Digital Taylorism

Undoubtedly, the emergence of the digital economy has generated new economic opportunities for workers on the continent. Thousands of African workers are now performing a vast variety of digital work activities. At the same time, various technological and social-economic barriers influence African workers’ experience of digital work. This chapter describes the lived experiences of those workers. Practically, the chapter narrates African workers’ everyday struggles to find paid work and to make a living in a highly commoditized form of global economic production. It explores four development dimensions of digital work, i.e. freedom, flexibility, precarity, and vulnerability. The chapter asserts that instead of these dimensions being compartmentalized, they are dynamic and exist in a continuum for any given job.