Archiving Labour Reconceptualisations

Scaling Up' with Technological Means

Bibliographic Data

ID2978027
AuthorsMaruška Nardoni (University of Ljubljana, corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume9
Issue2
Pages23
Publication date2025-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueFeminist Encounters A Journal of Critical Studies in Culture and Politics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2468-4414 • E-ISSN: 2468-4414
PublisherLectito Publications (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.20897/femenc/16781
OpenAlexW4413873023
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited29

The smart home acts as an iteration of a recurrent socio-technical imaginary that is a fully controllable household, operatable from a distance. Problematic as it may be, the smart home does address feminist concerns with questions about automating households and the reconceptualisation of work. This elaboration is guided by the research question of how one can imagine the automation of the household with a concept of labour covering domestic, affective, precarious, and research work, and even non-work. Revisiting the archival turn in feminism, this article selects an archive of its own while following Kathi Weeks' (2021) invitation to establish a counter-archive and 'scale up'. With the selection of three texts, namely Serres' 'Thumbelina' (2015), Haraway's 'Cyborg Manifesto' (2016/1985) and Federici's 'Wages Against Housework' (1975), the goal of the archive is to (1) challenge canonical theoretical reproduction in feminist theory; (2) create an opportunity for possible re-imaginings of different feminist perspectives; and, finally, (3) scale up using technological means. Conclusively, the juxtaposition of texts generates friction which is complemented by incorporating hyperstitious dynamics of overcoming labour's drudgeries and finding new hosts within both existing and non-existent IoT and smart home technologies

Data science · Scaling · Computer Science · Cultural Industries and Urban Development · Digital Economy and Work Transformation · Labor Movements and Unions · Mathematics

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