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Work and the Data Economy: On Abstraction and Contempt

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Listed:
  • Nick Seaver
  • Alex Blanchette
  • Marcel LaFlamme

Abstract

The 2024 joint meeting of the Society for Economic Anthropology and the Society for the Anthropology of Work took the theme of “Work and the Data Economy.” The articles in this special issue, first presented at the meeting, explore the datafication of ethnographic settings not conventionally associated with high‐tech or knowledge work. In this introduction, we argue that datafication is a key technology of abstraction that aggregates and transforms the contextual particularities of the world into countable, computationally tractable representations. These transformations are often explicitly or implicitly contemptuous of the work practices they abstract from. Reading the issue through the themes of abstraction and contempt, we highlight the emerging shifts in the organization, valuation, and control of labor that the articles collectively reveal.

Suggested Citation

  • Nick Seaver & Alex Blanchette & Marcel LaFlamme, 2025. "Work and the Data Economy: On Abstraction and Contempt," Economic Anthropology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(2), June.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ecanth:v:12:y:2025:i:2:n:e70007
    DOI: 10.1002/sea2.70007
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Julio Sebastián Zárate Vásquez & Jason A. Delborne, 2025. "Toward Platform Capitalism in Agrobiodiversity? Examining the Potential Challenges of E‐Commerce Integration in Agrobiodiversity Apps," Economic Anthropology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(2), June.
    2. Livia Garofalo, 2025. "(Tele)therapist, Platform Worker, Data Manager: Therapeutic Labor and the New Therapeutic Exchange," Economic Anthropology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(2), June.
    3. Mark Bomford, 2025. "Free Range Capital for Indoor Agriculture," Economic Anthropology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(2), June.
    4. Lindsay Poirier, 2025. "Crafting Compliant Data: Enacting Aggregate Spend Transparency in the US Life Science Industry," Economic Anthropology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(2), June.
    5. Alexander Fink & Lauri Goldkind, 2025. "Exploring Folk Theories of Data Labor in Human Services," Economic Anthropology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(2), June.
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