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An ESRC Research Programme
the social science of electronic technologies
1
ON THE POVERTY OF A PRIORISM: TECHNOLOGY, SURVEILLANCE IN THE WORKPLACE AND EMPLOYEE
REPONSESDavid Mason, Graham Button, Gloria Lankshear
and Sally Coates
University of Plymouth and XRCE
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An ESRC Research Programme
the social science of electronic technologies
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A priori assumptions in the study of workplace surveillance
• Technology decisively influences organisational function and development
• The employment relationship is intrinsically conflictual and oppositional
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An ESRC Research Programme
the social science of electronic technologies
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Characteristic features of the debate
• Empowerment versus disempowerment
• Compliance versus resistance
• Private versus organisational goals
• Speculation vs evidence
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An ESRC Research Programme
the social science of electronic technologies
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Towards empirical test and specification
Technology, work and surveillance: organisational
goals, privacy and resistance
An ESRC funded project
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An ESRC Research Programme
the social science of electronic technologies
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Project aims and design
• Surveillance-capable technology
• How it’s used
• How it’s viewed
• How it’s responded to
• Organisational goals or privacy?
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An ESRC Research Programme
the social science of electronic technologies
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Work and surveillance - what’s new?
• Monitoring as management necessity
• Surveillance and exploitation
• Surveillance, control and power
• Work intensity and the ‘bottom line’
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An ESRC Research Programme
the social science of electronic technologies
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Using surveillance capability
• Why do it?
• Why fear it?
• Why resist it?
• Private aims and organisational goals
• Is trust the key?
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An ESRC Research Programme
the social science of electronic technologies
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Emergent results
• A continuum of surveillance-capable technologies• Context determines nature and degree of utilisation• Utilisation is problem-focused rather then routine• Employees’ responses are context bound• Little evidence that privacy is an issue exercising
respondents
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An ESRC Research Programme
the social science of electronic technologies
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Conclusions
• There is a need for more empirical studies
• A priori assumptions inhibit the analysis of actual social relations
• The use of, and responses to, surveillance capable technology is socially contextual