What is it about?
What are the social and economic factors that influence further education teachers’ labour? What are the implications of the high levels of surveillance, risk aversion and cultures of blame in this context? What role does technology play and how can this workforce respond productively to the opportunities and threats it presents? and what are the irooted in regimes of performativity and institutional risk aversion. Paradoxically these practices rest alongside what Glazer (2014) describes as ‘busy-work’ – meaningless activities that distract us from interrogating the nature of our labour. The previous processes are facilitated by the digitalization of work and carry significant social justice implications which are averred to in conceptualizations of immaterial labour, digital capitalism and cognitive capitalism. Whilst digitalization has enabled work to penetrate our entire lives appropriating what could be described as free labour, we should nevertheless avoid an overly technicist and determinist analysis. Digitalization not only carries with it oppressive possibilities but also provides a site of struggle that can be mobilized in the pursuit of social justice. The chapter explores these tensions in relation to the work of further education teachers.
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Why is it important?
Further education teachers’ labour, is characterized by underemployment and over-qualification, precariousness and the prevalence of ‘rotten jobs’ and ‘busy-work’ – meaningless activities that distract us from interrogating the nature of our labour and its social justice implications. Digitalization is implicated in this process but at the same time, presents us with a site of struggle that can be mobilized for good.
Perspectives
Co-authoring this chapter with Prof James Avis has been a joy and a privilege. I have learnt a great deal, not just about the digitalization of FE labour but also about how to write together for publication. The topic is important to me because of my affection for FE as a former FE lecturer and a friend to many people who continue to struggle to meet its huge demands and in doing so, do a great deal of good.
Dr Cheryl M Reynolds
University of Huddersfield
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: The Digitalization of Work and Social Justice: Reflections on the Labour Process of English Further Education Teachers, October 2017, Springer Science + Business Media,
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-63257-5_14.
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