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Political Economy of mobile technologies in everyday work and life
Joan GreenbaumProfessor Emerita
City University of New York
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Now
• Professor Emerita::Graduate Center• Environmental Psychology• New Media Lab• Interactive Technology and Pedagogy
• Co-Chair PSC-CUNY (AFT local 2334)• Environmental & Occupational Health and
Safety
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Some history::personal and politicalIn the Name of Efficiency (79)Braverman plus standardization of computer workers•Simplification•Standardization•Substitution•Separation•Severance & resistance
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Participatory Design 1991An admission & confession
Design ≠ Production
Worker-oriented computer system development
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Labor process 1994 & 2004
Standardization of ‘knowledge work’&Labor embedded inSoftware
in IT & theinternet
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Some take away messages
• Taylor’s separation of head and hands +
• Braverman’s analysis of labor process +
• Standardization of services as commodities +
• Standardization of software, firmware
• +
Deregulation +Culture of capitalism =
Work ≠ placePay ≠ timeWork relations ≠
employment relations
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Signs of the times
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Tale of two labor processesUniversity labor
split employment relations
‘Digital Squatters’ semi-severed employment relations
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Academic labor
Tech enablers+Email+ Courseware (Course
Management Systems)+websites+Textbook commodities+ e learning +standard course units+…
Shadow workload> class size>student supervision>Committees>Publishing>Grant writing>expectations> …
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Academic labor market< tenure (stability)>Part time< stability< lower wages< fewer positions>bifurcated positions>assault on unions
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Embodied laborLonger hoursGetting it done
deadlinesThroat problemsHeadachesNeck and back problemsLack of sleep…
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Right?
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Severed labor::’digital squatters’
• The practice of everyday life without
• formal employment…
• A place to be• A place to meet• A place to share
Meaning making
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Out of the workplace
• “I’m working on”…– Grant writing– Composing– School applications– Job applications– Getting a job– Researching jobs– Writing a book– Taking a meeting– …
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Internalized controls and responses
• CONTROL• Embedded bureaucratic
management in mind and body
• Time• deadlines• Pressure• Expectations• routine
REPONSESAppropriating place(s)
• ‘stealing’ work time• Clothing choices• No commuting• Attempts to balance dry
cleaning and childcare• Social networks
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Political economy of mobile technologies
• The Triad Mobile phone
Laptop/ipad
Ear buds/ipod
Software/hardware/firmware with embedded labor relations & controls
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Production of mobile technologies
• Monopolistic corporate control• Subcontracting/outsourcing production• Unsafe, very low wage labor conditions• Unsafe, very low wage mining conditions– Lead, cadmium, beryllium, PCBs, PVCs
• Unsafe, e-waste disposal
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Production of software & firmware
• Monopolistic control of production/price• Outsourced labor processes• Separation of code from content• Separation of design from content• Buyout of small ‘shops’ into large firms (‘99 &
now)• Some bifurcation of labor processes (until
larger controls get put in place)
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“American Progress” ( oil) John Gast 1972
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What?
• What’s SKILL got to do with it?
• COMPETENCE is just another word for nothing left to loose
• Where have all the KNOWLEDGE WORKERS gone?.....
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Some selected (non labor process) references
• De Certau, M. The practice of everyday life, 1984• Havey, D. The enigma of capital, 2011• Latour, B. Reassembling the Social, 2005• McCarthy J. & Wright, P. Technology as Experience,
2004• Low, S. & Altman, Place Attachments, 1992• Suchman, L. Human-Machine reconfigurations, 2007• Tuan, Y.F., Space and place, 1977• Urry, J.Mobilities, 2007• Yates, M. Naming the system, 2003