Background
I research, teach and write about the politics of work futures. I am based in the Work, Employment, Organisation & Public Policy group at University of Bristol School of Management, where I am Theme Champion for Work Futures, lead the Faculty of Social Sciences & Law Research Group for Perspectives on Work and co-edit the Bristol University Press online magazine Futures of Work. I am a Fellow of the Institute for the Future of Work and an Associate Fellow of the Economic & Social Research Council Digital Futures at Work Research Centre. I hold a PhD in Social & Policy Sciences from the University of Bath, and Masters degrees in Global Political Economy and Critical Global Politics from the University of Bath and University of Exeter. I am Principal Investigator on the ESRC Digit Innovation Fund project “Co-working spaces and the urban ecosystem: the future of co-working post-Covid-19”.
Research Interests
I am the author of four books: 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). My work is specifically addressed to debates in the UK Labour Party. With Jon Cruddas MP, I edited a special issue of Political Quarterly on “Postcapitalism and the Politics of Work”, featuring Lisa Nandy MP and Paul Mason. My commentary on policymaking, political economy and the politics of work has been widely featured and covered in media outlets including the Guardian, the Times, the Economist and the Financial Times. I have collaborated with organisations across the private, public and third sectors, including multinational corporations, local authorities, trades unions, government agencies, SMEs, social enterprises, pressure groups and policymakers.
Research articles
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
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
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/
Researchers present at BUIRA conference 2022
Digit researchers discuss their work at the BUIRA Annual Conference
Digit researchers organise coworking workshop – Postponed – Date TBD
Digit researcher Ödül Bozkurt and associate fellow Harry Pitts are organising on workshop on Coworking and the Future of Work in Brighton, date TBD.