Writing Back Against Amazon’s Empire: Science Fiction, Corporate Storytelling, and the Dignity of the Workers’ Word
Since its founding in 1994 as an online bookstore, Amazon has “revolutionised” not only the market for literature but also expanded aggressively and transformatively in sectors including consumer retail, film and television, groceries, logistics, robotics, surveillance, AI, and web services. This gr...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Paderborn University: Media Systems and Media Organisation Research Group
2024-04-01
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| Series: | tripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique |
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| Online Access: | https://triple-c.at/index.php/tripleC/article/view/1476 |
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| author | Max Haiven Graeme Webb Sarah Olutola Xenia Benivolski |
| author_facet | Max Haiven Graeme Webb Sarah Olutola Xenia Benivolski |
| author_sort | Max Haiven |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Since its founding in 1994 as an online bookstore, Amazon has “revolutionised” not only the market for literature but also expanded aggressively and transformatively in sectors including consumer retail, film and television, groceries, logistics, robotics, surveillance, AI, and web services. This growth and expansion is grounded in the firm’s internal and outward-facing rhetoric about its leading contribution to a brighter future, a narrative deeply inspired by the genre of science or speculative fiction (SF). But Amazon’s utopian vision is largely experienced as a dystopia by most of its rank-and-file workers, who labour under exploitative conditions of surveillance, robotization, and relentless managerial control. Hence our team inaugurated the Worker as Futurist project to support rank-and-file Amazon workers to read/watch SF stories to collectively understand their employer and its world, and also to write short, SF stories about “the world after Amazon.” In this preliminary report on the project, we explain the inspirations for the project and reflect on some of what we have learned from the participants, as well as some implications for the futures of platform workers generally.
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| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-f3b93e40ddb24586961e64d2c84fc10a |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1726-670X |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-04-01 |
| publisher | Paderborn University: Media Systems and Media Organisation Research Group |
| record_format | Article |
| series | tripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique |
| spelling | doaj-art-f3b93e40ddb24586961e64d2c84fc10a2025-08-20T04:02:49ZengPaderborn University: Media Systems and Media Organisation Research GrouptripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique1726-670X2024-04-0122110.31269/triplec.v22i1.14761476Writing Back Against Amazon’s Empire: Science Fiction, Corporate Storytelling, and the Dignity of the Workers’ WordMax HaivenGraeme WebbSarah OlutolaXenia BenivolskiSince its founding in 1994 as an online bookstore, Amazon has “revolutionised” not only the market for literature but also expanded aggressively and transformatively in sectors including consumer retail, film and television, groceries, logistics, robotics, surveillance, AI, and web services. This growth and expansion is grounded in the firm’s internal and outward-facing rhetoric about its leading contribution to a brighter future, a narrative deeply inspired by the genre of science or speculative fiction (SF). But Amazon’s utopian vision is largely experienced as a dystopia by most of its rank-and-file workers, who labour under exploitative conditions of surveillance, robotization, and relentless managerial control. Hence our team inaugurated the Worker as Futurist project to support rank-and-file Amazon workers to read/watch SF stories to collectively understand their employer and its world, and also to write short, SF stories about “the world after Amazon.” In this preliminary report on the project, we explain the inspirations for the project and reflect on some of what we have learned from the participants, as well as some implications for the futures of platform workers generally. https://triple-c.at/index.php/tripleC/article/view/1476Amazonscience/speculative fiction (SF)workers’ inquirywritingbig techlogistics |
| spellingShingle | Max Haiven Graeme Webb Sarah Olutola Xenia Benivolski Writing Back Against Amazon’s Empire: Science Fiction, Corporate Storytelling, and the Dignity of the Workers’ Word tripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique Amazon science/speculative fiction (SF) workers’ inquiry writing big tech logistics |
| title | Writing Back Against Amazon’s Empire: Science Fiction, Corporate Storytelling, and the Dignity of the Workers’ Word |
| title_full | Writing Back Against Amazon’s Empire: Science Fiction, Corporate Storytelling, and the Dignity of the Workers’ Word |
| title_fullStr | Writing Back Against Amazon’s Empire: Science Fiction, Corporate Storytelling, and the Dignity of the Workers’ Word |
| title_full_unstemmed | Writing Back Against Amazon’s Empire: Science Fiction, Corporate Storytelling, and the Dignity of the Workers’ Word |
| title_short | Writing Back Against Amazon’s Empire: Science Fiction, Corporate Storytelling, and the Dignity of the Workers’ Word |
| title_sort | writing back against amazon s empire science fiction corporate storytelling and the dignity of the workers word |
| topic | Amazon science/speculative fiction (SF) workers’ inquiry writing big tech logistics |
| url | https://triple-c.at/index.php/tripleC/article/view/1476 |
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