Re: Analyzing technologies

[michael@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

>
> I was taken by Michael P.'s discussion of the information economy of picking
> melons. In the real world, it's the melon-picker who uses his or her
> judgement to read the information about when or whether to pick melons. In
> Michael's imaginary scenario, there would be a division of labor between one
> worker who inspects the produce and writes a report on each individual melon
> and another who reads the report and decides which melons to pick. I guess
> then the first worker (or perhaps a third one) picks them.
>
> What this says to me is that the growth of the so-called "information
> economy" coincides with the process of deskilling that Braverman
> highlighted. The second worker -- the symbolic analyst -- has taken some of
> the first worker's decision-making power away, separating conception (by the
> analyst) from execution (by the reporter and/or picker).
>
Exactly my point.

> One of the reasons our society _needs_ all sorts of computers is that the
> separation of conception from execution has centralized as much as possible
> of the decision-making in a small number of hands, so that as much
> information as possible must be put into those hands.

yes.

> Clear lines of
> communication must be established between the conception center and the
> execution peripheries. Of course, it also goes the other way:

Yes, in my example, the workers "communicated" by stretching their back.
Elsewhere keystrokes are measured.  In my school we communicate with the
administration by fte [full time equivalent -- or student body counts.
Workers' thoughts are merely an intrusion in the work process.

--
Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA 95929

Tel. 530-898-5321
E-Mail michael@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx