political economy of mobile technologies in everyday work and life joan greenbaum professor emerita...

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