Automation Is a Myth / Luke Munn.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Munn, Luke, Author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Automation--Social aspects.

Automation.

Employees--Effect of technological innovations on.

Employees.

Labor supply--Effect of automation on.

Labor supply.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (184 p.)

Place of Publication:

Stanford, CA : Stanford University Press, [2022]

Language Note:

In English.

System Details:

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Summary:

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."

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

INTRODUCTION Automation Is a Myth

PART 1 The Myth of Automated Autonomy

1 The Fantasy of Full Automation

2 Spotty Automation and Less-Than- Human Workers

PART 2 The Myth of Automation Everywhere

3 Technology in Context, Technology as Culture

4 Automation on the Ground

PART 3 The Myth of Automating Everyone

5 Automation’s Racialized Fallout

6 Automation’s Gendered Inequality

CONCLUSION Automation Is Not Our Future

Acknowledgments

Notes

References

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 26. Apr 2022)

ISBN:

9781503631434

1503631435

OCLC:

1260692319