ACROSS THE 'POST‐INDUSTRIAL' DIVIDERearticulating the Factory as an Object of Inquiry in History and Anthropology

workshop@re:work

IGK Work and Human Life Cycle in Global History Georgenstr. 23, 10117 Berlin Thursday, 3rd May 2018, 10:30-17:30

Adrian Grama Alina-Sandra CucuAndré Weißenfels

Anna Sailer Christian Strümpell Dimitra Kofti

Hannah Ahlheim Marcia SchenckMichael Hoffmann Organisers: Participants:

Görkem Akgöz Nico Pizzolato

Attendance is free but registration is required at: goo.gl/a3orhh

 

Acrossthe'Post‐Industrial'Divide:RearticulatingtheFactoryasanObjectofInquiryinHistoryand

Anthropology

Workshopatre:workIGKWorkandHumanLifecycleinGlobalHistory,HumboldtUniversity,Berlin

Georgenstr.23,10117BerlinThursday,3rdMay2018

Organisers:GörkemAkgöz(re:work,HumboldtUniversity,Berlin)&

NicolaPizzolato(MiddlesexUniversityLondon)

This workshop aims to bring together historians and anthropologists to discuss newresearch that chooses the factory as a unit of analysis. The focus is on inquiring newmethodologicalandepistemologicalperspectiveson thesubject inorder toexplore thehistorical and contemporary dynamics of capitalism at the point of production in aninterdisciplinaryfashion.Theworkshopaimstoinitiatedacollaborative,interdisciplinaryconversationpreliminarytothepreparationofathematicissueonfactoryasanobjectofinquirytobesubmittedtojournalssuchasHistory&AnthropologyorInternationalLaborandWorking‐ClassHistory. Participants to theworkshopwill contribute to establishanagenda forresearch, the themes tobeexplored in the issueand invited tosubmit theirpapersforconsideration.The factory along with the industrial worker once loomed large in nationalhistoriographies, the formeras theemblematic locusof industrialization, the latterasacollectivehistoricalagentthatwouldbringaboutprogressivechangethroughindustrialactionandpoliticalmobilization.After the1980s,and forageneration,bothseemed tohave disappeared from historians’ agenda, relegated to the backwaters of scholarship.Afterthewaveofde‐industrializationandfactoryrelocationthatcharacterizedwesterneconomies,manufacturingwashistory,wewere told, and, accordingly, the factory as aworkplaceandfactoryworkasaspecificformofwagelabourseemedtohavelosttheirrelevance.However, in spite of the pervasive narratives of a ‘post‐industrial society’ and of anallencompassing‘knowledgeeconomy’,notonlymanufacturinghasnotdisappearedbutalsothefactoryasamodeloforganisationofproductionhasbeenarguablyadoptedby

other fields such as the service sector (call centres) and logistics and distribution(warehouses) where workers are highly regimented and constantly gauged againststatistical performance standards, primarily speed. These workplaces adopt Tayloristpractices that once characterized factory production, such as the strategic use oftechnology tocontrol thepaceofworkingand the fragmentationandmechanizationoftasks todeskillworkers.Manufacturing in theGDPofmanymiddle‐incomedevelopingeconomies has been rising. Furthermore, not only did the relocation of industrialproductioncreatemorefactory jobs indevelopingeconomies,but factoriesstillexist incountrieswithlongerindustrialhistories,althoughoftenofftheradarofscholarsandthemedia. One of the emblematic cases of the relocation ofmanufacturing, the TaiwanesemultinationalcompanyFoxconnhassetupshopsinCentralandEasternEurope,aregionwhichhasdevelopedintothesecond‐tiergloballocationintheelectronicsindustry,justbehindEastAsia.Relatedtothis,thefactoryasnexusintransnationalnetworkssuchascommoditychainsandcommodityflowsisanimportantvantagepointfortheempiricalstudyofhowglobalcapitalismmateriallyconnectsdistant localitiesandpeople intoanintegratedprocess.Thislandscapeexplainstherecentrevivalofinterestinfactoriesamonglabourhistoriansand anthropologists which deserves our attention, as well as the theoretical andmethodologicalinsightsadvancedinthehistoriographicalandanthropologicaldebatesofthelastdecades.Bothanthropologyandhistorystudythemeaningoffactoriesrootedintimeandplaceanditshightimetoinitiateadialogueabouttheirinsights,methodsandanalyticalperspectives.Weinvitehistoriansandanthropologiststoreassesstogethertheirresearchquestionsandconceptualvocabularyregardingthe factories to identify theunder‐researchedareas inbothdisciplinesandhowtomoveforwardtheconversationinaninterdisciplinaryway.Weproposethefollowingnon‐exhaustivesetofquestionsasastartingpoint:Inwhatwaysarethedifferentmethodsofhistoryandanthropologyproduceknowledgeonfactories?Howdowesetthebordersofourresearchonafactory/factoriesdifferentlyinhistoryandanthropology?What kind of cross‐fertilization has there been in the last four decadesbetweenthehistoricalandanthropologicalstudyofthefactory?Howdoesafactory‐levelanalysis informlargerquestionsaboutthehistoryofcapitalism?Whatarethedifferentsocial and symbolicmeanings of the factory for various social agents in andout of thefactory?Whatarethedifferentformsofinteractionbetweenafactoryanditssurroundingaswellasthefactoryandthesocialinstitutionsconnectedtoit?Howdotheinteractionsbetween the local and the global play out in the factory? How does the production ofdifferenceandindifferenceoccurinandaroundthefactory?Howis"thefactory"producedasapoliticalobjectattheintersectionbetweenproductionandsocialreproduction?

 

 

Programme 10:30‐11:00Introduction:SettingtheScene:InvestigatingtheFactoryinHistoryandAnthropologyNicolaPizzolato(MiddlesexUniversityLondon)andAlina‐SandraCucu(re:work)11:00‐13:00Roundtable1:TheFactoryasanObjectofInquiryinHistoryChair:Alina‐SandraCucu(re:work)AdrianGrama(UniversitätRegensburg)MarciaSchenck(re:work)HannahAhlheim(re:work)AnnaSailer(CenterforModernIndianStudies,Göttingen)13:00‐14:00LunchBreak14:00‐16:00Roundtable2:TheFactoryasanObjectofInquiryinAnthropologyChair:GörkemAkgöz(re:work)MichaelHoffman(re:work)DimitraKofti(MaxPlanckInstituteforSocialAnthropology)AndreWeißenfels(BerlinGraduateSchoolMuslimCulturesandSocieties)ChristianStrümpell(UniversitätHamburg)16:15‐17:15PlenaryDiscussionandConclusionsThePersistenceoftheFactory:TowardsanInterdisciplinaryAnalysis?