ABSTRACT
This chapter documents the intersection of Autonomist Marxism and digital media. It explores three key concepts the centrality of immaterial labour, multitude and the social factory and it then places the labouring consumer within those contexts. The consumer, is not yet the Digital Housewife. The chapter argues that, feminist perspectives and insights relating to domestic work are neglected in this analysis. Nevertheless, to understand the Digital Housewife requires outlining the dominant theoretical concepts being applied to consumer labour, which means we must begin by understanding Autonomist Marxist thought. It traces the marginalisation of feminist thinking in contemporary Marxist approaches and the limitations of contemporary applications of the social factory concept. The intention is not to discard the concepts of the social factory, immaterial labour or multitude, but to change the conceptualisation of their dynamics, expanding the definition of what constitutes productive activity and so to interrogate more holistically how consumers contribute to capitalism.
