1. Affective labour: Past and present
Dr Melissa Gregg,
University of Sydney, Australia

2. Prehistory
Informal labour, reproductive labour, care
work. Domestic/ unregulated spheres
Relevant feminist scholarship:
- Philosophy: Home as historical basis for
women‟s oppression (eg, Irigaray, Beauvoir,
Young)
- The Sociology of Housework Oakley (1973)
- Marxist/ Materialist Feminism: Barrett (1980),
Delphy (1984), Harstock (1983)
- Wages for housework campaigns (ongoing)

3. Other kinds of “unfree” labour
- Undocumented migrants
- Conscription
- Containment
- Students
- Critically ill
- Work-fare regimes
(Cooper & Waldby 2009)

4. Leopoldina Fortunati, 2007
immaterial labour includes „cleaning the
house, cooking, shopping, washing and
ironing clothes‟ and the labour required to
produce individuals: „sex, pregnancy,
childbirth, breastfeeding and care‟
the immaterial sphere also includes „affect,
care, love, education, socialization,
communication, information,
entertainment, organization, planning,
coordination, logistics‟ (144)

5. Fortunati, cont‟d
• the adoption and use of Information and
Communication Technologies (ICTs) in the
home “remove[s] the human body from
education, communication, information,
entertainment and other immaterial
aspects of domestic labor” (147)
• women‟s work should not be reduced to
the body (affect) but nor should technology
replace the human dimensions of care
work

6. Ehrenreich & Hochschild

7. Cooper & Waldby, 2009
“Clinical labour” – cell harvesting, fertility
outsourcing, commercial surrogacy, egg
vending, etc
Coerced? Voluntary? Donated? Gift
exchange?
Compensation or wages?

8. “Clinical labour”
- highlights the limitations of Fordist models
as social reproduction enters the formal
market on a global scale
- emphasises the racial and class specificity
of affective/ immaterial labour
- biological reproduction has been
outsourced
(Cooper & Waldby 2009)

9. Kathi Weeks, 2007
Regardless of whether it was ever
adequate, especially under the conditions
of post-Fordist production, the very same
practices deemed unproductive in one site
[now] directly produce value in another
and thus this simple distinction between
what is inside or outside the circuits of
capitalist valorization becomes
increasingly untenable (238)

10. The working from home study
2007-2009
27 workers, various ages/positions,
public and private sector, all in
information, communication and
education industries
Findings to be published in Work’s Intimacy,
Polity Press (forthcoming 2010)

13. Key findings
Workers who used online technology to work outside the
office reported a significant impact on home life and an
inability to “switch off” from work
Stress and anxiety was particularly apparent in mid-level
employees and junior workers. Online technology
exacerbated feelings of responsibility for timely
communication within the organisation – leading to
chronic email monitoring outside the office and
difficulties with relaxation and sleep
Mid-level employees were dealing with large amounts of
email generated within their own organisation by
superiors with more financial and administrative support

14. Key findings
Part-time workers reported regular work contact during
days off. This was especially prominent in women
looking after children at home.
Women felt “lucky” to work part-time even though they
were regularly doing unrecognised work. The
heightened pace of online communication had not been
factored in to the roles of part-time office workers.
Most workers did not consider checking work email at
home to be “work”.

15. “I start at about half past six
in the morning and do an
hour or so before I leave to
go to work and that‟s mainly
just clearing emails and
things like that so I can start
the day ready to do „work‟.”

16. “100 doesn‟t sound like a lot.”

17. “Otherwise it would just get on top of me.”

18. “You don‟t want to hold up the work.”

19. “It almost gives me peace of mind that I don‟t
have something really big waiting for me.”

20. “I will sleep better if I spend an hour
or an hour and a half at night just
getting on top of that.”

21. I think that the anxiety I have with emails is
absolutely ridiculous. I just think it‟s stupid; I should
get over it. I don‟t think it‟s something that‟s placed
upon me; I think it‟s truly a personal manifestation.

22. Affective labour in the digital era
anticipatory: strategies of preparation and
recovery outside formal work hours to
cope with ceaseless communication
demands
prospective: networking and skills upgrades
outside formal work hours to maintain
employability through “churn” (employer,
job role, or technology fashion)

23. Technological change as state
of exception
When I had the last interview I think I‟d
probably just joined Facebook… And now
Facebook is so old hat, and Twitter‟s the
latest thing. You‟ve got to be on Twitter.
That‟s actually part of my job – I do the
tweets for [the corporation]. So whatever
comes along next, you‟ve got to do it.
(Online journalist/ news producer)

24. Technological change as state
of exception
It‟s not really at the stage where we have to
have a separate Twitter shift or anything like
that. But if we want to do it properly – if it turns
out to be something that‟s going to stick
around and isn‟t just a fad, then we have to
look at incorporating it formally into some kind
of work flow system.
I was working the budget night and I was EP
that night, and also Tweeting. I think next year
if it‟s still around we‟ll probably have someone
just doing Twitter. I was trying to do
everything.

25. In addition to established white
collar affects…
…perhaps because he does not know where
he is going, he is in a frantic hurry; perhaps
because he does not know what frightens
him, he is paralysed with fear.
C W Mills, White Collar (1973: xvi).
See also:
Richard Sennett, The Corrosion of Character (on
anxiety)
Alan Liu, The Laws of Cool (on cubicle politics)

26. And the impact of recession…

27. “Nothing is certain in this environment. I think
anyone in the corporate environment at the
moment would be mad to think that their job
was secure, moving forward… Never, ever
assume that you‟ve got a job for life or a job
for 12 months.”

28. A labour politics to fit a state
of exception…