Immaterial Labor and its Machinization

This article claims that the real promoters of the recent discourse on immaterial labor have been feminists, which should come as no surprise, given that immaterial labor has traditionally always involved women directly. But, in addition to asserting the beginnings of this analysis as part of the feminist tradition, this article carries out an analysis of immaterial labor in relation to old and new media in the process of the de-materialization of reproductive labor. It also claims that technologies of communication and information have played a crucial role in the valorization process of the domestic sphere and more extensively in the sphere of social reproduction. In the first section of this paper, the concept of immaterial labor is discussed in relation to the domestic sphere. Then the theoretical background of the notion of immaterial labor is analysed. In the final part, the quantitative expansion of immaterial labor in the domestic sphere and its ‘machinization’ are assessed.