ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the significance of self-sourcing, which it defines as the intensification of the process of transferring work from the sphere of production, where it is visible and paid, to the sphere of consumption, where it is invisible and unpaid. Self-sourcing is a relatively unnoticed basis for the growth of business profits even as average wages and salaries decline; it is an important contributor to unemployment and under employment. The growth of self-service online transactions and the technological upgrading of self-service everywhere can be experienced as self-empowering. The concept of self-sourcing, calls attention to the significance of these applications of information technologies; they not only restructure occupations through the blurring of job descriptions but displace paid labor with unpaid labor. Self-sourcing is an important aspect of the "hollowing out" of the job market, which entails the creation of jobs at the top and the bottom of the occupational structure, while the jobs in the middle are increasingly self-sourced.
