Background
I am an academic writing, researching and teaching about the politics and political economy of fairer work futures. From January 2023 I will be Senior Lecturer in Politics and Director of Business Engagement & Innovation in the Department of Humanities & Social Sciences at University of Exeter’s Cornwall Campus, located in my hometown of Penryn. I am a Co-Investigator of the Economic & Social Research Council Centre for Sociodigital Futures, a Fellow of the Institute for the Future of Work, and Secretary of the British Universities Industrial Relations Association. I was previously a Senior Lecturer in the Work, Employment, Organisation & Public Policy group at University of Bristol Business School, where I led the Faculty of Social Sciences & Law Research Group for Perspectives on Work and founded the Bristol University Press online magazine Futures of Work.
Research Interests
With Andrew Pakes of the trade union Prospect, I am currently leading a Foundation for European Progressive Studies/Progressive Britain research programme on the Labour Party and the future of work. I was previously Principal Investigator on the Research England/Office for Students project “Politics and Perceptions of Automation Risk”. I am the author of five previous books: Marx in Management and Organisation Studies: Rethinking Value, Labour and Class Struggles (Routledge 2022); A World Beyond Work? Labour, Money and the Capitalist State Between Crisis and Utopia (Emerald, 2021, with Ana Dinerstein); Value (Polity, 2020); Corbynism: A Critical Approach (Emerald, 2018, with Matt Bolton) and Critiquing Capitalism Today: New Ways to Read Marx (Palgrave, 2017). With Julie Macleavy, I am currently editing the Routledge Handbook for the Future of Work.
Research articles
Pitts FH (2022) Contemporary class composition analysis: The politics of production and the autonomy of the political. Capital & Class, online first. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/03098168221139284
Pitts FH (2022) Measuring and Managing Creative Labour: Value Struggles and Billable Hours in the Creative Industries. Organization. 29(6): 1081–1098. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1350508420968187
Thompson P, Pitts FH, Ingold J, Cruddas J (2022) Class Composition, Labour’s Strategy & the Politics of Work. Political Quarterly 93(1):142-149. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1467-923X.13097
Thompson P, Pitts FH, Ingold J (2021) A Strategic Left? Starmerism, Pluralism and the Soft Left. Political Quarterly 92(1):32-39 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1467-923X.12940
Pitts FH (2020) Measuring and Managing Creative Labour: Value Struggles and Billable Hours in the Creative Industries. Organization, online first https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1350508420968187
Cruddas J, Pitts FH (2020) The Politics of Postcapitalism: Labour & Our Digital Futures. Political Quarterly 91(2):275-286 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1467-923X.12853
Lombardozzi L, Pitts FH (2020) Social Reproduction, Social Form and Social Policy: Basic Income, Basic Services, Basic Infrastructure. Capital & Class. 44(4):573-594 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0309816819873323
Pitts FH, Jean E, Clarke Y (2020) Sonifying the quantified self: Rhythmanalysis and performance research in and against the reduction of life-time to labour-time. Capital & Class, 44(2):219-240 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0309816819873370
Books
Pitts FH (2022) Marx in Management and Organisation Studies: Rethinking Value, Labour and Class Struggles. Abingdon: Routledge. https://www.routledge.com/Marx-in-Management-and-Organisation-Studies-Rethinking-Value-Labour-and/Pitts/p/book/9781032057248
Dinerstein AC, Pitts FH (2021) A World Beyond Work: Labour, Money & the Capitalist State Between Crisis & Utopia. Bingley: Emerald. https://books.emeraldinsight.com/page/detail/A-World-Beyond-Work/?k=9781787691469
Pitts FH (2020) Value (What is Political Economy?). Cambridge: Polity https://politybooks.com/bookdetail/?isbn=9781509535651&subject_id=1
Book chapters
Zanoni P, Pitts FH (2022) Inclusion through the platform economy? The ‘diverse’ crowd as relative surplus populations and the pauperization of labour. In I Ness (ed) Routledge Handbook of the Gig Economy. Routledge, 33-46. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003161875-4/inclusion-platform-economy-patrizia-zanoni-frederick-harry-pitts
Dinerstein AC, Pitts FH (2022) Prefiguration and the Futures of Work. In L Monticelli (ed), The Future is Now: An Introduction to Prefigurative Politics. Bristol University Press, 93-105. https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/the-future-is-now-an-introduction-to-prefigurative-politics
Pitts FH, Jean E, Clarke Y (2022) Rhythmanalysis, Concrete Abstraction and the Quantified Self: Sonification and Performance Research as Remediation of Data. In D Lyon (ed) Rhythmanalysis (Research in Urban Sociology). Emerald, 209-226. https://books.emeraldinsight.com/page/detail/Rhythmanalysis/?k=9781839099731
Cecchinato ME, Gould S, Pitts FH (2021) Self-Tracking & Sousveillance at Work: Insights from Human-Computer Interaction & Social Science. In Moore P, Woodcock J (eds) Augmented Exploitation: Artificial Intelligence, Automation & Work. London: Pluto, 127-137 https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745343495/augmented-exploitation/
Bolton M, Pitts FH (2020). The Rigged System and the Real Economy: Corbynism, Antisemitism and Productivist Critiques of Capitalism. In A Alietti, & D Padovan (Eds.), Clockwork Enemy: Xenophobia & Racism in the Era of Neo-populism. Milan: Mimesis. 187-220 http://mimesisinternational.com/interregnum-between-biopolitics-and-posthegemony-3-2-2-3/
Policy publications
Pakes A, Pitts FH (2022) Labour and the Past, Present and Future of Work. Progressive Britain/Foundation for European Progressive Studies. https://www.progressivebritain.org/labour-and-the-past-present-and-future-of-work/
Coworking and the Future of Work – Extending the Debate Research and Stakeholder Workshop – 21-22 October 2022, Brighton
Are you doing research on any aspect of coworking and coworking spaces and the future of work?
Researchers present at BUIRA conference 2022
Digit researchers discuss their work at the BUIRA Annual Conference
5 successful awards of the Digit Innovation Fund
The Digital Futures at Work Research Centre (Digit) is pleased to announce the outcome of the 1st round of the Digit Innovation Fund.