The technopolitics of decent digital work

This chapter develops a multi-level heuristic for analysing the politics of the digitalisation of work. It distinguishes three arenas of negotiation: In the arena of regulation, the institutional framework for digitalisation is negotiated. This includes not only norms that are explicitly linked to digitalisation, but also labour market policies that become the background conditions for technological strategies. In the arena of implementation, the concrete use of technologies is negotiated within organisations. Here, works councils and trade unions can influence technological paths. Finally, the arena of appropriation is located at the level of the work process, where workers can choose to employ strategies of technological misbehaviour to influence the outcome of concrete digitisation processes. This framework suggests an integrated analysis of formal and informal dimensions of technopolitics. This is increasingly important for understanding pathways to decent work, given the global trend towards the informalisation of industrial relations.