All UP IN MY MOOD! Reimagining Work Through Affective Governance in the Gig Economy

• In Event: 40860 - Section on Economic Sociology Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 1. Algorithmic economies

Abstract

The gig economy, exemplified by platforms like Uber and TaskRabbit, has ushered in a new era of labor where workers' emotional states are continuously monitored and optimized. This theoretical paper examines the emergence of emotional governance in digital labor, exploring how platforms transform workers' affective experiences into sites of economic control. Drawing on Foucault's biopolitics and extending Mbembe's necropolitics, I argue that these systems create sophisticated mechanisms of power where workers' value is determined by their ability to meet complex affective standards. By converting emotional life into an economic resource, platforms extend control into the intimate realm of feeling, challenging traditional notions of labor and productivity. This research contributes to critical scholarship by exposing the subtle yet profound ways digital platforms regulate and extract value from workers' emotional experiences, illuminating the necropolitical logics embedded in contemporary labor economies.

Author

• Kemi Johnson Pratt Barnett, Texas Woman's University