A significant change within these ten years was that Chinese TNCs increased their shares of assets, revenues, and profits. European and North American TNCs now no longer control around three quarters, but two-thirds of global capital, which means that they continue to be dominant. That Chinese TNCs play a more important role does not signify a fundamental break, but is rather an indication that China imitates Westernstyle capitalism so that a capitalism with Chinese characteristics has emerged.
The NIDL is at the heart of the information and digital economy that produces information and information and communication technologies (ICTs). Specific forms of physical work produce information technologies that are then used by workers in the media and cultural industries for creating informational content (music, movies, data, statistics, multimedia, images, videos, animations, texts, articles, etc.) in digital form. Informational content is produced, disseminated, and consumed with the help of information technologies. Technology and content are dialectically interconnected so that the information economy is both physical and non-physical at the same time. The information economy is neither a superstructure nor immaterial, but rather a specific form of the organisation of the productive forces that cuts across the base/superstructure divide and makes information and information technology an immediate productive force.
Figure 11.1 shows a model of the major production processes that are involved in the international division of digital labour. Each production step/labour process involves human subjects (S) using technologies/instruments of labour (T) on objects of labour (O) so that a new product emerges. The very foundation of digital labour is an agricultural labour cycle in which miners extract minerals. These minerals enter the next production process as objects so that processors based on them in physical labour processes create ICT components. These components enter the next labour cycle as objects: assemblage workers build digital media technologies and take ICT components as inputs. Processors and assemblers are industrial workers involved in digital production. The outcome of such labour are digital media technologies that enter various forms of information work as tools for the production, distribution, circulation, prosumption, and consumption of diverse types of information.
Chapter Eleven | Digital Labour and Imperialism
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The International Division of Digital Labour