Publications

Books, Articles, book chapters, book reviews, popular articles, and reports.

An "Available here" link follows publications with the online text. If there is a publication you want to access that is not available yet, please get in contact.

Books

Woodcock, J. (ed.) (2023) The Expanse Expanded: A Special Issue of Red Futures. London: Red Futures

Hughes, L. and Woodcock, J. (2023) Troublemaking: Why You Should Organize Your Workplace. London: Verso

Woodcock, J. (2023) Employment: Key Ideas in Business and Management, Abingdon: Routledge

Bloom, P., Smolovic Jones, O., and Woodcock, J. (2021) Guerrilla Democracy: Mobile Organising and Leadership in the 21st Century. Bristol: Bristol University Press

Moore, P. V. and Woodcock, J. (eds.) (2021) Augmented Exploitation: Artificial Intelligence, Automation, and Work

Woodcock, J. (2021) The Fight Against Platform Capitalism: An Inquiry into the Global Struggles of the Gig Economy. London: University of Westminster Press

Woodcock, J. and Graham, M. (2019) The Gig Economy: A Critical Introduction, Cambridge: Polity

Woodcock, J. (2019) Marx at the Arcade: Consoles, Controllers, and Class Struggle, Chicago: Haymarket Books

Woodcock, J. (2017) Working the Phones: Control and Resistance in Call Centres, London: Pluto

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Articles

Kelmore, A. and Woodcock, J. (2023) 'Game worker solidarity: Mapping collective actions in the video games industry', Eludamos: Journal for Computer Game Culture, 14(1): 183–191.

Woodcock, J. (2023) 'Introduction: Artificial Intelligence in Management', Revista CEA, 9(21). Online first.

Popan, C., Perez, D., and Woodcock, J. (2023) 'Cards against gamification: Using a role-playing game to tell alternative futures in the gig economy', The Sociological Review, 71(5), 1058–1074.

Grohmann, R., Mendonça, M., and Woodcock, J. (2023) 'Communication and Work From Below: The Role of Communication in Organizing Delivery Platform Workers', International Journal of Communication, 17: 3919-3937.

Mendonça, M., Woodcock, J., and Grohmann, R. (2022) 'Composição de Classe e Migração para Entender o Trabalho por Plataformas: o caso dos entregadores brasileiros no Reino Unido', Caderno CRH. Online first. Available here.

Woodcock, J. (2022) 'Artificial intelligence at work: The problem of managerial control from call centers to transport platforms', Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence. Online first. Available here.

Smolović Jones, O., Briley, G., and Woodcock, J. (2022) 'Exposing and re-placing leadership through workers inquiry', Leadership, 18(1): 61-80. Available here.

Woodcock, J. and Cant, C. (2022) 'Platform Worker Organising at Deliveroo in the UK: From Wildcat Strikes to Building Power', Journal of Labor and Society, 25(2), 220-236. Available here.

Woodcock, J. (2021) 'The Limits of Algorithmic Management: On Platforms, Data, and Workers’ Struggle', South Atlantic Quarterly, 120 (4): 703–713. Available here.

Johnson M. R. and Woodcock J. (2021) 'Work, play, and precariousness: An overview of the labour ecosystem of esports', Media, Culture & Society, 43(8): 1449-1465. Available here.

Woodcock, J. (2021) 'Towards a Digital Workerism: Workers’ Inquiry, Methods, and Technologies', Nanoethics, 15: 87-98. Available here.

Heeks, R., Graham, M., Mungai, P., Van Belle, J-P., and Woodcock, J. (2021) 'Systematic evaluation of gig work against decent work standards: The development and application of the Fairwork framework', The Information Society, 37(5): 267-286.

  • Translated into Chinese by Yao, J. and Lun, J., Journal of International Social Sciences, 516(5): 69-82.

Ruffino, P. and Woodcock, J. (2021) 'Game Workers and the Empire: Unionisation in the UK Video Game Industry', Games and Culture: a journal of interactive media, 16(3): 317-328. Available here.

Woodcock, J. (2020) 'The Algorithmic Panopticon at Deliveroo: measurement, precarity, and the illusion of control', Ephemera, 20(3): 67-95. Available here.

  • Translated into Portuguese as 'O Panóptico algoritmico da Deliveroo: Mensuraçáo, precariedade e a ilusáo do controle', in Uberização, trabalho digital e Indústria 4.0 edited by Ricardo Antunes (2020). Translated into Spanish as 'El Panóptico Algorítmico en Deliveroo: medición, precariedad y la ilusión del control', in M. Atzeni, J. Soul, C. Marticorena, R. Elber, and J, Montero (eds.) Clase, proceso de trabajo y reproducción social: ampliando las perspectivas de los estudios laborales, 291-320. Buenos Aires: CEIL CONICET Libros.

Graham, M., Woodcock, J., Heeks, R., Mungai, P., Van Belle, J-P., du Toit, D., Fredman, S., Osiki, A., van der Spuy, A., Silberman, S. M. (2020) 'The Fairwork Foundation: Strategies for improving platform work in a global context', Geoforum. Available here.

  • Translated into simplified Chinese as '公平工作委员会:全球化语境下 用工平台的治理策略', by Jianhua Yao, (2022) Labour Union Studies, 188(4): 66-74.

Woodcock, J. (2020) 'Reflecting on a call centre workers’ inquiry: Contradictions, tensions, and the role of the researcher', Etnografia e ricerca qualitativa / The Italian Journal of Ethnography and Qualitative Research, 13(1): 103-118. Available here.

Cant, C. and Woodcock, J. (2020) 'The Fast Food Shutdown: From disorganisation to action in the service sector', Capital and Class, 44(4): 513-521. Available here.

Woodcock, J. (2020) 'How to Beat the Boss: Game Workers Unite in the UK', Capital and Class, 44(4): 523-529. Available here.

Englert, S., Woodcock, J., and Cant, C. (2020) 'Digital Workerism: Technology, Platforms, and the Circulation of Workers’ Struggles', tripleC, 18(1): 132-145. Available here.

  • Translated into Portuguese as 'Operaísmo Digital: tecnologia, plataformas e circulação das lutas dos trabalhadores', revista Fronteiras - estudos midiáticos, 22(1):47-58. Available here.

Woodcock, J. (2020) 'Organizing in the Game Industry: the story of Game Workers Unite UK', New Labor Forum, 29(1): 50-57. Available here.

Johnson, M. R. and Woodcock, J. (2019) '“And today’s top donator is”: How Live Streamers on Twitch.tv Monetise and Gamify Broadcasts', Social Media + Society, 5(4). Available here.

Johnson, M. R. and Woodcock, J. (2019) 'The Impacts of Live Streaming and Twitch.tv on the Video Game Industry', Media, Culture and Society, 41(5): 670-688. Available here.

Woodcock, J. and Johnson, M. R. (2019) 'Live Streamers on Twitch.tv as Social Media Influencers: Chances and Challenges for Strategic Communication', International Journal of Strategic Communication, 13(4): 321-335. Available here.

Woodcock, J. and Johnson, M. R. (2019) 'The Affective Labour and Performance of Live Streaming on Twitch.tv', Television and New Media, 20(8): 813-823. Available here.

Woodcock, J. and Johnson, M. R. (2018) ‘Gamification: What it is, and how to fight it’, The Sociological Review, 66(3): 542-558. Available here.

  • Translated into Portuguese as 'Gamificação: o que é e como lutar contra ela', Eco-Pós, 26(2): 107-137.

Graham, M. and Woodcock, J. (2018) 'Towards a Fairer Platform Economy: Introducing the Fairwork Foundation', Alternate Routes, 29: 242-253. Available here.

Woodcock, J. (2018) ‘Digital labour in the university: understanding the transformations of academic work in the UK’, tripleC, 16(1). Available here.

Cox, J., Oh, E. Y., Simmons, B., Graham, G., Greenhill, A., Lintott, C., Masters, K., Woodcock, J. (2018) 'Doing good online: The changing relationships between motivations, activity and retention among online volunteers', Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly. Available here.

Johnson, M. R. and Woodcock, J. (2017) ‘It’s like the Gold Rush: The Lives and Careers of Professional Video Game Streamers on Twitch.tv’, Information, Communication and Society, 22(3): 336-351. Available here.

Johnson, M. R., and Woodcock, J. (2017) 'Fighting Games and Go: Exploring the Aesthetics of Play in Professional Gaming', Thesis Eleven, 138(1): 26-45. Available here.

Woodcock, J., Greenhill, A., Holmes, K., Graham, G., Cox, J., Oh, E. Y., and Masters, K. (2017) ‘Crowdsourcing Citizen Science: Exploring the Tensions Between Paid Professionals and Users’, Journal of Peer Production, 10. Available here.

Woodcock, J. (2016) ‘The work of play: Marx and the video games industry in the United Kingdom’, Journal of Gaming and Virtual Worlds, 8(2): 131-143. Available here.

Greenhill, A., Holmes, K., Woodcock, J., Lintott, C., Simmons, B., Graham, G., Cox, J., Oh, E.Y., Masters, K. (2016) ‘Playing With Science: Exploring How Game Activity Motivates Users Participation on an Online Citizen Science Platform’, Aslib Journal of Information Management, 68(3): 306-325. Available here.

Toscano, A. and Woodcock, J. (2015) ‘Spectres of Marxism: A Comment on Mike Savage’s market model of class difference’, The Sociological Review, 63: 512-523. Available here.

Woodcock, J. (2014) ‘Precarious work in London: new forms of organisation and the city’, City: analysis of urban trends, culture, theory, policy, action, 18(6): 776-788. Available here.

Woodcock, J. (2014) ‘The Workers’ Inquiry from Trotskyism to Operaismo: a political methodology for investigating the workplace’, Ephemera, 14(3): 493-513. Available here.

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Chapters


Woodcock, J. (2023) 'Class composition in the digitalised gig economy', in M. Atzeni, D. Azzellini, A. Mezzadri, P. Moore, and U. Apitzsch (eds.) Handbook of Research on the Global Political Economy of Work, 351-359. Cheltenham: Edwards Elgar.

Woodcock, J. (2023) ‘Compreendendo a resistência às plataformas’ in R. Antunes (ed.) Icebergs à deriva: o trabalho nas plataformas digitais, 425-446. São Paulo: Boitempo (Portuguese translation of Chapter 5, 'Understanding Platform Resistance', The Fight Against Platform Capitalism).

Woodcock, J. (2023) 'Foreword', in I. Ness (ed) The Routledge Handbook of the Gig Economy, Abingdon: Routledge.

Woodcock, J. (2022) 'How to Conduct In-Game Interviews', in K. Gregory (ed) SAGE Research Methods: Doing Research Online, London: SAGE Publications.

Woodcock, J. (2022) 'How to Conduct Ethnographies of Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games', in K. Gregory (ed) SAGE Research Methods: Doing Research Online, London: SAGE Publications.

Woodcock, J. and Cant, C. (2022) 'Platforms, Resistance, Organizing', in P. Smith, A. Monea, and M. Santiago (eds) Amazon: At the Intersection of Culture and Capital, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.

Woodcock, J. (2022) 'Work', in B. Skeggs, S. R. Farris, A. Toscano, and S. Bromberg (eds) The SAGE Handbook of Marxism, Volume 3, 1410-1423. London: SAGE.

Woodcock, J. and Johnson, M. R. (2022) 'Live Streamers on Twitch.tv as Social Media Influencers: Chances and Challenges for Strategic Communication' in N. S. Borchers (ed) Social Media Influencers in Strategic Communication, Abingdon: Routledge.

Woodcock, J. (2021) 'L'enquête ouvrière et le travail de plate-forme', in E. Jean, Y. Noiseux, and S. A. Soussi (eds) Pauvreté au travail, transformations des marchés de l’emploi et trajectoires de résistance: Un dialogue Nord-Sud, Québec: Presses de l'Université du Québec.

Woodcock, J. (2021) 'Technology, Labor, and the Gig Economy', in D. A. Rohlinger and S. Sobieraj (eds) The Oxford Handbook of Sociology and Digital Media, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Available here.

Cant, C. and Woodcock, J. (2021) 'The Cycle of Struggle: Food Platform Strikes in the UK 2016-18', in B. Dolber, M. Rodino-Colocino, C. Kumanyika, and T. Wolfson (eds) Gig Economy: Workers and Media in the Era of Convergence, Abingdon: Routledge. Available here.

Woodcock, J. (2021) 'Workers Inquiry and the Experience of Work: Using Ethnographic Accounts of the Gig Economy Jamie Woodcock', in J. Aroles, F-X. de Vaujany, and K. Dale (eds) Experiencing the New World of Work, 136-156. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Available here.

Woodcock, J. (2021) 'Game Workers Unite: unionization among independent developers', in P. Ruffino (ed) Independent Videogames: Cultures, Networks, Techniques And Politics, 163-174. Abingdon: Routledge. Available here.

Woodcock J. (2020) ‘Exploitation’, in G. Ritzer and C. Rojek (eds) The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology. Oxford: John Wiley & Sons. Available here.

Woodcock, J. (2020) 'The trajectory of the 2010 student movement in the UK: from student activism to strikes', in A. Choudry and S. Vally (eds) The University and Social Justice Struggles Across the Globe, 25-40. London: Pluto. Available here.

Woodcock, J. (2019) 'The Impact of the Gig Economy' in BBVA OpenMind (ed) Work in the Age of Data, Madrid: BBVA. Available here.

Hammar, E. L. and Woodcock, J. (2019) 'The Political Economy of Wargames: The Production of History and Memory in Military Video Games', in P. Hammond and H. Pötzsch (eds) War Games: Memory, Militarism and the Subject of Play, 54-71. London: Bloomsbury. Available here.

Badger, A. and Woodcock, J. (2019) 'Ethnographic Methods with Limited Access: Assessing Quality of Work in Hard to Reach Jobs', in D. Wheatley (ed) Handbook of research methods on the quality of working lives, 135-146. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar. Available here.

Woodcock, J. (2019) 'Understanding affective labour: the demand for workers to really care', in D. Frayne (ed) The Work Cure: Critical Essays on Work and Wellness, 61-74. Monmouth: PCCS Books. Available here.

Woodcock J. (2018) 'Digital Labour and Workers’ Organisation', in M. Atzeni and I. Ness (eds) Global Perspectives on Workers' and Labour Organizations. Work, Organization, and Employment. Singapore: Springer. Available here.

Woodcock, J. (2018) ‘Changes in employment: role of the state and its reconfiguration in the liberalization of employment policies’, in O. Fedyuk and P. Stewart (eds) Inclusion and Exclusion in Europe: Migration, Work and Employment Perspectives. London: ECPR Press. Available here.

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Reviews

Woodcock, J. (2021) 'Lives on the Line: How the Philippines Became the World’s Call Center Capital. Sallaz, Jeffrey J.' (Book review), British Journal of Sociology. Available here.

Woodcock, J. (2021) 'Review of: Marcelo Hoffman (2019) Militant Acts: The Role of Investigations in Radical Politics Struggles' (Book review), Global Labour Journal. Available here.

Woodcock, J. (2020) 'A Precarious Game: The Illusion of Dream Jobs in the Videogame Industry' (Book review), Historical Materialism. Available here.

Woodcock, J. (2020) ‘The challenges of understanding digital labour: questions of exploitation and resistance’ (Book review), Historical Materialism. Available here.

Woodcock, J. (2015) ‘Co-creating videogames’ (Book review), Journal of Cultural Economy, 8(6): 738-740.

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Woodcock, J. (2023) 'The Military-Industrial Games Complex', Jacobin. Available here.

Hughes, L. and Woodcock, J. (2023) 'How to beat the cost-of-living crisis? Join the care workers fighting back', openDemocracy. Available here.

Woodcock, J. (2023) 'Reflections on the Current Strike Wave in the UK', Legal Form. Available here.

Marshall, A. and Woodcock, J. (2022) 'The IWGB and strategic litigation: using the law within the strategies and tactics of work organising', Institute of Employment Rights. Available here.

Woodcock, J. (2022) 'Fighting workplace surveillance', Red Pepper. #234: Technocapitalism. Available here.

Marshall, A. and Woodcock, J. (2021) 'Delivery Drivers Take On the Platform Goliaths', ROAR Mag, Issue #11. Available here.

Woodcock, J. (2021) 'The Fight Against Workplace Surveillance', Red Pepper.

Johnston, H., Silberman, M.S., and Woodcock, J. (2021) Academia and the Ethics of Crowdsourced Research', Academe Blog. Available here.

Woodcock, J. (2021) 'A Taste of Power? Making Sense of Workers’ Struggle at Deliveroo', University of Westminster Press blog. Available here.

Woodcock, J. (2021) 'No workers are unorganisable, but unions need to step up and adapt', Left Foot Forward. Available here.

Woodcock, J. (2020) 'For Video Game Companies, “Crunch” Working Conditions Are Increasingly the Norm', Jacobin. Available here.

Jaffe, S., Gebrial, D., Woodcock, J., and Gent, C. (2020) '12 Books for Understanding the Future of Work', Novara Media. Available here.

Cant, C., Englert, S., and Woodcock, J. (2020) 'Digital Workerism: Technology, Platforms, and the Circulation of Workers’ Struggles', republished in Monthly Review Online. Available here.

Cant, C., Englert, S., and Woodcock, J. (2020) 'Digital Workerism: Technology, Platforms, and the Circulation of Workers’ Struggles', Developing Economics. Available here.

Woodcock, J. (2019) 'I've been inside Amazon's new hi-tech warehouses - and I've seen how robots will change how we work', The Independent. Available here.

Woodcock, J. (2019) 'The violence, gambling techniques and worker exploitation behind the world’s favourite video games', The Independent. Available here.

Graham, M., Englert, S., and Woodcock, J. (2019) 'Holding platforms accountable to digital workers’ rights', New International. Available here.

Woodcock, J. (2019) 'Rating gig economy platforms against criteria for fair work', Digital Leaders. Available here.

Woodcock, J. and Graham, M. (2019) 'How can we better regulate digital platform capitalism to protect workers?', Labour List. Available here.

Woodcock, J. (2019) 'Playing for Power', Jacobin. Available here.

Woodcock, J. (2018) 'Against the gamification of work', A Poetic Anthology of Capital, a reader for words don't come easy - money doesn't either at Kunst Im Tunnel.

Golden, M. and Woodcock, J. (2018) 'I'm Always There', so fi zine. Available here.

Woodcock, J. (2018) 'Calling for Resistance: the Electronic Panopticon of Call Centers and the Neoliberal Future of Work', Economic Sociology and Political Economy. Available here.

Woodcock, J., Donegan, B., Goard, S. (2018) 'A workers’ inquiry among academics: Hourly-paid teaching staff at Goldsmiths College, London', Notes from Below. Available here.

Woodcock, J. (2017) 'Il faut organiser ces travailleurs', DÉmocratie & Socialisme, 249 (interview).

Woodcock, J. (2017) 'Working the phones – undercover in a call centre', New European Trade Union Forum, LSE. Available here.

Waters, F. and Woodcock, J. (2017) 'Far From Seamless: a Workers’ Inquiry at Deliveroo', Viewpoint Magazine. Available here.

Woodcock, J. (2017) 'Subjectivity in the "Gig Economy": From the Entreprecariat to Base Union Militancy', Pervasive Labour Union, Special Issue: The Entreprecariat. Available here.

Woodcock, J. (2017) 'Does it still make sense to talk of a work ethic, and does work still provide recognition and a sense of meaning? How should this be negotiated in the future?', interview in Autonomy. Available here.

Woodcock, J. (2017) 'Would you support the introduction of a Universal Basic Income?', interview in Autonomy. Available here.

Woodcock, J. (2017) 'The hidden environmental impacts of "platform capitalism"', The Ecologist. Available here.

Woodcock, J. (2017) 'Automation...and yet more work', interview in Autonomy. Available here.

Woodcock, J. (2017) 'Slacking it? The problems of technology at work', LSE Business Review. Available here.

Woodcock, J. (2017) 'How would you characterise the state of ‘work’ today and its recent developments? Is work in crisis – if so, how?', interview in Autonomy. Available here.

Woodcock, J. (2017) 'What’s Wrong with Modern Work? Jamie Woodcock on the Taylor Review', Pluto Press Blog. Available here.

Woodcock, J. (2017) 'All Work and No Play', BBC, Manchester International Festival Available here.

Interviewed in 'A ‘uberização’ e as encruzilhadas do mundo do trabalho', IHU Online. Available here.

Woodcock, J. (2017) 'Automate this! delivering resistance in the gig economy', Mute, 10th March. Available here.

Woodcock, J. (2017) 'As a call centre worker I saw how employees are stripped of their rights', The Guardian, 16th February. Available here.

Woodcock, J. (2017) 'End of the line: surveillance, precarity and resistance in the call centre', openDemocracy, 13th January. Available here.

Johnson, M. R. and Woodcock, J. (2016) ‘Understanding Twitch Chat: New Forms of Digital Community and Play’, Discover Society. Available here.

Woodcock, J. (2016) ‘Deliveroo and UberEATS: organising in the gig economy in the UK’, Global Disconnections. Available here.

Woodcock, J. (2016) ‘Learning lessons from Deliveroo and UberEATS’, Pluto Press Blog. Available here.

Johnson, M. R. and Woodcock, J. (2016) ‘The Sociology of “streaming”’, The Sociological Imagination. Available here.

Woodcock, J. (2016) ‘#Slaveroo: Deliveroo Drivers Organising in the “Gig Economy”’, Novara. Available here.

Woodcock, J. and Toscano, A. (2016) ‘On the Poverty of Student Choice’, The Sociological Review Blog. Available here.

Woodcock, J. and Johnson, M. R. (2016) ‘Researching the Growth of Esports in the UK’, Esports News UK. Available here.

Woodcock, J. (2013) ‘Smile Down the Phone: An Attempt at a Workers’ Inquiry in a Call Center’, Viewpoint Magazine, 3.

Woodcock, J. (2013) ‘Logistics in London: New Centres of Resistance’, Oxford Left Review, 11.

Woodcock, J. (2013) ‘The Working Class in Britain Today’, Oxford Left Review, 10.

Woodcock, J. (2013) ‘The NUS and the left’, Oxford Left Review, 9.

Woodcock, J. and Evans, L. (2012) 'The Postgraduate Workers’ Association', The New Left Project. Available here.

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Reports

I submitted evidence to the Human Rights at Work Inquiry in 2023. Submission: Available here.

I was invited to give oral evidence to the House of Lords COVID-19 Committee in 2021. This contributed to the 'Beyond Digital: Planning for a Hybrid World' HL Paper 26, Available here.

Clark, N., Keles, J Y. , Stumbitz, B. and Woodcock, J. (2020) Newham working student pilot project summary report. Project Report. Middlesex University, London, UK. Available here.

Heeks, R., Graham, M., Mungai, P., Van Belle, J-P., and Woodcock, J. (2020) Systematic Evaluation of Platform Work Against Decent Work Standards: Development of a New Framework and Application in the Global South. Digital Development Working Paper no. 85. Available here.

I helped to edit a submission from the IWGB for 'The future world of work and rights of workers' Parliamentary inquiry in 2017. You can find out more about the inquiry here and the Submission: Available here.

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