Ben Waber reviewed The Digital Factory by Moritz Altenried
A Mostly Theoretical Examination of Digital Work
3 stars
This book is mostly a philosophical exercise, with very little original research that isn't culled from popular press articles or PR statements. That's a shame, because the premise of the book - that the human labor underlying modern digital platforms is essentially a reconceptualization of factories, with even more powerful management tools and processes underlying them - is compelling. If you've read articles on the perils of gig work, however, you already basically know what's in this book, absent the mandatory overuse of obtuse critical studies terms (if you drank every time you read "logics" you'd black out by the third chapter). Nearly every claim made here, however, is unsupported by anything beyond vibes and single case studies.
This book is mostly a philosophical exercise, with very little original research that isn't culled from popular press articles or PR statements. That's a shame, because the premise of the book - that the human labor underlying modern digital platforms is essentially a reconceptualization of factories, with even more powerful management tools and processes underlying them - is compelling. If you've read articles on the perils of gig work, however, you already basically know what's in this book, absent the mandatory overuse of obtuse critical studies terms (if you drank every time you read "logics" you'd black out by the third chapter). Nearly every claim made here, however, is unsupported by anything beyond vibes and single case studies.