"Technology has sped up the world of retail clothing, rushing affordable, trendy garments to consumers and enriching multinational retail giants like Zara and H&M. But beneath the success of fast fashion, there is a grimmer story to be told—that of people who do the actual producing and selling. Working undercover in two of the world’s largest fast fashion stores in New York City, Madison Van Oort observed firsthand how data and surveillance shape the lives of low-status workers in an industry in flux—and how these workers are fighting back. Worn Out provides an on-the-ground look at how technology helps create this just-in-time workforce, how feminized and racialized workers experience and respond to new forms of digital control, and how collective struggles for racial, gender, and economic justice in and around retail spaces inform these workers’ resistance."
Introduction -- How Fashion Became Fast -- Algorithmic Scheduling, Unstable Lives -- The Automated Heart: Digitization of Service Work -- How Retailers Use New Technologies to Surveil Workers -- Retail Disruptions: Confronting Digital Surveillance -- Conclusion: Refashioning the Future of Work..
