New Books in Sociology Robert Dorschel, "The Social Codes of Tech Workers: Class Identity in Digital Capitalism" (MIT Press, 2025)
Jan 20, 2026
Robert Dorschel, Assistant Professor in Digital Sociology at Cambridge and author of The Social Codes of Tech Workers, draws on extensive interview fieldwork. He explores who counts as tech workers and their distinctive subjectivities. Short takes cover their critical reflexivity, classed self-understandings, everyday lifestyles, firms' co-optation of values, and AI’s potential impact on middle-class work.
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Who Fits The Tech Worker Label
- Robert Dorschel recounts that tech workers include product managers and UX designers alongside programmers and AI engineers.
- He notes these groups share task jurisdiction that secures higher wages and control over work processes.
Who Counts As A Tech Worker
- Tech workers are defined as professionals who program, design, and manage digital technologies with secured task jurisdiction and middle/upper-middle class wages.
- They differ from entrepreneurs and precarious gig workers by having control over their work process and stable professional roles.
Entrepreneurial Versus Organizational Self
- The entrepreneurial self centers autonomy, creativity, flexibility, networked careers, and accepts precariousness for self-fulfillment.
- This contrasts with the earlier organizational self that traded loyalty for job security and collective orientation.
