Post-Doctoral Research Plan and Project Proposal for the Project "Datification of Communication Activity and Communicators' Work Arrangements: The Clashes with Platform Companies' Determinations"

• Grant number: 24/09105-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: September 01, 2024
• End date: August 31, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Communications - Theory of Communication
• Principal Investigator: Roseli Aparecida Figaro Paulino
• Grantee: Luis Henrique do Nascimento Goncalves
• Host Institution: Escola de Comunicações e Artes (ECA). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 22/05714-0 - Datafication of communication and work activities in communicators' arrangements: the struggles with the determinations of platform companies, AP.TEM

Abstract

The Datification Project is interested in understanding how the various activities, actions, operations, and products of communication work mediated by digital platforms tend to be recorded in the form of digital data that has capitalist use value, which is previously idealized by its developers and which is appropriated by these companies with little or no knowledge and consent from these workers. This extra work tends to determine how platforms are built and how communication work is done.Based on his previous research on this topic (GONÇALVES, 2023), the candidate proposes as an addition to the Datification Project that the human-computer interaction (HCI) in which data is produced be interpreted with the support of Activity Theory (KAPTELININ, 1996), Ergonomics (FÍGARO, 2008) and the work-communication binomial (FÍGARO, 2018). Such an approach unfolds certain tasks and expected results: (1) theoretical synthesis between the above-mentioned bases that adequately describes the concrete phenomenon of this datification; (2) participation in the tasks in progress (interviews and empirical observation of workers) so that as much as possible of the aforementioned data production is evidenced, its use value for its consumption chain and its implications for the work and subjectivity of these workers. It is expected to contribute to the political organization of these workers, to the formulation of policies for regulating platforms, creating public digital infrastructures and promoting alternative communication arrangements.