Gina Neff
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- August 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780262017480
- eISBN:
- 9780262301305
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262017480.001.0001
- Subject:
- Information Science, Information Science
In the dot-com boom of the late 1990s, employees of Internet startups took risks—left well-paying jobs for the chance of striking it rich through stock options (only to end up unemployed a year ...
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In the dot-com boom of the late 1990s, employees of Internet startups took risks—left well-paying jobs for the chance of striking it rich through stock options (only to end up unemployed a year later), relocated to areas that were epicenters of a booming industry (which shortly went bust), chose the opportunity to be creative over the stability of a set schedule. This book investigates choices such as these made by high-tech workers in New York City’s “Silicon Alley” in the 1990s. Why did these workers exhibit entrepreneurial behavior in their jobs—investing time, energy, and other personal resources that the author terms “venture labor”—when they themselves were employees and not entrepreneurs? The author argues that this behavior was part of a broader shift in society in which economic risk shifted away from collective responsibility toward individual responsibility. In the new economy, risk and reward took the place of job loyalty, and the dot-com boom helped glorify risks. Company flexibility was gained at the expense of employee security. Through extensive interviews, the author finds not the triumph of the entrepreneurial spirit but a mixture of motivations and strategies, informed variously by bravado, naïveté, and cold calculation. She connects these individual choices with larger social and economic structures, making it clear that understanding venture labor is of paramount importance for encouraging innovation and, even more important, for creating sustainable work environments which support workers.Less
In the dot-com boom of the late 1990s, employees of Internet startups took risks—left well-paying jobs for the chance of striking it rich through stock options (only to end up unemployed a year later), relocated to areas that were epicenters of a booming industry (which shortly went bust), chose the opportunity to be creative over the stability of a set schedule. This book investigates choices such as these made by high-tech workers in New York City’s “Silicon Alley” in the 1990s. Why did these workers exhibit entrepreneurial behavior in their jobs—investing time, energy, and other personal resources that the author terms “venture labor”—when they themselves were employees and not entrepreneurs? The author argues that this behavior was part of a broader shift in society in which economic risk shifted away from collective responsibility toward individual responsibility. In the new economy, risk and reward took the place of job loyalty, and the dot-com boom helped glorify risks. Company flexibility was gained at the expense of employee security. Through extensive interviews, the author finds not the triumph of the entrepreneurial spirit but a mixture of motivations and strategies, informed variously by bravado, naïveté, and cold calculation. She connects these individual choices with larger social and economic structures, making it clear that understanding venture labor is of paramount importance for encouraging innovation and, even more important, for creating sustainable work environments which support workers.
Gina Neff
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- August 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780262017480
- eISBN:
- 9780262301305
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262017480.003.0065
- Subject:
- Information Science, Information Science
This chapter draws lessons from the experience of the first wave of the “new economy” for thinking about media production, and describes the ways to apply the concept of venture labor to work outside ...
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This chapter draws lessons from the experience of the first wave of the “new economy” for thinking about media production, and describes the ways to apply the concept of venture labor to work outside of the Internet industry. Silicon Alley’s legacy of media and of work can offer lessons for the future. The lessons from the ways in which work emerged online in the dot-com era help in the understanding of the motivations and challenges of what might be called the social media era. The chapter suggests that the trick for future media and business revolutions will be to find ways to support venture labor, so that innovative and creative jobs can also be stable and good jobs.Less
This chapter draws lessons from the experience of the first wave of the “new economy” for thinking about media production, and describes the ways to apply the concept of venture labor to work outside of the Internet industry. Silicon Alley’s legacy of media and of work can offer lessons for the future. The lessons from the ways in which work emerged online in the dot-com era help in the understanding of the motivations and challenges of what might be called the social media era. The chapter suggests that the trick for future media and business revolutions will be to find ways to support venture labor, so that innovative and creative jobs can also be stable and good jobs.
Gina Neff
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- August 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780262017480
- eISBN:
- 9780262301305
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262017480.003.0037
- Subject:
- Information Science, Information Science
This chapter concentrates on the strategies that people in Silicon Alley used for managing the economic risks they felt they faced. It utilizes the interview data to build a typology of venture labor ...
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This chapter concentrates on the strategies that people in Silicon Alley used for managing the economic risks they felt they faced. It utilizes the interview data to build a typology of venture labor strategies that is rooted in the valuation process, and describes how people talked about the risks they faced and what communicative frameworks they used to manage these risks. The chapter also discusses in detail the strategies for managing risk among Silicon Alley workers—financial, creative, and actuarial—and shows that they are coconstitutive of the industrial space of Silicon Alley. These strategies also emphasize the different approaches to economic uncertainty undertaken by people who worked within the industry. Moreover, people are adapting to a new, generalized work insecurity.Less
This chapter concentrates on the strategies that people in Silicon Alley used for managing the economic risks they felt they faced. It utilizes the interview data to build a typology of venture labor strategies that is rooted in the valuation process, and describes how people talked about the risks they faced and what communicative frameworks they used to manage these risks. The chapter also discusses in detail the strategies for managing risk among Silicon Alley workers—financial, creative, and actuarial—and shows that they are coconstitutive of the industrial space of Silicon Alley. These strategies also emphasize the different approaches to economic uncertainty undertaken by people who worked within the industry. Moreover, people are adapting to a new, generalized work insecurity.
Gina Neff
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- August 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780262017480
- eISBN:
- 9780262301305
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262017480.003.0060
- Subject:
- Information Science, Information Science
This chapter, which is concerned with the stock market crash, uses the interview data after the dot-com bust along with historical materials to illustrate some of the problems facing venture labor. ...
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This chapter, which is concerned with the stock market crash, uses the interview data after the dot-com bust along with historical materials to illustrate some of the problems facing venture labor. It specifically explores the multiple framings of the dot-com crash and the impact of these contestations for people working in Silicon Alley, and more broadly, for the relationship to market structures. Building on the work of David Stark, Michel Callon, and Don Slater, the chapter argues that the way in which people’s perceptions determine the market and the way in which people respond to the market need to be more often considered in tandem as forces of both market construction and rational action. It reveals that dot-commers in Silicon Alley grappled with a problem which generations of workers from every sector have had to face.Less
This chapter, which is concerned with the stock market crash, uses the interview data after the dot-com bust along with historical materials to illustrate some of the problems facing venture labor. It specifically explores the multiple framings of the dot-com crash and the impact of these contestations for people working in Silicon Alley, and more broadly, for the relationship to market structures. Building on the work of David Stark, Michel Callon, and Don Slater, the chapter argues that the way in which people’s perceptions determine the market and the way in which people respond to the market need to be more often considered in tandem as forces of both market construction and rational action. It reveals that dot-commers in Silicon Alley grappled with a problem which generations of workers from every sector have had to face.
Elizabeth A. Wissinger
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814794180
- eISBN:
- 9780814794197
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814794180.003.0008
- Subject:
- Sociology, Gender and Sexuality
Here I outline how the turn toward affective branding has shaped a new image regime facilitating the model industry’s rapid expansion into a global network, broadening the field for scouting of ...
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Here I outline how the turn toward affective branding has shaped a new image regime facilitating the model industry’s rapid expansion into a global network, broadening the field for scouting of prospective models, intensifying competition and turnover as a result. Increasing interest in tapping into affect’s vitality has intensified glamour labor as model managers have sought tighter control of their charges. This chapter tracks how the tightening of control over models was met with a widening field of scouting for new recruits to the industry. As the public’s exposure to and interest in fashion has grown apace, fashion weeks have proliferated beyond the traditional fashion hubs, and scouting for new models has reached into ever-more remote regions. Consequently, modeling contests have grown in size and number, modeling agencies have opened offices in dozens of countries, and fashion has become “news” as television shows and websites treating fashion became commonplace. Banking on the new value of mutability, model scouts ranged farther afield in search of that precious combination of features that might make millions. The age of the blink facilitated this expansion, converting more of the population into a standing reserve, made ready for their makeovers by a steady diet of reality television and twenty-four- hour access to the newest fashions, updated by the minute.Less
Here I outline how the turn toward affective branding has shaped a new image regime facilitating the model industry’s rapid expansion into a global network, broadening the field for scouting of prospective models, intensifying competition and turnover as a result. Increasing interest in tapping into affect’s vitality has intensified glamour labor as model managers have sought tighter control of their charges. This chapter tracks how the tightening of control over models was met with a widening field of scouting for new recruits to the industry. As the public’s exposure to and interest in fashion has grown apace, fashion weeks have proliferated beyond the traditional fashion hubs, and scouting for new models has reached into ever-more remote regions. Consequently, modeling contests have grown in size and number, modeling agencies have opened offices in dozens of countries, and fashion has become “news” as television shows and websites treating fashion became commonplace. Banking on the new value of mutability, model scouts ranged farther afield in search of that precious combination of features that might make millions. The age of the blink facilitated this expansion, converting more of the population into a standing reserve, made ready for their makeovers by a steady diet of reality television and twenty-four- hour access to the newest fashions, updated by the minute.
