Cutting Edge: Technology, Information, Capitalism and Social Revolution

Abstract

Bringing together contributions from workers employed in the new electronics and information industries with work from theorists and economics, politics and science, this title provides an up-to-date analysis of the complex relations between technology and work. Individual essays look at topics including the cyclical nature of a technologically-driven economy, the privatization of knowledge which new information industries demand, and the strategies which trade unionists and governments might deploy to potect jobs and living standards. A robot can build a car, but a robot cannot buy a car. The explosion in the development of computer- and robotic-based manufacturing is seeing the rapid expansion of labourless production systems. Such systems create enormous instability, both for the overall economy where money previously paid in wages is now invested in labour-saving technology and, therefore, cannot be spent on goods, and for workers whose jobs are being de-skilled or are simply disappearing. Contributors to the book include: Abdul Akalimat, Michael Brand, George Caffentzis, Guglielmo Carchedi, Jim Davis, Thomas A. Hirschl, Tessa Morris-Suzuki, Gerardo Otero, Nelson Perry, Ramin Ramtin, Dan Schiller, Steffanie Scott, Michael Stack and Nick Witheford.