologies play in both high and low status workers strategies to find work and navigate its risks. I find that both high and low status workers in flexible and insecure job markets do “digital hustles” to find and secure work. However, workers marked by differences in ethnicity, race, and sexuality were constrained by unequal burdens of visibility. I conclude that a “politics of invisibility” shapes both low-status workers’ use of mobile technologies and public awareness of the importance of these technologies for vulnerable workers.

Author

• Julia B. Ticona, University of Virginia