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Stig Nyman

Associate senior lecturer

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From Algorithmic Management to Data-driven Labour Organising -A trade union approach to workplace datafication

Author

  • Stig Nyman
  • Olivia Benfeldt
  • Maren Gierlich-Joas
  • Christoffer Bagger
  • Sine Zambach
  • Andreas Blicher
  • Somnath Mazumdar
  • Jacob Nørbjerg
  • Mads Bødker
  • Jose Parra-Moyano
  • Tina Blegind Jensen
  • Torkil Clemmensen

Summary, in English

The increasing datafication of the workplace is often cast as a means of imposing organisational and managerial control on workers. This reflection note moves beyond this view and coins the term data-driven labour organising to discuss the potential of workplace datafication as a way to inform workers about their working conditions and how to use data to advocate for their collective goals. Forging a research agenda on data-driv-en labour organising, the reflection note engages with the historical roots of Scandinavian IS research, particularly the trade union (TU) approach. Mobilising the TU approach as a vantage point for re-imagining research on workplace datafication, the reflection note outlines three emerging research topics critical for shifting the research focus from using data for managerial purposes to using data for labour organising. The reflection note con-cludes by discussing how the TU tradition also invokes a certain research ethos of practical and political engagement, prompting IS researchers to get their hands dirty by ac-tively seeking to reshape the trajectory of digitalisation through practical engagement.

Publishing year

2024

Language

English

Pages

13-38

Publication/Series

Scandinavian Journal of Information Systems

Volume

36

Issue

1

Document type

Article

Publisher

The IRIS Association (Information Systems Research in Scandinavia), the Scandinavian chapter of the Association for Information Systems

Keywords

  • Algorithms at work
  • Data governance
  • Data literacy
  • Data work
  • Scandinavian IS history
  • Trade union approach
  • Worker participation
  • Workplace datafication
  • SDG 8 - Decent Work and Economic Growth

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 0905-0167