overview

This course is about the intersections of technology and the past, present, and future of work in American society. It is motivated by contemporary speculation about the impact of automation on both manual and intellectual labor. While machines have been systematically transforming work since the Industrial Revolution, many analysts are now predicting a future of massive unemployment and inequality as a result of recent advancements in robotics and artificial intelligence. The latest ʺsmartʺ machines can allegedly automate not only factories, warehouses, and fast‑food restaurants, but also office work, journalism, consultancy‑‑basically any and all work that is repetitive and predictable. Are these claims true? Automationʹs impact is not only economic. Since work is one of the dominant ways that Americans find meaning in life, our investigations of automation in this course will include cultural analysis of the meanings of work and political‑philosophical speculation about life in a post‑work, post‑capitalist future. The goals of this course fall into two broad categories. First, as a part of contextual studies, the course fosters critical, reflective thinking about important debates in the US, builds greater understanding of US society, and introduces some of the basic interpretive methods of American Studies. Second, as regards the specific subject matter, the course aims to interrogate the following questions: What is work? What is the ʺwork ethicʺ? What is the historically specific form of work under capitalism? How does work influence class relationships? How have pre‑digital and other forms of automation already impacted American society? How have machines figured in struggles over control of work? What are some of the latest forms of automation, and how might they transform not only work, but American identity? How might the future look if automation continues? Is universal basic income (UBI) a plausible and legitimate means to overcome automationʹs possible destruction of wage labor? How might people make sense of their lives in a post‑work future? Might our current automation anxiety be a massive hoax? To answer these questions, we will draw on a broad and diverse mix of history, literature, journalism, film, music, and political philosophy


Week 2 Overview & Study Questions

+ Raymond Williams, “Labour,” “Work,” in Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society, Oxford University Press, 2015
+ Philip Levine, “What Work Is”
+ Murs, "God's Work"
+ Benjamin Kline Hunnicutt, from Free Time: The Forgotten American Dream, Temple University Press, 2013
+ Harry Braverman, "Labor and Labor Power," in Labor and Monopoly Capitalism, Monthly Review Press, 1998 (will push this to next session if we run out of time)

Study Questions
+ According to Williams, what are the major ways in which the words "labour" (labor) and "work" have changed over time? What are the dominant meanings of "labour" and "work" today?
+ Read Levine's poem at least twice. You won't get much out of it in just one reading. The title is "What Work Is." So...what is it? Is Levine's poem using any of Williams's definitions? Don't worry if you have trouble answering this clearly at this point. Poetry can't be fully reduced to ordinary language - that's why it's poetry!
+ Murs is an American rapper. How is being a rapper a kind of work?
+ Can you describe what Hunnicutt calls "higher purpose" and the "forgotten American Dream" in your own words? How is the forgotten American Dream different than the standard understanding of the American Dream?
+ How does Braverman distinguish human labor from what animals do? What does he mean by "execution" and "conception"? (will push this to next session if we run out of time)

Week 3 Overview & Study Questions

+ Jentery Sayers, “Technology,” in Keywords for American Cultural Studies  (longer version with references also available here (Links to an external site.); but note that the shorter pdf version is the one relevant to the exam)
+ Andrew Feenberg, from Questioning Technology  
See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Feenberg
+ Justin Timberlake and 50 Cent, “Ayo Technology” 

Study Questions
+ What does Sayers mean by "American studies and cultural studies approaches to technology are best described as nonessentialist"? What are some of the main ways that American studies approaches the study of technology?
+ How does Feenberg define technological determinism? Why does he oppose it? What is his own approach to studying technology?
+ How do we see technology used in "Ayo, Technology"? What's the relationship between technology and women in the video? How does the video illustrate Sayers's point that "historically, technology has been culturally coded as masculine"?

Week 4 Overview & Study Questions

+ Herbert Gutman, “Work, Culture, and Society in Industrializing America, 1815—1919” (excerpt) 
+ Harry Braverman, “Scientific Management,” from Labor and Monopoly Capitalism  
+ The People’s Century: On the Line (clips in class)  DISCUSSION MOVED TO NEXT SESSION
+ Charlie Chaplin, dir., Modern Times (clips in class)  CUT; NO LONGER PART OF THE COURSE MATERIALS

Study Questions TBA
+ How did American wage laborers work during the industrialization period, prior to mechanization and the Taylorist rationalization of work? What were their attitudes toward work and leisure? How are these attitudes different from dominant attitudes toward the "work ethic" today?
+ Do you think first-generation factory workers thought machines were "progress"? Why might factory owners have thought differently about machines and the "work ethic"? 
+ Why was Taylor hired? What was his stated goal?
+ How does Taylor present the worker Schmidt? Does Taylor seem to respect workers? 
+ According to Braverman, what are the three main principles of Taylorism? What does he think is the purpose of Taylorism? How does it transform skill?
+ Expand on Braverman: how might machines further the aims of Taylorism?

Week 5 Overview

+ David F. Noble, "Social choice in machine design," in Case Studies on the Labor Process, Monthly Review Press, New York, 1979.

Study Questions (first four sections only)
1. Introduction. Why does Noble oppose the traditional study of technology's "social impact"?
2. The Technology: Automatically Controlled Machine Tools. What were the two main/competing types of automated machine tools? What were their different approaches to tape preparation? What conclusion does Noble draw here about these technologies' designs and the ways they treated machinists' skills? 
3. Choice in Design: Horizontal Relations of Production. Who funded and created the market for N/C? How did this shape its design, specifically its software side? (Keep in mind the usual rhetoric about automation and technological innovation more generally. We usually see technology presented as the offspring of brilliant tech geniuses like Gates or Zuckerberg or Musk. Inventors appear to be privately-funded individualists who take risks and "disrupt" things that slow, old-fashioned state institutions can only try to regulate in panic or nostalgic commitment to the old ways. Note how Noble's history contrasts to this rhetoric.)
4. Choice in Design: Vertical Relations of Production. Why did record-playback fail? Noble gives several answers, but he emphasizes a few more than others. How does he think engineering and capitalism are related? 
5. Taylor makes another appearance here. Does Noble think Taylorism was effective in the machine shop? How does Noble connect the effectiveness of Taylorism to the development of N/C? Why did management prefer N/C?  

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