Machines Against Measures

Are we doomed because of the new digital technologies used in workspaces? Can we avoid measuring in our work? Or are we trapped in a metrification dystopia? Can we create workspaces that can produce what we prefer about human effort, and if yes, what technologies could we use?

Here, monetary-theorist Irene Sotiropoulou criticises the production means that were created for capitalist profit-making and, at the same time, shows how we can subvert these and use them for our own non-capitalist purposes. The book will show that in times of capitalist restructuring and multiple social reproduction crises, there are new possibilities to experiment with quantity, measuring, machines and digital technologies in order to create new ways of production and transaction. Within these are ways of sharing that defy many principles of capitalist production. Using everyday examples from grassroots organisations that give us insights on how to be inventive with what we have at hand, this book reveals a more utopian vision of technology and work, based on re-defining how we measure what we do.