Description

This work explores the ACM (cybersex) industry in the Philippines. It pioneers research in several interlinked areas: economics, labour relations, sexuality, globalization, digital technology, and Asia. It specifically identifies the economic piecework relations of a new global industry; the commoditization of sexuality & (emotional) labour by cyber-technology; and injects new ideas into debates about cultural & economic globalization. Here I document the labour relations of ACMs & the impact of digital technology & globalization.
While ACM-ing provides new employment opportunities for young, unskilled Filipinas, economic, cultural & digital factors have also enabled exploitation through piecework, & thus further entrenched the economic & "digital divide".
This initial study raises more questions than it answers. Nevertheless, it directs us to a contemporary form of economic exploitation of vulnerable populations using an old form of labour relations prevalent in the 18thC. The new ACM "cottage industry" of the 21stC uses digital technology to connect the local & global economies (glocalization), effecting changes in sexual cultures & the meaning of commoditization. It questions and expands (neo)-Marxist analyses of labour, highlighting the commoditization of labour, emotions, Filipinas, and sexuality.