Labor, digital farming, and the politics of affect: Getting closer to the feeling of work, leisure, and distinction in cloud-based countrysides

This paper presents a novel approach to how agrifood scholars have historically addressed the issue of labor. By employing feminist affect theory and qualitative participant observation data from farms using digital farm management platforms across various US states, the findings reveal the interrelated politics of affect across farm activities and experiences. I do this by observing respondents in both “work” and “leisure,” which represents a methodological innovation, as much of the research on digital platforms in agriculture centers on how these platforms affect work-related experiences and identities. The argument begins by synthesizing critical phenomenology, feminist affect theory, and labor studies, followed by a review of the methods used for data collection. The findings explore the politics of emotion through concepts including care, leisure, control, autonomy, human, non-human, self, and others. The results of this analysis decenter much of what we thought we knew about the relationalities that constitute Agriculture 4.0 and open the door to new research questions as we explore what it means to work with and be differentiated by cloud-based practices.