Paradoxical Empowerment and Exploitation: Virtual Ethnography on Internet Immaterial Labour in Macao

Abstract

Recently, the research topic of immaterial labour had become one of the most significant discussions about the changing nature of capitalism. But the previous studies mainly regard immaterial labour as a unidirectional process of capitalist exploitation in abstract sense, rather than a paradoxical dynamics of exploitation and empowerment in specific context. This article, therefore, investigates immaterial labour in digital capitalism, with a specific case study of the local practices of Internet immaterial labour in Macao, exploring the paradoxical dynamics of exploitation and empowerment through concrete case studies, rather than through abstractive and reductive theoretical discussion. This study has found that the alternative media created by Internet users’ immaterial labour helps them to resist the traditional mainstream media and the government; the affective community founded based on their immaterial labour gives them the collective sentiment of ‘family and belonging’; the individual feelings derived during their immaterial labour not only offer them positive personal feelings, but also a new way of ‘being-in-the-world’ in the age of social media.