Conferencias magistrales > Antonio A. Casilli

Antonio A. Casilli, Institut Polytechnique de Paris, France

Title: "Digital Workers, Some More Effort If You Wish To Become A Class For Yourself!" New Frontiers of Platform and AI Activism

Abstract: Digital labor has become an enduring feature of the global economy and a defining aspect of our everyday lives. Over the past three decades, it has manifested in various forms—mediated by software-as-a-service, platforms, and mobile applications. While some groups of digital laborers, such as location-based gig workers and content moderators, have begun to forge international solidarity networks and mount large-scale campaigns for the recognition of their rights, the majority of digital occupations remain unrecognized and unprotected.
By dismantling the artificial divide between the conspicuous global consumption of digital products and the equally global yet inconspicuous production of those same products, we can better understand that digital labor involves not just tech workers, influencers, or Uber drivers, but entire communities of users and producers of technology. Drawing on Latin American perspectives and historical framings of labor, I explore how this growing phenomenon intersects with informality and coloniality, offering new ways to conceptualize it.
Various emerging policy frameworks are addressing the social embedding, environmental sustainability, and community governance of human labor in digital economies.  In an era of widespread artificial intelligence production, these frameworks highlight the central role of labor while also offering new opportunities for activism and policy integration.

Bio: Antonio is full professor of sociology at the Telecommunications school (Telecom Paris) of the Institute Polytechnique de Paris. He is a by-fellow at Churchill College, University of Cambridge, and a visiting scholar at the Centre Internet and Society (CIS) of the French National Centre for the Scientific Research (CNRS) for the year 2024. He is an associate researcher of the “Data, algorithmic Systems and Ethics” research group at the Weizenbaum-Institut, Berlin. His main research foci are social networks, digital platforms, and digital labor. He has conducted fieldworks in Africa, Europe, Asia, and Latin America, and coordinated several international research projects. He is the co-founder of the DiPLab (Digital Platform Labor) research program and of the INDL (International Network on Digital Labor). In addition to several scientific publications in French, English, and Italian, Antonio has published several essays and books about automation, digital labour and workers such as Waiting for Robots. The Hired Hands of Automation (University of Chicago Press, 2025) or a book about e-health, online censorship, and problematic speech in social networks (Qu’est-ce que le digital labor? ([What is digital labor?], Editions de l’INA, 2015; with D. Cardon). Antonio stirs up international media (Le Monde, Libération, Il Corriere, Domani, France Télévisions, Arte, BBC, Wired, Times of India). In 2020 he was the editorial adviser for “Invisibles – Les travailleurs du clic“, a documentary series for France Televisions, based on his work.