Political Economy of mobile technologies in everyday work and life Joan Greenbaum Professor 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 political In the Name of Efficiency (79) Braverman plus standardization of computer workers Simplification Standardization Substitution Separation Severance & resistance

Participatory Design 1991 An admission & confession Design Production Worker-oriented computer system development

Labor process 1994 & 2004 Standardization of knowledge work & Labor embedded in Software in IT & the internet

Some take away messages Taylors separation of head and hands + Bravermans analysis of labor process + Standardization of services as commodities + Standardization of software, firmware + Deregulation + Culture of capitalism = Work place Pay time Work relations employment relations

Signs of the times

Tale of two labor processes University labor split employment relations Digital Squatters semi-severed employment relations

Academic labor Tech enablers + + 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 labor Longer hours Getting it done deadlines Throat problems Headaches Neck and back problems Lack 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 Im 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 REPONSES Appropriating place(s) stealing work time Clothing choices No commuting Attempts to balance dry cleaning and childcare Social networks

Political economy of mobile technologies The TriadMobile phone Laptop/ipad Ear buds/ipod Software/hardware/firmwa re 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? Whats 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