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      Call for Papers: Hierarchies of domesticity – spatial and social boundaries. Deadline for submissions is 30th September, 2024Full details can be read here.

      Articles to be no longer than 6,000 words (excluding footnotes and bibliography) and submitted in two forms: an anonymised version in which all references to the authors’ institution and publications are omitted; and a full version including the authors’ titles and institutional affiliations. For complete instructions on style, formatting, etc., please consult: https://www.plutojournals.com/wp-content/uploads/WOLG-Instructions-for-Authors2023.pdf 

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      Towards a taxonomy of virtual work

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      Work Organisation, Labour and Globalisation
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            Abstract

            Whether they are used for real-money trading in massive multiplayer online role-playing games, on-line content production, working through crowdsourcing Internet marketplaces, modding, online gambling, playing human-based computation games, or just browsing, sharing files, and connecting with friends, online spaces have produced a wide range of new forms of activity. A growing number of scholars now refer to these as ‘new labour activities’, ‘virtual work’ or ‘digital labour’ or describe them as new sources of value creation for capital. Alongside these developments, new terms are emerging to describe the virtual workforce of which ‘gold farmer’, ‘prosumer’, ‘Turker’ or ‘microworker’ are only a few examples. Despite these new terms and categories, a coherent conceptual framework and understanding of what constitutes virtual work in more general terms is still lacking. No clear classification of this type of work yet exists, nor is there a clear distinction between it and the work that takes place in the ‘real world’. This paper explores the obstacles that prevent the construction of such a classification and creating a clear definition and taxonomy of virtual work.

            Content

            Author and article information

            Journal
            10.13169
            workorgalaboglob
            Work Organisation, Labour and Globalisation
            Pluto Journals
            1745641X
            17456428
            Summer 2013
            : 7
            : 1
            : 31-50
            Article
            workorgalaboglob.7.1.0031
            10.13169/workorgalaboglob.7.1.0031
            876c117d-0b94-4d5e-bde1-8ed5a1c21501
            © Kaire Holts, 2013

            All content is freely available without charge to users or their institutions. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without asking prior permission of the publisher or the author. Articles published in the journal are distributed under a http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

            History

            Sociology,Labor law,Political science,Labor & Demographic economics,Political economics

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