Versteckte Technologien? Exploring the Hidden Technologigcal Labour of Service Workers

Digitalisation has transformed work, jobs, and working environments. Research has paid a lot of attention to topics such as “industry 4.0”, gig economy and digital employment. However, it is often overlooked how digitalisation has also affected the (often female-dominated) occupations of the service sector. Which (hidden) technological labour do retail employees or mobile care workers perform on a daily basis?

This research question is addressed by an interdisciplinary team of researchers that brings together feminist perspectives from social, spatial and technological sciences. The aim is to place explicit focus on the rarely visible technologies and digital competencies that service workers already employ in their service provision. By bringing their often hidden efforts to the frontstage, we seek to contribute to political debates on revaluating these often underrated and underpaid occupations.

Team: Janis Lena Meißner

Partners: L&R Social Research, Urbanity

Funded by: Digitalisierungsfonds Arbeit 4.0 der AK Wien

Links:

• The project description of the website of the AK Digifonds funding body
• An introduction to the project on the A&W Blog
• A preliminary report with first results can be downloaded on the website of our project partners L&R Social Research
• Project Report: PDF
• Conference Paper and organization of a panel discussion at the 2021 annual conference of the Community Informatics Research Network: Researchgate.net
• CHIWORK 2022 paper: „The Hidden Technological Labour of Service Workers in Health and Beauty Shops“ - dl.acm.org

• AK Wien
• Gender
• Digitalisation
• Workers