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
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.
3. WELCOME TO STARTUP CITY Photo: Vancouver’s waterfront from the Woodward’s building
4. HACKATHON
5. Photo: 2014 Vancouver Startup Weekend hackathon
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
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
8. Photo: The recreational room at a Vancouver start-up company
9. Photo: The recreational room at a Vancouver start-up company WHAT DOES STARTUP EVEN MEAN?
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.
11. ▪ Economics ▪ Software development ▪ Design ▪ Management ARACHAEOLOGY OF STARTUP
12. ▪ Complex ▪ Adaptive ▪ Scale-free ▪ Non-linear ARACHAEOLOGY OF STARTUP
13. Photo: Wework. Vancouver 2018 WHAT ABOUT VANCOUVER TECH WORKERS?
14. Photo: Wework merchandising. Vancouver 2018
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
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
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
18. LABOR AND ASSETIZATION
19. THANK YOU alusoli@sfu.ca