Showing off your best assets: Rethinking commodification in the online creator economy

Titolo Rivista SOCIOLOGIA DEL LAVORO
Autori/Curatori Kylie Jarrett
Anno di pubblicazione 2022 Fascicolo 2022/163
Lingua Inglese Numero pagine 20 P. 90-109 Dimensione file 232 KB
DOI 10.3280/SL2022-163005
Il DOI è il codice a barre della proprietà intellettuale: per saperne di più clicca qui

Qui sotto puoi vedere in anteprima la prima pagina di questo articolo.

Se questo articolo ti interessa, lo puoi acquistare (e scaricare in formato pdf) seguendo le facili indicazioni per acquistare il download credit. Acquista Download Credits per scaricare questo Articolo in formato PDF

Anteprima articolo

FrancoAngeli è membro della Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA)associazione indipendente e non profit per facilitare (attraverso i servizi tecnologici implementati da CrossRef.org) l’accesso degli studiosi ai contenuti digitali nelle pubblicazioni professionali e scientifiche

This theoretical paper critically explores digital labour in the online creator econo-my using OnlyFans sex workers as its core example. It critiques the description of the exploitation of self and embodiment in this work as a process of commodifica-tion. By reframing this activity in terms of human capital appreciation and by contrasting the specific economic logic of commodities and assets, it proposes in-stead the framework of assetisation to explain the economics of labour in this sec-tor. It then places online creator labour in a wider economic context to explore the greater utility of this move away from understanding such work as commodifica-tion.

Questo contributo teorico esplora in modo critico il lavoro digitale nell’economia dei creatori online utilizzando le prostitute di OnlyFans come sue riferimento principale. Esso critica la descrizione dello sfruttamento del sé e della personificazione in questo lavoro come processo di mercificazione. Riformulando quest’attività in termini di rivalutazione del capitale umano e contrastando la logica economica specifica delle merci e degli asset, l’articolo propone invece il quadro dell’assetizzazione per spiegare l’economia del lavoro in questo settore. Quindi, colloca il lavoro dei creatori online in un più ampio contesto economico al fine di esplorare l’utilità che deriva dall’allontanamento concettuale di questo tipo di lavoro dall’analisi dei fenomeni di mercificazione.

Keywords:cultura creatrice, marxismo, economia, lavoro digitale

  1. Becker G.S. (1993). Human Capital: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis with Special Reference to Education, 3rd edition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
  2. Abhayawansa S., Abeysekera I. (2008). An explanation of human capital disclosure from the resource-based perspective. Journal of Human Resource Costing and Accounting, 12(1): 51-64. DOI: 10.1108/1401338081087275
  3. Abidin C. (2017). #familygoals: Family influencers, calibrated amateurism, and justifying young digital labor. Social Media + Society, 3(2). DOI: 10.1177/205630511770719
  4. Abidin C. (2018). Internet Celebrity: Understanding Fame Online. Bingley, UK: Emerald Publishing.
  5. Adkins L. (2002). Revisions: Gender and Sexuality in Late Modernity. Buckingham: Open University Press.
  6. Adkins L., Cooper M., Konings M. (2020). The Asset Economy. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.
  7. Adorno T., Horkheimer M. (1992). Dialectic of Enlightenment. London: Verso.
  8. Akmalia N., Adriani S. (2021). Commodification of children on social endorsement (case Study on @zaskiaadyamecca’s Instagram account). MEDIASI - Jurnal Kajian dan Terapan Media, Bahasa, Komunikasi, 2(2): -- https://ojs2.polimedia.ac.id/index.php/mediasi/article/view/365.
  9. Anwar M.A., Graham M. (2020). Hidden transcripts of the gig economy: labour agency and the new art of resistance among African gig workers. Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 52(7): 1269-1291. DOI: 10.1177/0308518X1989458
  10. Arvidsson A. (2019). Changemakers: The Industrious Future of the Digital Economy. Cambridge, UK: Polity.
  11. Baym N. (2018). Playing to the Crowd: Musicians, Audiences, and the Intimate Work of Connection. New York: New York University Press.
  12. Berg H. (2017). Porn work, feminist critique, and the market for authenticity. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 42(3): 669-92. DOI: 10.1086/68963
  13. Bindel J. (2020). OnlyFans is sex work and pornography – stop calling it ‘empowering’. Evening Standard, September 11. -- Text available at www.standard.co.uk/comment/comment/onlyfans-sex-work-pornography-empowering-bella-thorne-a4545501.html.
  14. Bishop S. (2019). Managing visibility on YouTube through algorithmic gossip. New Media & Society, 21(11-12): 2589-2606. DOI: 10.1177/146144481985473
  15. Campana M., Van den Bossche A., Miller B. (2020). #dadtribe: performing sharenting labour to commercialise involved fatherhood. Journal of Macromarketing, 40(4): 475-491. DOI: 10.1177/027614672093333
  16. Christin A., Lewis R. (2021) The drama of metrics: status, spectacle and resistance among YouTube drama creators. Social Media + Society, 7 (1). DOI: 10.1177/205630512199966
  17. Cockayne D. (2016). Entrepreneurial affect: attachment to work practice in San Francisco’s digital media sector. Society and Space, 34(3): 456-473. DOI: 10.1177/026377581561839
  18. Cotter K. (2019). Playing the visibility game: how digital influencers and algorithms mediate influence on Instagram. New Media & Society 21(4): 895-913. DOI: 10.1177/146144481881568
  19. Cwynar-Horta J. (2016). The commodification of the body positive movement. Stream: Culture/Politics/Technology, 8(2): 36-56.
  20. du Gay P. (1996). Consumption and Identity at Work. London: Sage.
  21. Duffy B.E. (2017). (Not) Getting Paid to Do What You Love: Gender, Social Media, and Aspirational Work. New Haven: Yale University Press.
  22. Duffy B.E., Hund E. (2015). “Having it all” on social media: entrepreneurial femininity and self-branding among fashion bloggers. Social Media + Society 1(2). DOI: 10.1177/205630511560433
  23. Feher M. (2009). Self-appreciation; or, the aspirations of human capital. Public Culture, 21(1): 21-41. DOI: 10.1215/08992363-2008-01
  24. Feher M. (2018). Rated Agency: Investee Politics in a Speculative Age. New York: Zone Books.
  25. Fuchs C. (2008). Internet and Society: Social Theory in the Information Age. London: Routledge.
  26. Fuchs C. (2014). Digital Labour and Karl Marx. Oxon: Routledge.
  27. Gandini A. (2016). The Reputation Economy: Understanding Knowledge Work in Digital Society. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
  28. Gorz A. (2010). The Immaterial. India: Seagull Books.
  29. Gray A. (2003). Enterprising femininity: new modes of work and subjectivity. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 6(4): 489-506. DOI: 10.1177/1367549403006400
  30. Hakim C. (2010). Erotic capital. European Sociological Review, 26(5): 499-518.
  31. Hartmann D. (2013). Revolutionary subjectivity, the limit to capital. In: van der Linden M. and Roth K.H., editors, Beyond Marx: Theorising the Global Labour Relations of the Twenty-First Century. Brill: Leiden.
  32. Hern A. (2019). Verizon sells Tumblr just two years after acquiring social network. The Guardian, August 13. www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/aug/12/verizon-tumblr-sale-automattic.
  33. Hesmondhalgh D., Baker S. (2011). Creative Labour: Media Work in Three Cultural Industries. Oxon: Routledge.
  34. Jarrett K. (2016). Feminism, Labour and Digital Media: The Digital Housewife. Oxon: Routledge.
  35. Jarrett K. (2022). Digital Labor. Cambridge, UK: Polity.
  36. Kanai A. (2019). Gender and Relatability in Digital Culture: Managing Affect, Intimacy and Value. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan.
  37. Kashyap R., Bhatia A. (2018). Taxi drivers and taxidars: a case study of Uber and Ola in Delhi. Journal of Developing Societies, 34(2): 169-194. DOI: 10.1177/0169796X1875714
  38. Khamis S., Ang L., Welling R. (2017). Self-branding, “micro-celebrity” and the rise of social media influencers. Celebrity Studies 8(2): 191-208. DOI: 10.1080/19392397.2016.121829
  39. Kuczynski T. (2013). What is sold on the labour-market? In: van der Linden M., Roth K.H., editors, Beyond Marx: Theorising the Global Labour Relations of the Twenty-First Century. Brill: Leiden.
  40. Laurin D. (2019). Subscription intimacy: amateurism, authenticity and emotional labour in direct-to-consumer gay pornography.” About Gender: International Journal of Gender Studies, 8(16): 61-79. DOI: 10.15167/2279-5057/AG2019.8.16.111
  41. Lorusso S. (2019). Entreprecariat: Everyone is an Entrepreneur. Nobody is Safe. Eindhoven: Onomatopee.
  42. Lukács G. (1971). History and Class Consciousness: Studies in Marxist Dialectics. Pontypool, Wales: Merlin Press.
  43. Maddox J. (2020). The secret life of pet Instagram accounts: joy, resistance, and commodification in the internet’s cute economy. New Media & Society, 23(11): 3332-3348. DOI: 10.1177/146144482095634
  44. Marcuse H. (1991). One-Dimensional Man. Oxon: Routledge.
  45. Marshall P.D. (1997). The commodity and the internet: interactivity and the generation of the audience commodity. Media International Australia, 83: 51-62.
  46. Marshall P.D. (2021). The commodified celebrity-self: industrialized agency and the contemporary attention economy. Popular Communication: The International Journal of Media and Culture, 19(3): 164-177. DOI: 10.1080/15405702.2021.192371
  47. Marwick A.E. (2013). Status Update, Celebrity, Publicity, and Branding in the Social Media Age. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
  48. Marx K. (2013). Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts. In: Fromm E., editor, Marx’s Concepts of Man. London: Bloomsbury Academic. Trans. T.B. Bottomore.
  49. McRobbie A. (2001). “Everyone is Creative”: Artists as New Economy Pioneers. opendemocracy.net, August 29. -- Text available at www.opendemocracy.net/node/652.
  50. Paasonen S., Jarrett K., Light B. (2019). #NSFW: Sex, Humor and Risk in Social Media. Massachusetts: MIT Press.
  51. Petersson McIntyre M. (2021). Commodifying feminism: economic choice and agency in the context of lifestyle influencers and gender consultants. Gender, Work & Organization, 28(3).
  52. Roscoe T. (1999). The construction of the World Wide Web audience. Media Culture & Society, 21(5): 673-684.
  53. Rose N. (1998). Inventing Our Selves: Psychology, Power and Personhood. New York: Cambridge University Press.
  54. Rose N. (1999). Powers of Freedom: Reframing Political Thought. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
  55. Scharff C. (2016). The psychic life of neoliberalism: mapping the contours of entrepreneurial subjectivity. Theory, Culture & Society, 33(6): 107-122. DOI: 10.1177/026327641559016
  56. Scolere L., Pruchniewska U., Duffy B.E. (2018). Constructing the platform-specific brand: the labor of social media promotion. Social Media + Society, 4(3). DOI: 10.1177/205630511878476
  57. Senft T. (2008). Camgirls: Celebrity and Community in the Age of Social Networks. New York: Peter Lang.
  58. Smythe D.W. (2014). Communications: blindspot of western Marxism. In: McGuigan L., Manzerolle V., editors, The Audience Commodity in a Digital Age: Revisiting a Critical Theory of Commercial Media. New York: Peter Lang.
  59. Song L. (2021). Desire for sale: live-streaming and commercial DIY porn among Chinese gay microcelebrities. Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, Online First. DOI: 10.1177/1354856521104734
  60. Stevens W.E. (2021). Blackfishing on Instagram: influencing and the commodification of black urban aesthetics. Social Media + Society, 7(3). DOI: 10.1177/2056305121103823
  61. Sybert J. (2021). The demise of #NSFW: contested platform governance and Tumblr’s 2018 adult content ban. New Media & Society. DOI: 10.1177/146144482199671
  62. Tiidenberg K., van der Nagel E. (2020). Sex and Social Media. Bingley, UK: Emerald Publishing.
  63. Todericiu R., Stãnit A. (2015). Intellectual capital – the key for sustainable competitive advantage for the SME’s sector. Procedia Economics and Finance, 27: 676-681.
  64. van Doorn N. (2017). Platform labor: on the gendered and racialized exploitation of low-income service work in the “on-demand” economy. Information, Communication & Society, 20(6): 898-914. DOI: 10.1080/1369118X.2017.129419
  65. Vercellone C. (2013). “From the Mass-Worker to Cognitive Labour: Historical and Theoretical Considerations.” In: van der Linden M., Roth K.H., editors, Beyond Marx: Theorising the Global Labour Relations of the Twenty-First Century. Brill: Leiden.
  66. Wood A.J., Lehdonvirta V., Graham M. (2018). Workers of the internet unite? Online freelancer organisation among remote gig economy workers in six Asian and African countries. New Technology, Work and Employment, 33 (2): 95-112.
  67. Zelizer V.A. (2005). The Purchase of Intimacy. New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
  68. Zelizer V.A. (2011). Economic Lives: How Culture Shapes the Economy. New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
  69. Zou S. (2018). Producing value out of the invaluable: a critical/cultural perspective on the live streaming industry in China. Triple C, 16(2): 805-819.
  70. Zuboff S. (2019). The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power. London: Profile Books.

  • LGBTQ+ Affirmative Counseling Bianca Augustine, T’Airra Belcher, Anthony Vajda, Jeffry Moe, pp.251 (ISBN:9781009342407)
  • Home in cybersymbiosis: making home with digital oddkin Sophia Maalsen, in Information, Communication & Society /2024 pp.1759
    DOI: 10.1080/1369118X.2024.2311243
  • Capitalism in the Platform Age Federico Chicchi, Marco Marrone, pp.115 (ISBN:978-3-031-49146-7)

Kylie Jarrett, Showing off your best assets: Rethinking commodification in the online creator economy in "SOCIOLOGIA DEL LAVORO " 163/2022, pp 90-109, DOI: 10.3280/SL2022-163005