Circuits of Labor: A Holistic Model for the Making and Unmaking of Class Through the iPhone

This chapter brings together various threads of research into a single holistic framework: “circuits of labor.” It takes inspiration from a defining moment in cultural studies, which seized the arrival of the Sony Walkman as an iconic and rupturing event in the study of contemporary media and society. Du Gay and colleagues introduced a “circuit of culture” model to illustrate the mutually linked considerations necessary to understand a cultural industry in full. Following this tradition, the chapter proposes to engage the iPhone as both a historic signifier and a rich empirical source for theory building to better grasp persisting issues of class and labor. It analyzes the iPhone as a device that is used for various forms of communication, care work, and micro-organization as well as a product that draws on multiple forms of labor and thus materializes the dynamism of class relationship, both its making and unmaking.