World-class research based on a distinctive, interdisciplinary approach to the natural sciences, social sciences, engineering and technology, and the arts and humanities.
The MU International Office is the first point of contact for international students applying for full-degree, Erasmus, Study Abroad, and Summer School programmes, and supports MU students who wish to study abroad.
I am Associate Professor/Senior Lecturer and teach modules related to social media, subcultures and cultural theory. I am also Coordinator of the MA in Critical and Creative Media.
My research focus is the political economy of digital media and in particular the commercial Web, with an emphasis on digital labour, platform work and the platform economy. I am author of Digital Labor (Polity, 2022) and Feminism, Labour and Digital Media: The Digital Housewife (Routledge, 2016) applying Marxist feminist theories of domestic work to understand the practice of consumer labour. This was also translated into Portuguese as A Dona de Casa Digital: Feminismo, Trabalho e Mídias Digitais (Editora Politeia, 2021).
With Susanna Paasonen and Ben Light, I am co-author of #NSFW: Sex, Humor and Risk in Social Media (MIT Press, 2019) - winner of the 2020 Association of Internet Researchers book award. With colleagues Ken Hillis and Michael Petit, I have explored the commercial search industry, published in the book Google and the Culture of Search (Routledge, 2013). I have also published extensively on a variety of social media platforms, apps and websites.
I am currently editor-in-chief of the new journal Dialogues in Digital Society (Sage) and Working Group 1 Leader and on the Management Committee of the Platform Work Inclusion Living Lab (P-Will) COST Action. I am also co-editor of the SAGE Handbook of Digital Labour (under contract, 2025).
My media expertise is in user experiences of social media, the politics of the commercial Web, online sexuality, and gender issues relating to work in digital media industries and the platform economy.
Research Interests
My research focus is the critical analysis of the political economy of commercial digital media using various theoretical frameworks, but with an emphasis on feminist and Marxist approaches. My core expertise is in the area of digital labour and platform work, ranging from studies of social media users to platform workers and beyond.
I also explore the cultural dimensions of user activity on social media as well as articulations of gender and sexuality in online practices.
Research Projects
Title
Role
Description
Start date
End date
Amount
Platform Economy Ecosystem (PEcoE)
PI
09/06/2023
08/06/2025
14066
Forceful fandoms: interrogating the antagonistic digital labour practices of political influencer social media audiences - Anthony Kelly
PI
01/09/2023
31/08/2025
105604
Platform Work Inclusion Living Lab
Management Committee member/Working Group 1 Leader
The main objective of the Platform Work Inclusion Living Lab (P-WILL) is to build a European multistakeholder network including policymakers, industry leaders, civil society organisations and researchers, to foster the upsurge of alternative scenarios in the frame of platform work.
14/09/2022
13/09/2026
540000
Full Stack Feminism
Co-I
IRC/AHRC UK-Ireland Collaboration in the Digital Humanities
01/08/2021
31/07/2023
264470
Intersections: Feminism, Technolgy and Digital Humanities
PI
01/08/2020
31/05/2021
11950
A History of Forgetting - Michael Kurzmeier
PI
01/09/2019
31/08/2021
50333.28
Creative Industries and the Digital Economy as Drivers of EU Integration and Innovation (CIDEII)
Western European Regional Coordinator
01/01/2017
31/12/2019
60000
Moderation for Fair Assessment in Transnational Learning and Teaching
PI
01/01/2008
31/12/2010
220000
Book
Year
Publication
2022
Jarrett, Kylie (2022) Digital Labor. London: Polity.
2021
Jarrett, Kylie (2021) A Dona de Casa Digital: feminismo, trabalho e mídia digital. Brazil: Editora Politeia.
2019
Paasonen, Susanna, Kylie Jarrett and Ben Light (2019) #NSFW: Sex, Humor and Risk in Social Media. Massachusetts: MIT Press.
2016
Jarrett, Kylie (2016) Feminism, Labour and Digital Media: The Digital Housewife. New York and London: Routledge. [DOI]
2013
Hillis, Ken, Michael Petit and Kylie Jarrett (2013) Google and the Culture of Search. London: Routledge.
Book Chapter
Year
Publication
2023
Jarrett, Kylie (2023) 'Die Reproduktion des digitalen Unternehmers: Digitale Arbeit als feminisierte Arbeit/Reproducing the Digital Entrepreneur: Digital Labour as Feminised Work' In: Theorien Des Digitalen Kapitalismus. Germany : Suhrkamp.
2022
Light, Ben, Susanna Paasonen and Kylie Jarrett (2022) 'Rethinking Dick Pics' In: Introducing the New Sexuality Studies: Original Essays. London : Routledge.
2021
Jarrett, Kylie (2021) 'Digital Ireland: Leprechaun economics, Silicon Docks and crisis' In: Routledge International Handbook of Irish Studies. London : Routledge.
2019
Jarrett, Kylie (2019) 'Through the Reproductive Lens: Labour and struggle at the intersection of culture and economy' In: Digital Objects Digital Subjects: Interdisciplinary perspectives on capitalism, labour and politics in the age of Big Data. London : University of Westminster Press.
2018
Jarrett Kylie (2018) 'Exploitation, alienation, and liberation: Interpreting the political economy of digital writing' In: The Routledge Handbook of Digital Writing and Rhetoric. London : Routledge. [DOI]
2015
Jarrett, Kylie (2015) 'Devaluing Binaries: Marxist Feminism and the Value of Consumer Labour' In: RECONSIDERING VALUE AND LABOUR IN THE DIGITAL AGE. BASINGSTOKE : PALGRAVE.
2015
Jarrett, Kylie (2015) 'Let's Express Our Friendship by Sending Each Other Funny Links instead of Actually Talking: Gifts, Commodities, and Social Reproduction in Facebook' In: Networked Affect. Cambridge, MA : MIT Press.
2014
Jarrett, Kylie (2014) 'A Database of Intention?' In: Society of the Query Reader: Reflections on Web Search. Amsterdam : Institute of Network Cultures. http://networkcultures.org/wpmu/portal/publication/society-of-the-query-reader-reflections-on-web-search/
2009
Jarrett, Kylie (2009) 'Through An Interface Darkly: Consumer power and agency on the commercial Web' In: Ruggill,J.C., McAllister K. S. and Chaney, J. R(Eds.). The Computer Culture Reader. : Cambridge University Press.
2008
Hicks, Margaret and Kylie Jarrett (2008) 'Providing Induction, Orientation and Professional Development of all Staff Involved in Transnational Teaching' In: Teaching in Transnational Education: Enhancing learning for offshore and international students. New York : Routledge.
2006
Jarrett, Kylie (2006) 'The Perfect Community: Disciplining the eBay user' In: Everyday eBay: Culture, consumption and collecting online. New York : Routledge.
2004
Jarrett, Kylie (2004) 'Battlecat Then, Battlecat Now: Temporal shifts, hyperlinking and database subjectivities' In: Into the Blogosphere: Rhetoric, Community and Culture of Weblogs. Minnesota, MN : University of Minnesota. [Link][Full-Text]
Peer Reviewed Journal
Year
Publication
2022
Jarrett, K. (2022) 'Showing off your best assets: Rethinking commodification in the online creator economy'. Sociologia del lavoro, . [Link][DOI]
2019
Paasonen, Susanna, Ben Light and Kylie Jarrett (2019) 'The Dick Pic: Harassment, Curation, and Desire'. Social Media + Society, 5 . [DOI][Full-Text]
2018
Jarrett, Kylie (2018) 'Laundering women's history: A feminist critique of the social factory'. First Monday, 23 (3). [DOI][Full-Text]
2017
Jarrett, Kylie (2017) 'Le travail immatériel dans l’usine sociale: une critique féministe'. 13 :12-25. [Full-Text]
2016
Jarrett, Kylie (2016) 'Queering alienation in digital media'. First Monday, 21 (10). [DOI][Full-Text]
2016
Jarrett, Kylie and Dylan Wittkower (2016) 'Economies of the internet'. First Monday, 21 (10). [DOI][Full-Text]
2016
Jarrett, Kylie and Jeneen Naji (2016) 'What Would Media Studies Do? Social media Shakespeare as a technosocial process'. BORROWERS AND LENDERS: THE JOURNAL OF SHAKESPEARE AND APPROPRIATION, . [Link][Full-Text]
2014
Jarrett, Kylie (2014) 'The Relevance of Women's Work: Social Reproduction and Immaterial Labor in Digital Media'. Television and New Media, 15 (1):14-29. [DOI]
2014
Jarrett, Kylie (2014) 'The Alternative to Post-Hegemony: Reproduction and Austerity's Social Factory'. CULTURE UNBOUND: JOURNAL OF CURRENT CULTURAL RESEARCH, 6 (1). [DOI][Full-Text]
2008
Jarrett, Kylie (2008) 'Interactivity is evil! A critical investigation of web 2.0'. First Monday, 13 (3). [Full-Text]
2008
Jarrett, Kylie (2008) 'Beyond broadcast yourself (TM): The future of YouTube'. Media International Australia, 126 :132-144. [Full-Text]
2009
Jarrett, Kylie (2009) 'Private Talk in the Public Sphere: Podcasting talk as broadcasting talk'. COMMUNICATION, POLITICS AND CULTURE, 42 (2):116-135. [Full-Text]
Jarrett, Kylie (2003) 'Labour of Love: An archaeology of affect as power in e-commerce'. Sociology, 39 (4):335-351. [Full-Text]
Other Journal
Year
Publication
2020
Voros, Florian, Susanna Paasonen, Kylie Jarrett and Ben Light (2020) 'Puritanisme sexuel et capitalisme numérique: Entretien avec Susanna Paasonen, Kylie Jarrett, Ben Light'Revue Française de Socio-Économie, 25 (2) :167-174.
2018
Pencole, Marc-Antoine and Kylie Jarrett (2018) 'Des salaires pour facebooker » : du féminisme à la cyber exploitation – entretien avec Kylie Jarrett'Periode, . [Link]
2018
Jarrett, K and MA Pencole (2018) 'Kylie Jarrett: Feminism, Labor and Digital Media'Historical Materialism, . [Link]
Conference Publication
Year
Publication
2007
Wahlstrom, Kirsten, Sue Tyerman, Rebecca Witt and Kylie Jarrett (2007) Proceedings of the 2007 International Conference on Frontiers in Education Providing Experiential Learning through Transnational Teamwork
Conference Contribution
Year
Publication
2023
Jarrett, Kylie (2023) Creation, Commodification and Class: The Labour of Assetised Workers International Network of Digital Labor Berlin, 09/10/2023-11/10/2023.
2023
Jarrett, Kylie (2023) Understanding Workers in the Platform Economy: The Case of the Etsy Strike Political Economies of the Media: Theories and Methods Advanced Postgraduate Course Dubrovnik, Croatia, .
2023
Jarrett, Kylie (2023) The Assetised Subject: Commodification, assetisation, and labour struggle in the platform economy Institut de Systemes Complexes Paris, 01/06/2023-.
2023
Jarrett, Kylie (2023) Future of Work: Roundtable Discussion UCD Centre for Digital Policy UCD Centre for Digital Policy, 17/05/2023-.
2023
Jarrett, Kylie (2023) Intersectional Feminist Perspectives on Platform Work: Roundtable discussion Congreso Economia Feminista Barcelona, 16/03/2023-17/03/2023.
2023
Jarrett, Kylie (2023) Digital Platforms and Gender Relations: A New Space for Feminist Resistance newpolcom Workshop Series Royal Holloway University of London/onilne, 26/01/2023-26/01/2023.
2022
Jarrett, Kylie (2022) From Commodification to Assetisation: Reconciling the delights and disturbances of digital labour Digital Delights and Disturbances Lecture Series John Cabot University, Rome, Italy, 29/11/2022-29/11/2022.
2022
Jarrett, Kylie (2022) From Commodification to Assetisation: Understanding Creative Labour in the Digital Economy Creative People, Products and Places Seminar Series University of South Australia, 11/08/2022-11/08/2022.
2022
Jarrett, Kylie (2022) Work and Social Justice in Art, Craft and Design UAL dialogue seminar series London/online, 26/04/2022-26/04/2022.
2022
Jarrett, Kylie (2022) Showing Off Your Best Assets: Rethinking Commodification on OnlyFans Rajapinta Association seminar series Finland/online, 09/02/2022-09/02/2022.
2021
Jarrett, Kylie (2021) Crossing the Streams: Understanding the platform economy across the gendered divide Platform Labour in Urban Spaces project seminar series University of Hertfordshire, UK/online, 09/03/2021-09/03/2021.
2021
Jarrett, Kylie (2021) Cheap Digital Labour ST Global Knowledge in Action webinar Exploring Data and Labor in an Unequal World US/online, 29/03/2021-29/03/2021.
2021
Jarrett, Kylie (2021) What Money Can’t Buy: The Assetisation of Bella Thorne Digital Economies | Digital Intimacies NCAD/online, 29/04/2021-29/04/2021.
2021
Jarrett, Kylie (2021) Do the Hustle: Justifying Digital Labour Organização: Laboratório de Pesquisa DigiLabour (DigiLabour) seminar series Brazil/Online, 25/01/2021-25/01/2021.
2020
Jarrett, Kylie (2020) Hashtags, boundaries and sex: #NSFW social media and the policing of sexuality Digital Culture 2020: Boundaries University of Nottingham, UK - CANCELLED DUE TO COVID, 01/05/2020-02/05/2020.
2020
Jarrett, Kylie (2020) The Productivity of Social Reproduction: social reproduction theory as method for understanding work Gender ARC Univeristy of Limerick - CANCELLED DUE TO COVID, 01/04/2020-01/04/2020.
2020
Jarrett, Kylie (2020) Association of Internet Researchers: Life Annual conference of the Association of Internet Researchers Dublin - hosted online due to Covid, 26/10/2020-30/10/2020.
2020
Jarrett, Kylie (2020) Roundtable on Digital Labour Research Group on Collaborative Spaces Milan, 11/09/2020-11/09/2020.
Jarrett, Kylie (2019) Haters Gonna Hate: The Political Economy of Online Harassment Resisting Digital Culture: Dystopias, Distortions, Disconnections King's College London, 10/05/2019-10/05/2019.
2019
Jarrett, Kylie (2019) Drinking the Kool-Aid: Slashies, social reproduction and justification Critical Digital and Social Media Research Umeå, Sweden, 06/03/2019-08/03/2019.
2019
Jarrett, Kylie (2019) Affective Assets: Influencers and the Negotation of Commodification Assetization of Work: Varieties of Human Capital University of Sydney, Australia, 15/04/2019-16/04/2019.
2018
Jarrett, Kylie (2018) The Work of Not-Labour Theoretical Traditions and New Technologies International Symposium University of Paris-Nanterre, 20/06/2018-21/06/2018.
2018
Jarrett, Kylie (2018) Risk, Responsibility and Resentment: The Political Economy of Online Harassment Valente Centre for Arts and Sciences Visiting Fellowship Bentley University, 04/10/2018-04/10/2018.
2017
Jarrett, Kylie (2017) Geek Masculinity, Unprotected Settings and Cognitive Capitalism: The political economy of online harassment University of South Australia Hawke EU Centre Public Seminar University of South Australia, Adelaide, 24/10/2017-.
2017
Jarrett, Kylie (2017) The Value of ‘Er Indoors: Quantification, domestic work and discipline The Quantified Self in Precarity: Work, Technology and What Counts Middlesex University, London, 13/10/2017-.
2017
Jarrett, Kylie (2017) The Digital Housewife: Labour at the Intersection of Culture and Economy Digital Objects, Digital Subjects: An Interdisciplinary Symposium on Activism, Research & Critique in the Age of Big Data Capitalism University of Westminster, London, 20/05/2017-21/05/2017.
2017
Jarrett, Kylie (2017) Understanding Digital Labour: the exploited, the inalienable, the non-binary Understanding Audiences FuJo: The Institute for Future Media and Journalism, DCU, 07/12/2017-07/12/2017.
2016
Jarrett, Kylie (2016) Passions of the Social Factory: a Feminist Critique The Passions of Capitalism: Subjectivity in production and the production of subjectivity in contemporary capitalism Pavia, Italy, 21/03/2016-23/03/2016.
2016
Jarrett, Kylie (2016) Don’t Get Mad, Get Even: Regendering the laboring subject Media Cultures Research Cluster launch University Leicester, UK, .
2016
Jarrett, Kylie (2016) Marx is Not the Only Fruit: Queering the alienation thesis Cultural Studies & Critique Marxiste: Dialogues, Tensions, Confrontations Centre Pompidou, Paris, 30/06/2016-01/07/2016.
2016
Jarrett, Kylie (2016) Magdalen Laundries and the Digital Social Factory Glitch Festival RUA Red Gallery, Tallaght, .
2015
Jarrett, Kylie, Stephanie Rains, Maria Pramaggiore, Jorie Lagerwey, Emma Radley, Diane Negra (2015) Console-ing Passions Console-ing Passions Dublin, 18/06/2015-20/06/2015.
2014
Jarrett, Kylie (2014) Uses of Use-Value: A Marxist Feminist Contribution to Understanding Digital Media Virtual Work COST Action: Value in the Digital Age Tel Aviv, Israel, 15/06/2014-17/06/2014.
2013
Jarrett, Kylie (2013) Search for the Google God: Metaphysics and the Social Imaginary of Search Society of the Query 2 Amsterdam, 07/11/2013-08/11/2013.
2012
Jarrett, Kylie (2012) The Relevance of 'Women's Work' Crossroads: Assocation for Cultural Studies annual conference Paris, 02/07/2012-06/07/2012.
2011
Jarrett, Kylie (2011) Knowing Google: Understanding the power of search University of Salford graduate seminar Manchester, UK, .
2011
Jarrett, Kylie (2011) Knowing Google Dublin Business School Dublin, .
2010
Jarrett, Kylie (2010) Managing the Multiples: Understanding the Symbolic Power of Google 3rd Digital Cultures Workshop: Navigating Multiplicity University of Salford, UK, 01/07/2010-02/07/2010.
2008
Jarrett, Kylie (2008) Broadcasting the Neoliberal Self: YouTube, Agency and Power Video Vortex Ankara, Turkey, 09/10/2008-10/10/2008.
2009
Dr Kylie Jarrett (2009) It's Censorship, But Not as We Know It: Google and the Control of Information Centre for Media Studies, NUI Maynooth, Arts, Celtic Studies & Philosophy, An Foras Feasa, Dept. of Spanish Master class, .
Blog
Year
Publication
2021
The IFTe collective (2021) The Chain - an intersectional feminist Digital Humanities project. [Blog]
2020
do Nascimento Grohmann, Rafael and Kylie Jarrett (2020) Trabalho digital em lentes feministas marxistas: entrevista com Kylie Jarrett. [Blog] [Link]
Book Review
Year
Publication
2021
Jarrett, Kylie (2021) A Precarious Game: The Illusion of Dream Jobs in the Video Game Industry. LONDON: [Book Review] [DOI]
2019
Jarrett, Kylie (2019) Public privates: feminist geographies of mediated spaces. ABINGDON: [Book Review] [DOI]
2016
Jarrett, Kylie (2016) Putting the Inalienable to Work: Labour and Life in Contemporary Capitalism. [Book Review] [Link]
2016
Jarrett, Kylie (2016) Review: Uberworked and Underpaid. [Book Review] [Link]
2010
Jarrett, Kylie (2010) YouTube: Online video and participatory culture. [Book Review] [DOI][Full-Text]
University of Westminster Press Critical Digital and Social Media Studies series
Member of the Editorial Board
01/01/2016 -
Professional Associations
Description
Function
From / To
Association of Internet Researchers
Member
-
MUSSI
Associate member
-
Sexualities and Gender Research Network
Member
-
Technology and Society Research Network
Member
-
Political Economy of Work and Social Inequality Research Cluster
Member
-
Committees
Committee
Function
From / To
Graduate Education Committee
Faculty representative
01/01/2023 -
Equality, Diversity and Interculturalism
Department co-representative
01/09/2022 -
Academic Council
Faculty of Arts elected representative
01/05/2013 - 01/09/2017
Equality, Diversity and Interculturalism Committee
Member
01/01/2018 - 01/01/2019
Teaching Interests
I teach primarily in the areas of digital media and cultural theory, including the modules Social Media Storytelling, Media & Cultural Theory 1 and 2, Fans and Subcultures and the MA module Media Theory.
I am available to supervise projects in all areas relating to digital or social media but particularly research into political economy, platform work, digital labour and gendered aspects of digital industries and content.