Digital technologies now permeate almost all areas of life in the highly industrialized regions of the world. The research area "Digital Work, Economy and Organization" examines the associated social transformations and focuses on questions of power and domination. In digital working conditions, a revitalization of Taylorist work organization can be observed in some cases, which is achieved with the help of detailed monitoring and the breakdown of work into small, low-skilled work steps (Nachtwey and Staab 2015, 2016). However, a shift in work management towards a cybernetic model of feedback-based self-organization can also be observed (Raffetseder et al. 2017; Schaupp 2017a; Schaupp and Staab 2018). From a macro perspective, we can speak of a new production model that differs in significant dimensions from the Fordist and post-Fordist production model. Central to this is the idea of the digital platform, which represents both a new form of proprietary market and a new form of organization with limited membership (Nachtwey and Staab 2019; Staab and Nachtwey 2016). Together, these shifts result in a new economic formation that can be described as digital or cybernetic capitalism and is accompanied by new forms of domination, but also new potentials for autonomy (Nachtwey and Staab 2015; Schaupp 2017b). These questions are currently being further researched at the Chair in a project on digital alienation and appropriation of labor as well as a project on industrial technopolitics.

Project management: Prof. Dr. Oliver Nachtwey Project management: Mirela Ivanova, Helene Thaa in collaboration with Friedericke Hardering and Felix Nickel (both FH Münster) Project duration: 1.9.2019-31.8.2022 Funded by: Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) SNSF-ID: 100019E_183669

The aim of the project is to develop an empirically based concept of digital alienation at work. The question is to what extent the digital work of different occupational groups in the service sector is accompanied by specific experiences of alienation, and which efforts of appropriation of work on the part of the employees can be found. To this end, a new approach to exploring subjective experiences of alienation is used. The study aims to gain insights into the experiences of groups of employees with different levels of qualification in order to understand interpretations and ways of dealing with the potential for alienation in the digital world of work. In this way, a meaningful concept of digital alienation can be developed, which connects to the experiences of employees and complements the investigation of other experiences of suffering at work. It is also crucial to develop an understanding of digital alienation that avoids a technology-deterministic perspective, but instead understands digital technologies as structuring but not determining. The innovative approach of empirical alienation research also generates insights for philosophical and psychological alienation research beyond the narrower sociological discussion.

Project management: Prof. Dr. Oliver NachtweyProject management: Jacqueline Kalbermatter, Simon Schaupp, Verena HartleitnerProject duration: 2019-2020 Funded by: UNI global union

The study deals with the change in industrial relations in the postal and logistics sector against the backdrop of advancing digitalization processes in various regions of the world. The focus is on the question of how the use of digital technologies in this sector is reflected in trade union strategies. The project aims to record the status quo and different regional development processes, with a focus on the impact on trade union work. The study examines which digital technologies have been used so far, to what extent regionally different developments in the digitalization of the sector are emerging, how these influence working conditions and the labour market and which resulting conflicts the trade unions are already dealing with in their work. Methodologically, the study is based on a survey of trade unionists in over 100 countries. This allows data to be collected globally for the first time on how trade unions are dealing with the digital transformation in the postal and logistics sector.

Project management: Prof. Dr. Oliver NachtweyProject management: Jacqueline Kalbermatter, Simon SchauppProject duration: 2019-2020 Funded by Unia

The study examines current working conditions in the Swiss logistics sector. One focus is on the effects of digitalization in this sector. The aspects of health, work intensity, job satisfaction and data protection are particularly important. The aim of the project is to record indicators of work quality and subjective stress assessment. As there is no data available from existing research, a quantitative survey is being conducted in cooperation with the Unia trade union.

Dissertation project Simon Schaupp (supervised by Prof. Dr. Oliver Nachtwey)

The project examines how conflicts of interest in the implementation of the "Industry 4.0" program influence its concrete design. This negotiation, understood as production policy (Burawoy) in the mode of technology, is analyzed on the basis of a qualitative case study on the implementation of digital process control. The focus here is on the connection between the three levels on which this technopolitics takes place: Firstly, the institutional level on which the future vision of "Industry 4.0" is negotiated by companies, trade unions, state actors and science. Secondly, the level of implementation of this utopia, at which concrete technology development and managerial attempts to implement it are located. And thirdly, the level of practical appropriation of the implemented technologies in everyday working life. It is assumed that the logic of technology implementation usually conflicts with the logic of the practical appropriation of technology. On all three levels, the negotiation of what "Industry 4.0" should be is characterized by conflicting interests. A central question of the study is the extent to which employees can influence industrial digitalization processes through 'technopolitics from below' - in the form of institutional representation but also in the form of resistant action on the store floor. In this way, the utopia of cybernetically self-regulating production will be placed in its production policy context. In order to capture this technopolitics in its discursive and non-discursive forms, a methodological triangulation of participant observation, qualitative interviews and document analysis will be used.