Labour In-Between Gift And Commodity – Reproducing And Resisting Precarity In The Digital Games Industry

The paper investigates the phenomenon of double exploitation in ’passionate work’, where workers are exploiting themselves in their dedication to work and colleagues, simultaneously as being exposed to exploitation by employers and the industry at large. The study is based on an analysis of semi-structured interviews with game developers employed in the Swedish digital games industry. The digital games industry has been highlighted internationally as an industry that obscures precarious working conditions behind the passion for creating games. Drawing on the relational work perspective in economic sociology, the analysis identifies the expectations and subtle norms in different socio-economic exchange systems, as well as the ambiguities and mismatches when the norms of gift exchange and market exchange intersect. Through the analytical notion of ‘labour as gift versus labour as commodity’, the study highlights the interactive social processes through which self-exploitation are sustained as well as questioned and resisted. It is argued that although work performed within the framework of an employment is to be considered a commodity in a structural meaning, it is not solely a commodity. Friendship reciprocity and favour exchanges are regarded as beyond-work-relationships as well as being integral to the formal labour relationships. The paper discusses the interactive dynamics of friendship and collegial exchanges, accounts of non-reciprocated gifts, as well as self-blaming and guilting practices. It is demonstrated how the mismatches between different forms of socio-economic exchange evoke reflections on the value of work, which paves the way to voice and potential exit from the industry.