The Rhetoric and Realities of Internet Technologies on Trade Union Marketing: Marketing, Communications, Resistance

Introduction

This paper explores the manner in which the Internet, and the platform it represents for multiple technologies (for example, social media, Web 2.0, Web 3.0), connects with the activities and goals of Trade Unions (TU). TUs protect and advance member interests, and, negotiate with managerial and organizational representatives in a contemporary context characterised by increasing managerial and organizational power (sic: managerialism) and, certainly often in the UK context, weakening TU membership (Hodder et al, 2017). Interestingly, aligned with this, TUs are often considered as kindred domains of, or aligned with, particular political parties and their memberships. Indeed, a priori, it might be suggested that political parties, which conventionally have highly sophisticated Internet and social media management, might provide valuable opportunities for TUs to learn valuable lessons. It is important to recognise at an early point in the argument that the TU world is a rich and varied one and it is not the purpose, or intention, of the present argument to summarise or provide a cross-cultural comparative. Rather the present paper drills down to a particular set of focal issues in the United Kingdom in a particular area of the service sector. However, it is important to signal that potential lessons may be available for wider contexts from the present research.

As alluded to above, the Internet is an umbrella term pointing at an amalgam of social media and applications including, for example, what are termed ‘Web 2.0’ and ‘Web 3.0’. Web 2.0 features and functions have been available for most of 21^st century however Web 3.0, while not an entirely new generation of technology in itself, is emerging as a configuration of new patterns and ways of using the Internet sic: the World-Wide-Web (WWW). These new forms of usage include, by way of illustration, artificial intelligence, advancements in understanding semantic relationships and connections in data, machine learning and personalization (Tkach et al, 2017). While, in the earlier Web 1.0, a large number of websites and webpages provided content for the user to read and consume in a passive manner, Web 2.0 encourages and facilitates the user to interact with sites and other users connected with it. Furthermore, Web 3.0 holds the promise of an ever more connected, intelligent, smarter web of data, combined with personalized and customized services to users. Given the inexorable technological advances which are encountering intensifying 21^st century labour relation dynamics this leads to the following research question:

The paper proceeds in the following manner. First, the paper considers the extant literature on the Internet (in particular relation to Web 2.0 and Web 3.0) and relates this to TUs. The argument then introduces the concept of technological determinism and surfaces surrounding issues of managerial power and TU member resistance exploring the ‘lived experience’ of Internet technologies in quotidian workplace settings (Van Manen, 2016). The paper invokes the notion and conceptual framework of communities of practice in order to frame and contextualise the exploration. The argument then builds a methodology and a mini-case study in order to explore and exemplify these issues and presents insights and implications regarding alternative castings of the Internet in relation to TUs.