Four Moments of Labor in the Era of Algorithmic Capital
This article builds on the premise that a new regime of accumulation, which we call “algorithmic capital,” has come to dominate the global economy in the last 15 years. In the wake of this profound transformation, comprising the rise of platforms and algorithmic technologies, the relations between capital and labor are changing. This article explores the reconfiguration of labor following waves of automation and the emergence of new forms of “digital labor.” The imperatives of algorithmic accumulation (data extraction, development of machine learning and AI, automation, etc.), are not confined to digital labor, but transform industrial, extractive, and domestic labor as well. This paper conceptualizes the unity of these four moments—digital, extractive, industrial, domestic—under the category of algorithmic labor and explores the ways in which they unite in complementary and conflictual way with algorithmic capital. The article also engages with new tensions and struggles surrounding algorithmic labor and concludes by reflecting on the problem of the “fetichism of algorithms”.