Manual Labour, Intellectual Labour and Digital (Academic) Labour. The Practice/Theory Debate in the Digital Humanities
Although it hasn’t much been considered as such, the Digital Humanities movements (or at least the most theoretically informed parts of it) offers a critique “from within” of the recent mutation of the higher education and research systems. This paper offers an analysis, from a Critical Theory persp...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Paderborn University: Media Systems and Media Organisation Research Group
2018-01-01
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| Series: | tripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.triple-c.at/index.php/tripleC/article/view/847 |
| _version_ | 1827852062484856832 |
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| author | Christophe Magis |
| author_facet | Christophe Magis |
| author_sort | Christophe Magis |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Although it hasn’t much been considered as such, the Digital Humanities movements (or at least the most theoretically informed parts of it) offers a critique “from within” of the recent mutation of the higher education and research systems. This paper offers an analysis, from a Critical Theory perspective, of a key element of this critique: the theory vs. practice debate, which, in the Digital Humanities, is translated into the famous “hack” versus “yack” motto, where DHers usually call for the pre-eminence of the former over the latter. I show how this debate aims to criticize the social situation of employment in academia in the digital age and can further be interpreted with the Cultural industry theoretical concept, as a continuance of the domination of the intellectual labour (ie. yack in this case) over the manual labour (hack). Nevertheless, I argue that, pushing this debate to its very dialectical limit in the post-industrial academic labour situation, one realizes that the two terms aren’t in opposition anymore: the actual theory as well as the actual practice are below their very critical concepts in the academic labour. Therefore, I call for a reconfiguration of this debate, aiming at the rediscovering of an actual theory in the academic production, as well as a rediscovering of a praxis, the latter being outside of the scientific realm and rules: it is political. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T10:43:42Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-8c03c943aa0a478e8538b92a4d4151b9 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1726-670X 1726-670X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T10:43:42Z |
| publishDate | 2018-01-01 |
| publisher | Paderborn University: Media Systems and Media Organisation Research Group |
| record_format | Article |
| series | tripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique |
| spelling | doaj.art-8c03c943aa0a478e8538b92a4d4151b92023-09-02T07:47:49ZengPaderborn University: Media Systems and Media Organisation Research GrouptripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique1726-670X1726-670X2018-01-0116115917510.31269/triplec.v16i1.847847Manual Labour, Intellectual Labour and Digital (Academic) Labour. The Practice/Theory Debate in the Digital HumanitiesChristophe Magis0Université Paris 8 — CemtiAlthough it hasn’t much been considered as such, the Digital Humanities movements (or at least the most theoretically informed parts of it) offers a critique “from within” of the recent mutation of the higher education and research systems. This paper offers an analysis, from a Critical Theory perspective, of a key element of this critique: the theory vs. practice debate, which, in the Digital Humanities, is translated into the famous “hack” versus “yack” motto, where DHers usually call for the pre-eminence of the former over the latter. I show how this debate aims to criticize the social situation of employment in academia in the digital age and can further be interpreted with the Cultural industry theoretical concept, as a continuance of the domination of the intellectual labour (ie. yack in this case) over the manual labour (hack). Nevertheless, I argue that, pushing this debate to its very dialectical limit in the post-industrial academic labour situation, one realizes that the two terms aren’t in opposition anymore: the actual theory as well as the actual practice are below their very critical concepts in the academic labour. Therefore, I call for a reconfiguration of this debate, aiming at the rediscovering of an actual theory in the academic production, as well as a rediscovering of a praxis, the latter being outside of the scientific realm and rules: it is political.https://www.triple-c.at/index.php/tripleC/article/view/847Critical TheoryDigital HumanitiesCulture IndustryTheory/PraxisDigital Labour |
| spellingShingle | Christophe Magis Manual Labour, Intellectual Labour and Digital (Academic) Labour. The Practice/Theory Debate in the Digital Humanities tripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique Critical Theory Digital Humanities Culture Industry Theory/Praxis Digital Labour |
| title | Manual Labour, Intellectual Labour and Digital (Academic) Labour. The Practice/Theory Debate in the Digital Humanities |
| title_full | Manual Labour, Intellectual Labour and Digital (Academic) Labour. The Practice/Theory Debate in the Digital Humanities |
| title_fullStr | Manual Labour, Intellectual Labour and Digital (Academic) Labour. The Practice/Theory Debate in the Digital Humanities |
| title_full_unstemmed | Manual Labour, Intellectual Labour and Digital (Academic) Labour. The Practice/Theory Debate in the Digital Humanities |
| title_short | Manual Labour, Intellectual Labour and Digital (Academic) Labour. The Practice/Theory Debate in the Digital Humanities |
| title_sort | manual labour intellectual labour and digital academic labour the practice theory debate in the digital humanities |
| topic | Critical Theory Digital Humanities Culture Industry Theory/Praxis Digital Labour |
| url | https://www.triple-c.at/index.php/tripleC/article/view/847 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT christophemagis manuallabourintellectuallabouranddigitalacademiclabourthepracticetheorydebateinthedigitalhumanities |