TY - JOUR

T1 - #Knowyourworth: How influencers commercialise meaningful work

AU - Trittin-Ulbrich, Hannah

AU - Glozer, Sarah

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2024.

PY - 2024/12

Y1 - 2024/12

N2 - Studies of meaningful work have proposed that work that holds personal significance and meaning can transcend pay. But how can workers who do not want, or cannot afford, to sacrifice pay for meaning commercialise their work to realise its market worth? We explore this question in the context of social media influencers who participated in the InfluencerPayGap community (an Instagram profile established in 2020 to expose pay disparities in the influencer industry). Combining concepts of worth from the meaningful work literature with a sociological theory of valuation, we identify three enrichment narratives engaged with by influencers to circumvent expectations of performing free labour. Besides illuminating how influencers construct and connect the personal worth of their work with its market worth, we show how these narratives of authenticity, relationality and quantification involve a ‘double loop of enrichment’. Consisting in the interplay between influencers’ own sense of the worth of their work and feedback from their followers and the algorithms of social media platforms, this loop can reinforce and transform but also undermine influencers’ perceptions of the worth and meaning of their work. Our findings contribute to a greater understanding of meaningful work and the valuation of work in non-traditional work contexts.

AB - Studies of meaningful work have proposed that work that holds personal significance and meaning can transcend pay. But how can workers who do not want, or cannot afford, to sacrifice pay for meaning commercialise their work to realise its market worth? We explore this question in the context of social media influencers who participated in the InfluencerPayGap community (an Instagram profile established in 2020 to expose pay disparities in the influencer industry). Combining concepts of worth from the meaningful work literature with a sociological theory of valuation, we identify three enrichment narratives engaged with by influencers to circumvent expectations of performing free labour. Besides illuminating how influencers construct and connect the personal worth of their work with its market worth, we show how these narratives of authenticity, relationality and quantification involve a ‘double loop of enrichment’. Consisting in the interplay between influencers’ own sense of the worth of their work and feedback from their followers and the algorithms of social media platforms, this loop can reinforce and transform but also undermine influencers’ perceptions of the worth and meaning of their work. Our findings contribute to a greater understanding of meaningful work and the valuation of work in non-traditional work contexts.

KW - enrichment

KW - meaningful work

KW - narrative analysis

KW - social media influencer

KW - valuation

KW - worth

KW - Management studies

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85183856862&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/9cae597f-c0ca-3ff6-ad29-cce8d0d168d7/

U2 - 10.1177/00187267231220260

DO - 10.1177/00187267231220260

M3 - Journal articles

AN - SCOPUS:85183856862

VL - 77

SP - 1811

EP - 1843

JO - Human Relations

JF - Human Relations

SN - 0018-7267

IS - 12

ER -