Prison media work : from manual labor to the work of being tracked

• Incarcerated individuals have long contributed to crucial societal infrastructures. Frombeing leased work force building the railway in the United States to constructing canalsystems in Sweden, prisoners’ labor has been widespread as an important part ofvalue production. Part of the labor conducted by incarcerated people is related tothe production, repair, and maintenance of media devices and media infrastructuresconstituting what we call prison media work. In this article, we trace the changinglogics of prison media work historically since the inception of the modern prison at theturn of the 20th century. Based on archival material, interviews, and field observations,we outline a shift from physical manual labor toward the work of being tracked thatis constitutive of surveillance capitalism in- and outside of the prison. We argue thatprison media work holds an ambiguous position combining elements of exploitationand rehabilitation, but most importantly it is a dystopian magnifying glass of media workunder surveillance capitalism.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap -- Medievetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Media and Communications -- Media Studies (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

cheap labor

heterotopia

marginalized media workers

media work

prisons

surveillance capitalism

Sweden

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

art (ämneskategori)