Antonio A. Casilli is full professor of sociology at the Telecommunications school (Telecom Paris) of the Institute Polytechnique de Paris. He is a by-fellow at Churchill College, University of Cambridge, and a visiting scholar at the Centre Internet and Society (CIS) of the French National Centre for the Scientific Research (CNRS) for the year 2024. He is an associate researcher of the “Data, algorithmic Systems and Ethics” research group at the Weizenbaum-Institut, Berlin.
Research
His main research foci are social networks, digital platforms, and digital labor. He has conducted fieldworks in Africa, Europe, Asia, and Latin America, and coordinated several international research projects. He is the co-founder of the DiPLab (Digital Platform Labor) research program and of INDL (International Network on Digital Labor).
Publications
In addition to several scientific publications in French, English, and Italian, he is the author of the book Waiting for Robots. The Hired Hands of Automation, University of Chicago Press, 2024 (updated edition of his award-winning En attendant les robots, Éditions du Seuil, 2019), an inquiry into the working conditions of underpaid humans who make artificial intelligence possible. His previous books include: Trabajo, conocimiento y vigilancia ([Work, Knowledge, and Surveillance], Editorial del Estado, 2018), a collection of 5 essays on technology and society; Le phénomène “pro-ana” ([The ‘Pro-Ana Phenomenon); Presses des Mines, 2016; with P. Tubaro), a book about e-health, online censorship, and problematic speech in social networks. Qu’est-ce que le digital labor? ([What is digital labor?], Editions de l’INA, 2015; with D. Cardon), a double-headed essay on how digital platforms change the way we work; Against the Hypothesis of the End of Privacy (Springer, 2014; with P. Tubaro and Y. Sarabi), a socio-computational pamphlet about the blurred lines between public and private in social media; Les liaisons numériques ([Digital relationships]; Éditions du Seuil, 2010), an investigation on how the Web reconfigures social behavior; Stop Mobbing (DeriveApprodi, 2000; reprint 2001), an inquiry into communicational violence in cognitive capitalism; La Fabbrica Libertina (Manifesto Libri, 1997; 2nd edition 2000), “a marxist/cyborg reading of the links between industrialism and sadism”. (See the complete list of his publications)
Media features
He stirs up international media (Le Monde, Libération, Il Corriere, Domani, France Télévisions, Arte, BBC, Wired, Times of India…), in 2020 he was the editorial adviser for “Invisibles – Les travailleurs du clic“, a documentary series for France Televisions, based on his work. He tweets heavily as @AntonioCasilli.