Make Fail Repeat - Digital Democracies Institute - University of Korea symposium

Transcript

1. ALBERTO LUSOLI
   FEBRUARY 8, 2023
   DIGITAL DEMOCRACIES INSTITUTE – KOREA UNIVERSITY SYMPOSIUM
   MAKE
   FAIL
   REPEAT
   

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2. GOAL OF THIS
   PRESENTATION
   ▪ Ethnographic investigation of creative and digital workers in Vancouver, BC.
   ▪ From dissertation to book (first draft due Sept.18, 2023);
   ▪ Pitch the book structure, now developed around two key concept: dropping-out and
   assetization.
   

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3. WELCOME TO STARTUP CITY
   Photo: Vancouver’s waterfront from the Woodward’s building
   

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4. HACKATHON
   

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5. Photo: 2014 Vancouver Startup Weekend hackathon
   

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6. ▪ Meetups constituted the primary occasion for
   participant observation and face-to-face interaction
   with tech professionals;
   ▪ Half-way spaces: Moments between the private and
   public spheres of the professional (Caldwell, 2003).
   MEETUPS
   : 2018 Vancouver startup week
   

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7. ▪ Timeframe: November 2017 - September 2019.
   ▪ 27 unstructured interviews
   ▪ 32 events as a participant observer
   ▪ Archival research:
   ▪ Business literature: 104 documents
   ▪ Vancouver tech history: 156 documents
   MULTI-SITED
   ETHNOGRAPHY
   Photo: Hootsuite HQ. Mount Pleasant, Vancouver
   

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8. Photo: The recreational room at a Vancouver start-up company
   

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9. Photo: The recreational room at a Vancouver start-up company
   WHAT DOES STARTUP EVEN MEAN?
   

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10. STARTUP
    AS A DISCOURSE
    Discursive formations do not attempt to reconstitute
    history as a sequence of unities defined on the basis of a
    common object, subject, concept or theory to which
    they refer.
    The unity of discursive formations is based on the
    interplay of regularities that make possible the
    appearance of objects, subjects, or concepts in a given
    period.
    

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11. ▪ Economics
    ▪ Software development
    ▪ Design
    ▪ Management
    ARACHAEOLOGY
    OF STARTUP
    

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12. ▪ Complex
    ▪ Adaptive
    ▪ Scale-free
    ▪ Non-linear
    ARACHAEOLOGY
    OF STARTUP
    

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13. Photo: Wework. Vancouver 2018
    WHAT ABOUT VANCOUVER TECH
    WORKERS?
    

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14. Photo: Wework merchandising. Vancouver 2018
    

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15. I describe the professional subjectivities of the startup
    episteme as “restless”, due to their need to remain
    constantly open to jumping on new projects (pivoting in
    startup jargon), and to constantly create opportunities
    for further projects.
    BOOTSTRAP
    WORKERS
    

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16. Alterity: relating to each project from a
    position of quasi-otherness, to treat each
    professional experience as an attempt at
    creating a scalable system of capital
    accumulation without becoming a constitutive
    and essential part of it.
    In other words, in treating ones’ skills and
    labor as an asset that must be externalized,
    alienated, in order to be traded, and
    capitalized as a revenue stream.
    LABOR AS AN
    ASSET
    Photo: Coding bootcamp, 2018
    

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17. Introduction
    Chapter 1. Start-up: an archaeological inquiry
    Chapter 2: Vancouver, be inspired here
    Chapter 3. Nomads and hustlers
    Chapter 4. An Alternative Future for Independent Work: The Role of Occupational Communities
    Conclusions
    TENTATIVE
    BOOK TOC
    

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18. LABOR AND ASSETIZATION
    

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19. THANK YOU
    alusoli@sfu.ca
    

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