Digital alienation and appropriation of work: Experiences of alienation in digital service work

工作世界的数字化可以被理解为工作结构发生根本性变化的驱动力。出现了许多问题，比如使用算法时他律的增加，工作时间自主性的丧失，新形式的工作碎片化，或者社会关系的变化。为了把握这些有问题的发展，当前的话语已经开始使用关键字“异化”来描述数字时代工作的变化。这种概念在数字工作背景下的价值在于，它探索的问题超出了可能丧失自主性的范围，包括工作中意义的丧失、工作环境中社会关系的变化，以及自我概念化的变化。到目前为止，关于异化的概念及其潜力的阐述大多局限于社会哲学著作。在数字工作领域，对这一概念的实证分析仍然很少。该项目试图通过详细审查数字异化来纠正这一问题，重点关注数字工作形式中各级资质工人的异化和挪用工作的经验。由于异化过去主要在低技能的工业工作领域进行研究，因此对数字服务工作的异化潜力知之甚少。为了缩小这一差距，该项目审查了新旧数字经济中的数字服务工作。该项目的目的是开发一个建立在经验基础上的工作中数字异化的概念。一个核心问题是，服务业多个不同职业群体的数字化工作与特定的疏离感有多大关联。这是通过使用一种创新的方式获得主观疏离体验的，这种体验在几种不同层次的疏离体验(传记、身体-情感、实际行动、批判性-评价)之间有所不同。这项研究旨在深入了解不同资历级别员工的经历，以追溯数字工作中异化潜力的解释和应对方式。这将导致对数字疏离感的新的、深刻的定义的发展，直接与员工的体验有关。采用定性研究的方法，对服务工作中的员工进行访谈和小组讨论。它审查服务工作领域的高素质、合格和低技能员工。通过这个项目，该项目结合了异化研究的理论、方法和实证问题，并旨在将异化重新定义为工作社会学的一个范畴。此外，该项目旨在结合不同的方法来疏远社会学、心理学和哲学。这些联系使异化的概念成为描述社会问题的有用工具。

The digitization of the working world can be understood as a driver of a fundamental structural change in work. Many questions have arisen about the increase of heteronomy when using algorithms, about the loss of work time autonomy, about new forms of work fragmentation, or about changes in social relationships. In order to grasp such problematic developments, current discourse has come to employ the keyword 'alienation' to describe the changes of work in a digital age. The value of such a concept in the context of digital work lies in an exploration of problems that go beyond possible losses of autonomy and include questions such as the loss of meaning in work, changing social relationships in work contexts, as well as changing self-conceptualizations. So far, elaborations on the concept of alienation and its potentials have been mostly limited to social-philosophical works. An empirical analysis of the concept in the field of digital work remains largely absent. This project seeks to remedy this by examining digital alienation in detail, focusing on experiences of alienation and appropriation efforts of workers at various levels of qualification in digital forms of work. Because alienation was mainly investigated in low-skilled fields of industrial work in the past, little is known about the alienation potentials of digital service work. To close this gap, the project examines digital service work in the old and new, digital economy. The aim of the project is the development of an empirically founded concept of digital alienation in work. A central question is in how far digital work across a number of different occupational groups in the service sector correlates to specific experiences of alienation. This is done by using an innovative form of access to subjective alienation experiences that differs between several levels of experiences of alienation (biographical, body-emotional, practically-acting, critical-evaluative). The study aims at garnering insights into the experiences of employees at different levels of qualification in order to retrace the ways in which alienation potentials in digital work are interpreted and coped with. This will lead to the development of a new, profound definition of digital alienation directly relating to worker experiences.A qualitative research approach is used in which interviews and group discussions with employees in service work are conducted. It examines highly qualified, qualified and low-skilled employees in the field of service work. By this, the project combines theoretical, methodological and empirical questions of alienation research and aims to reconceptualize alienation as a category of sociology of work. Furthermore, the project aims at combining different approaches to alienation from sociology, psychology and philosophy. These connections allow the concept of alienation to become a useful tool for describing social problems.