Political Economy of mobile technologies in everyday work and life

Joan GreenbaumProfessor Emerita

City University of New York

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

Some history::personal and politicalIn the Name of Efficiency (79)Braverman plus standardization of computer workers•Simplification•Standardization•Substitution•Separation•Severance & resistance

Participatory Design 1991An admission & confession

Design ≠ Production

Worker-oriented computer system development

Labor process 1994 & 2004

Standardization of ‘knowledge work’&Labor embedded inSoftware

in IT & theinternet

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

Signs of the times

Tale of two labor processesUniversity labor

split employment relations

‘Digital Squatters’ semi-severed employment relations

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> …

Academic labor market< tenure (stability)>Part time< stability< lower wages< fewer positions>bifurcated positions>assault on unions

Embodied laborLonger hoursGetting it done

deadlinesThroat problemsHeadachesNeck and back problemsLack of sleep…

Right?

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

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– …

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

Political economy of mobile technologies

• The Triad Mobile phone

Laptop/ipad

Ear buds/ipod

Software/hardware/firmware with embedded labor relations & controls

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

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)

“American Progress” ( oil) John Gast 1972

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?.....

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