Matthew Cole | University of Sussex (original) (raw)

Articles by Matthew Cole

Global Networks, 2022

Production in knowledge and data-intensive industries is powered by work that can, in theory, be ... more Production in knowledge and data-intensive industries is powered by work that can, in theory, be done from anywhere, via cloudwork platforms. Cloudwork platforms govern data value chains in distinct ways to concentrate power and extract value at the global scale. We argue that unpaid labour is a systemic mechanism of accumulation in these digital value networks. In this paper we demonstrate how it is tied to platform business models and facilitated by elements of platform governance including monopsony power, a high degree of spatial flexibility in sourcing labour, regulatory unaccountability and digital enclosure. We draw on a survey of 699 workers on 14 platforms in 74 countries to show that unpaid labour is an engine of South–North value extraction, and workers in the global South perform more unpaid labour than counterparts in the global North. Our findings have important ramifications our understanding of the changing international division of labour and platform capitalism.

Antipode, 2022

The so-called age of AI, industry 4.0, the fourth industrial revolution, etc. all attempt to conj... more The so-called age of AI, industry 4.0, the fourth industrial revolution, etc. all attempt to conjure into existence a new technological paradigm. Should we believe the hype? This paper draws on neo-Schumpeterian and r egulation theory to widen the scope of this debate and examine techno-economic and institutional discontinuities. In exploring these discontinuities, this paper argues, first, that growth regimes are not necessarily tenable as indicators of new paradigms, and, second, that there are (infra)structural discontinuities between the ICT/post-Fordist era and those of the AI/platform era. Platformisation entails a distinct institutional logic, regime of accumulation (RA) and mode of social r egulation (MSR). The clusters of technological and institutional changes behind this shift have not yet been sufficiently addressed by economic geography and associated literatures. In reconceptualising the shift in terms of (infra)structural discontinuity, the paper synthesises neo-Schumpeterian and r egulation theory to identify both technological and institutional changes in the r egulation of capitalist accumulation.

Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence, 2022

Calls for "ethical Artificial Intelligence" are legion, with a recent proliferation of government... more Calls for "ethical Artificial Intelligence" are legion, with a recent proliferation of government and industry guidelines attempting to establish ethical rules and boundaries for this new technology. With few exceptions, they interpret Artificial Intelligence (AI) ethics narrowly in a liberal political framework of privacy concerns, transparency, governance and non-discrimination. One of the main hurdles to establishing "ethical AI" remains how to operationalize high-level principles such that they translate to technology design, development and use in the labor process. This is because organizations can end up interpreting ethics in an ad-hoc way with no oversight, treating ethics as simply another technological problem with technological solutions, and regulations have been largely detached from the issues AI presents for workers. There is a distinct lack of supra-national standards for fair, decent, or just AI in contexts where people depend on and work in tandem with it. Topics such as discrimination and bias in job allocation, surveillance and control in the labor process, and quantification of work have received significant attention, yet questions around AI and job quality and working conditions have not. This has left workers exposed to potential risks and harms of AI. In this paper, we provide a critique of relevant academic literature and policies related to AI ethics. We then identify a set of principles that could facilitate fairer working conditions with AI. As part of a broader research initiative with the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence, we propose a set of accountability mechanisms to ensure AI systems foster fairer working conditions. Such processes are aimed at reshaping the social impact of technology from the point of inception to set a research agenda for the future. As such, the key contribution of the paper is how to bridge from abstract ethical principles to operationalizable processes in the vast field of AI and new technology at work.

Work, Employment and Society, 2022

Drawing on Marxist political economy, this article examines wage theft in hospitality work. Throu... more Drawing on Marxist political economy, this article examines wage theft in hospitality work. Through a detailed, qualitative study of workers' experiences in London hotels, a novel typology is developed that reveals how managers extract additional unpaid labour time through wage theft. The article argues that both the legal definition and existing academic formulations of wage theft fail to encompass the full range of ways that employers extract unpaid labour time. They also overlook the systemic dimension of unpaid labour time under capitalism. The article contributes new insights into the sociological dimensions of exploitation by proposing an alternative conceptualisation of wage theft that incorporates both formal violations of the law and the more subtle, informal means by which the theft of wages is secured.

Book Chapters by Matthew Cole

Socialist Register 2021: Beyond Digital Capitalism: New Ways of Living, 2021

The economic and social consequences of technological change in capitalist societies have always ... more The economic and social consequences of technological change in capitalist societies have always been profound. For capitalists themselves, new technologies can have pervasive effects, rendering obsolete even the most profitable businesses, while simultaneously creating opportunities for early adopters. For workers reliant on the sale of their labour power, the effects are even more differentiated: new technologies create opportunities for those who can acquire necessary skills, but destitution for those whose capabilities are no longer required. Beyond the immediate economic outcomes for individuals and their communities, there are spatial, organizational, and cultural consequences that transform the fabric of society.

In his analysis of the workplaces of the first industrial revolution, Marx concludes that ‘Large-scale industry possesses in the machine system an entirely objective organization of production, which confronts the worker as a pre-existing material condition of production’, and elsewhere he defines this condition as the real subsumption of labour. A hundred years later, his analysis underpinned modern socialist studies of labour and the struggle for control in the workplace. Indeed, ever since the birth of industrial capitalism socialists have not only critically examined technology in its social context, but also looked forward to futures of work based on radically different principles. As Alfred Barratt Brown wrote in 1934, ‘We need to look at the whole world of industry with fresh eyes, to ask ourselves again what we want to produce, and how we can best employ our powers in producing it, to the end that the work and its results may alike satisfy human capacities and human needs’.

This essay is concerned to look with fresh socialist eyes at the technologies that underpin our present world of work, and how they have been shaped and applied by capital to meet the needs of capital, oriented firmly towards the subsumption of wage labour in all its concrete forms. We cannot repurpose them towards our fundamental goal as socialists to build a world based upon equality and justice for all without directly challenging and contesting the existing social order. This requires, as always, both a broad vision of a sustainable, egalitarian and democratic society, and concrete proposals that can connect to existing struggles while also prefiguring radical change.

The Bloomsbury Companion to Marx, 2018

https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/the-bloomsbury-companion-to-marx-9781474278713/

Reports by Matthew Cole

European Parliament, 2021

This report addresses the nature, scope and possible effects of digital automation. It reviews re... more This report addresses the nature, scope and possible effects of digital automation. It reviews relevant literature and situates modern debates on technological change in historical context. It also offers some policy options that, if implemented, would help to harness technology for positive economic and social ends. The report recognises that technological change can affect not just the volume of work but also its quality. It identifies threats to job quality and an unequal distribution of the risks and benefits associated with digital automation. In response, it recommends a number of policy options – ones that aim to go beyond the provision of skills and training and which seek a human-centred approach to digital transformations of work based on industrial democracy and social partnership. Overall, the report pushes for a new Digital Social Contract and a future of work that works for all.

This study has been written by David Spencer, Matt Cole, Simon Joyce, Xanthe Whittaker and Mark Stuart of the Leeds University Business School, University of Leeds, UK, at the request of the Panel for the Future of Science and Technology (STOA) and managed by the Scientific Foresight Unit, within the Directorate-General for Parliamentary Research Services (EPRS) of the Secretariat of the European Parliament.

Book Reviews by Matthew Cole

For the journal 'Work, Employment and Society'

Conference Presentations by Matthew Cole

As service industries have come to dominate many advanced economies, studies of work have increa... more As service industries have come to dominate many advanced economies, studies of work have increasingly moved toward the areas of health, finance, and education. However, the hospitality industry remains an under-researched area in critical studies of work, especially given its growing importance to certain economies. Hospitality is the UK’s fastest growing industry and currently the fourth largest industry by employment. However, it also has a higher rate of low-paid work than any other industry. Much of this expansion is due to significant rises in tourism and migration to the UK in recent years. These factors may have profound consequences for the shape of the economy and work. My research investigates what is happening on the ground in this major growth industry, while contextualising it within a broader political economy of the country.

This paper will present preliminary findings (I am currently collecting data) of my ethnographic fieldwork in the UK hospitality sector. The fieldwork follows in the methodological tradition of widely respected workplace ethnographies such as Burawoy (1979), Huw Beynon (1973), Glucksmann (1982) and Pollert (1981). Following this tradition, the research uses qualitative methods involving participant observation while working part-time for 3-4 months at a major hotel in London. I also am conducting interviews with workers. The fieldwork aims to offer a detailed understanding of the harsh realities of work for some of the lowest paid workers in the fastest growing industry by employment. It is the empirical part of my PhD research, which investigates the question “How do labour processes shape the experience of work in UK hotels?” in relation to the dynamics of value-produciton, contracts, and migration. This paper will primarily discuss the fieldwork data in relation to themes of value and the labour contract.

I argue that ethnographic insights into experiences of low-wage workers provide an important and necessary grounding for the investigation of broader contemporary dynamics of service production in the UK. The paper will discuss these variegated experiences in relation to value production and circulation through a critical application of Marx’s conceptual framework as developed in Capital vol. 3 and Theories of Surplus Value. For Marx, labour-power is the source of value in capitalist societies and thus the basis for accumulation. Labour-power has a two-fold character: it’s concrete form of labour which the capitalist controls in the labour process and its abstract form which finds its expression in exchange value. This paper will discuss hotel work in both its concrete form i.e. its specific transformative action on the commodity, as well as its abstract form i.e. it’s contribution to the production of surplus value. This two-fold character of labour-power has social consequences, permeating the workplace and extending beyond it into society.

Paper for the Historical Materialism London Conference 2014

Talks by Matthew Cole

This paper focuses on the debate over the value of service work in Marxian economics. Many servic... more This paper focuses on the debate over the value of service work in Marxian economics. Many services are still considered to be of secondary importance in relation to manufacturing. This is despite the fact that most large establishments have the same factory-like conditions and turn profits that represent a large share of GDP. In this draft paper, I begin to sketch out preliminary arguments for a Marxian interpretation of ’services’ as a productive industrial force in contemporary economies.

Teaching Documents by Matthew Cole