Hi Nettimers,
I've got a book coming out in a couple weeks that might be of interest to you. In a sentence...
Automation is a Myth moves from machine minders in China to warehouse pickers in the United
States to explore the ways that new technologies do (and don't)
reconfigure labor.
The Stanford page has a longer description:
For some, automation will usher in a labor-free utopia; for others, it
signals a disastrous age-to-come. Yet whether seen as dream or
nightmare, automation, argues Munn, is ultimately a fable that rests on a
set of triple fictions. There is the myth of full autonomy,
claiming that machines will take over production and supplant humans.
But far from being self-acting, technical solutions are piecemeal; their
support and maintenance reveals the immense human labor behind
"autonomous" processes. There is the myth of universal automation,
with technologies framed as a desituated force sweeping the globe. But
this fiction ignores the social, cultural, and geographical forces that
shape technologies at a local level. And, there is the myth of automating everyone,
the generic figure of "the human" at the heart of automation claims.
But labor is socially stratified and so automation's fallout will be
highly uneven, falling heavier on some (immigrants, people of color,
women) than others. Munn moves from machine minders in China to
warehouse pickers in the United States to explore the ways that new
technologies do (and don't) reconfigure labor. Combining this rich array
of human stories with insights from media and cultural studies, Munn
points to a more nuanced, localized, and racialized understanding of the
"future of work."
Very proud of how this one turned out, so happy to field questions or give a talk on the book to students, etc if you are teaching or researching around this space.
It's available to pre-order now, and supply chains have slowed a little with COVID, so I'd recommend that if you're interested in it.
best,
Luke
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Tāmaki Makaurau, Aotearoa New Zealand