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Geographies of digital skill

Richardson, L.; Bissell, D.

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Authors

L. Richardson

D. Bissell



Abstract

In an era of rapid technological change, especially considering the rise of robotics and AI, there is widespread anxiety about the impacts of digital technologies across a vast range of industries. Policy responses to this changing employment landscape champion the necessity for growing ‘digital skills’. However, we argue that these dominant macropolitical interpretations draw on a restricted understanding of spatiality where digital skills are discretely located in particular bodies and in particular geographical locations. The paper develops a novel geographical response through an exploration of the micropolitics of digital skills. This focuses on the material and practical dimensions of work with digital technologies that produces a more dynamic spatiality and thus a more complex politics of labour. We argue that the dynamic spatiality of digital skills can be evaluated according to: (1) site-specific dimensions, as digital skills are co-minglings of humans and technologies; (2) extensive dimensions, as digital skills are networked across geographically dispersed sites; and (3) intensive dimensions, as digital skills emerge across bodies and environments through repetitive practices. This analysis suggests that policy declarations of digital skills ‘shortages’ are problematic, since they overlook the contested and shifting forms of enablement and constraint that labour practices involving digital technologies give rise to. Unpacking this labour politics therefore requires geographical approaches that are adept at grasping these complex spatialities of labour.

Citation

Richardson, L., & Bissell, D. (2019). Geographies of digital skill. Geoforum, 99, 278-286. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2017.09.014

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Sep 22, 2017
Online Publication Date Oct 3, 2017
Publication Date Feb 28, 2019
Deposit Date Oct 3, 2017
Publicly Available Date Oct 3, 2019
Journal Geoforum
Print ISSN 0016-7185
Electronic ISSN 1872-9398
Publisher Elsevier
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 99
Pages 278-286
DOI https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2017.09.014
Public URL https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1348097

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