Marx at the Arcade: Consoles, Controllers, and Class Struggle

Jamie Woodcock

$18.00

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This pathbreaking book offers a radical analysis of how people play, produce, and profit from video games, and the major role the industry plays in contemporary capitalism.

In Marx at the Arcade, acclaimed researcher Jamie Woodcock delves into the hidden abode of the gaming industry. In an account that will appeal to hardcore gamers, digital skeptics, and the joystick-curious, Woodcock unravels the vast networks of artists, software developers, and factory and logistics workers whose seen and unseen labor flows into the products we consume on a gargantuan scale. Along the way, he analyzes the increasingly important role the gaming industry plays in contemporary capitalism and the broader transformations of work and the economy that it embodies.

Contributor Bio(s)

Dr. Jamie Woodcock is a researcher at the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford. He is the author of Working the Phones, a study of a call center in the UK inspired by the workers' inquiry. His current research involves developing co-research projects with workers in the so-called gig economy. He is on the editorial board of Notes from Below and Historical Materialism.

His current research focuses on digital labor, the sociology of work, the gig economy, resistance, and videogames. Jamie completed his PhD in sociology at Goldsmiths, University of London, and has held positions at Goldsmiths, University of Leeds, University of Manchester, Queen Mary, NYU London, Cass Business School, and the London School of Economics.