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What is a tech worker, really?

Valentin Niebler

Work Organisation, Labour and Globalisation2025https://doi.org/10.13169/workorgalaboglob.19.1.0014article
AJG 1
Weight
0.46

What the paper says

In recent decades, a myriad of occupational terminologies has been proposed to grasp the fast-changing labour arrangements in the digital economy. ‘Tech worker’ is among the more recent terms, mostly referring to white-collar employees in tech firms like Google or Amazon. This term was popularised by unionisation drives of high-paid workers in the IT industry, where the notion of the term was gradually expanded. This article reconstructs the use and meaning of the term and reflects on its divergent use in labour movements and academia. Based on this analysis, I argue for an understanding of ‘tech worker’ among researchers that acknowledges its political dimension and dynamic meaning-making.

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https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.13169/workorgalaboglob.19.1.0014

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@article{valentin2025,
  title        = {{What is a tech worker, really?}},
  author       = {Valentin Niebler},
  journal      = {Work Organisation, Labour and Globalisation},
  year         = {2025},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.13169/workorgalaboglob.19.1.0014},
}

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Evidence weight

0.46

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.37 × 0.4 = 0.15
M · momentum0.60 × 0.15 = 0.09
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.