Telework, Shadow Work: The privatization of work in the new digital economy

Abstract

For many, privatization means the transfer of assets from the state to private corporations: either through the collapse of communism in the former Soviet Union; I through debt-related restructuring schemes as in, for instance, South America; or through the sale of crown corporations in energy and telecommunications, under the banner of deregulation and government downsizing, in Canada and around the world. However, the microstructures of the new digital economy are facilitating two other forms of privatization which merit discussion.