Automation Is a Myth

Luke Munn (Autor)

Buch | Hardcover

184 Seiten

2022
Stanford University Press (Verlag)
978-1-5036-3111-3 (ISBN)

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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."

Luke Munn is a researcher based in Aotearoa New Zealand exploring the social, political, and environmental impacts of digital cultures.

Introduction: Automation Is a Myth

1. The Fantasy of Full Automation

2. Spotty Automation and Less-Than-Human Workers

3. Technology in Context, Technology as Culture

4. Automation on the Ground

5. Automation's Racialized Fallout

6. Automation's Gendered Inequality

Conclusion: Automation Is Not Our Future

Erscheinungsdatum	09.03.2022
Verlagsort	Palo Alto
Sprache	englisch
Maße	140 x 216 mm
Themenwelt	Naturwissenschaften
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Kommunikation / Medien ► Medienwissenschaft
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung ► Politische Theorie
	Wirtschaft ► Volkswirtschaftslehre ► Wirtschaftspolitik
ISBN-10	1-5036-3111-7 / 1503631117
ISBN-13	978-1-5036-3111-3 / 9781503631113
Zustand	Neuware