Technical Workers in an Advanced Society

Technical Workers in an Advanced Society
Author: Stephen Crawford
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 298
Release: 1989-09-29
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0521351022

First published in 1989, this book examines the work, careers and politics of French engineers and technical workers employed in traditional and high-technology settings. In the process, it critically evaluates several theories of social change and advocates a unique approach to class theory and the comparative analysis of nations. Neither owners of productive property nor wage workers performing routinised labour. Engineers occupy an ambiguous social position that has elicited a good deal of controversy about trends in their situation and ideology. Where theories of professionalism anticipate occupationally based challenges to the legitimacy of bureaucratic authority, Marxian and neo-Marxian analyses foresee class-based opposition to capitalism. Yet all these theories share a preoccupation with the effects of technology and the division of labour on social values and group identities. This book maintains that such a preoccupation obscures the significance of career situations and the distinctively national institutions that shape them. The book presents a fresh view of the interplay of occupation, class and nation.

Building America's Skilled Technical Workforce

Building America's Skilled Technical Workforce
Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 259
Release: 2017-06-04
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 0309440068

Skilled technical occupationsâ€"defined as occupations that require a high level of knowledge in a technical domain but do not require a bachelor's degree for entryâ€"are a key component of the U.S. economy. In response to globalization and advances in science and technology, American firms are demanding workers with greater proficiency in literacy and numeracy, as well as strong interpersonal, technical, and problem-solving skills. However, employer surveys and industry and government reports have raised concerns that the nation may not have an adequate supply of skilled technical workers to achieve its competitiveness and economic growth objectives. In response to the broader need for policy information and advice, Building America's Skilled Technical Workforce examines the coverage, effectiveness, flexibility, and coordination of the policies and various programs that prepare Americans for skilled technical jobs. This report provides action-oriented recommendations for improving the American system of technical education, training, and certification.

The Social Production of Technical Work

The Social Production of Technical Work
Author: Peter Whalley
Publisher: SUNY Press
Total Pages: 260
Release: 1986-01-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9780887062520

Engineers appear in recent social science as central, though somewhat elusive, figures. They play a particularly critical role in the various attempts to understand the impact of 'science-based' industry on the class structure of advanced capitalist societies. In this book, Peter Whalley brings these engineers into sharper focus. He argues that engineers should not be seen as members of a glamorous 'new class' of professionalized knowledge workers, nor as a radicalized 'new working class' or partially de-skilled technical proletariat. Rather, they should be viewed as 'trusted employees,' selected, socialized, trained, and rewarded to perform the discretionary tasks necessarily delegated by employers in the complex organizations of advanced capitalism. The book draws extensively on observations and interviews to compare engineers' work and understanding in the high- and low-tech settings of two British companies: "Computergraph," an advanced electronics firm, and "Metalco," a traditional British engineering giant. Whalley compares the technical work structure of Britain with those of France and the United States. He argues that the impact of technological change on class structure is critically mediated by nationally specific modes of organizing technical work and producing trusted workers. The book goes beyond cultural explanations of these national variations to examine how they are created and reproduced in the organization of work and the structuring of occupations.

The Work of the Future

The Work of the Future
Author: David H. Autor
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 189
Release: 2022-06-21
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0262367742

Why the United States lags behind other industrialized countries in sharing the benefits of innovation with workers and how we can remedy the problem. The United States has too many low-quality, low-wage jobs. Every country has its share, but those in the United States are especially poorly paid and often without benefits. Meanwhile, overall productivity increases steadily and new technology has transformed large parts of the economy, enhancing the skills and paychecks of higher paid knowledge workers. What’s wrong with this picture? Why have so many workers benefited so little from decades of growth? The Work of the Future shows that technology is neither the problem nor the solution. We can build better jobs if we create institutions that leverage technological innovation and also support workers though long cycles of technological transformation. Building on findings from the multiyear MIT Task Force on the Work of the Future, the book argues that we must foster institutional innovations that complement technological change. Skills programs that emphasize work-based and hybrid learning (in person and online), for example, empower workers to become and remain productive in a continuously evolving workplace. Industries fueled by new technology that augments workers can supply good jobs, and federal investment in R&D can help make these industries worker-friendly. We must act to ensure that the labor market of the future offers benefits, opportunity, and a measure of economic security to all.

The Societal Impact of Technology

The Societal Impact of Technology
Author: Savvas A. Katsikides
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 165
Release: 2018-11-06
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0429770200

Published in 1998. This text is concerned with research issues within the context of the emerging information age. The book draws together research which is devoted to key questions examining the relationship between the various and widely discussed developments of technological systems and their societal impacts. Increasing interest and research into the information society and their euphorical assumptions is creating a wide spectrum of societal criticism. Computer supported work for instance has led to the development of innovative organizational processes based on technological developments and communications paradigms. In particular the focus is centred on the perspectives of such Networking Entities and their many varied implications. The book links sociology with technology and aims to lead it to wider discussions of the above issues.

For Dirk Struik

For Dirk Struik
Author: Robert S. Cohen
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 651
Release: 2012-12-06
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9401021155

It is fitting that Professor Dirk Jan Struik be greeted with this melange of mathematical, scientific, historical, sociological and political essays. The authors are also appropriately varied: different countries, outlooks, religions, generations, and we suppose - of course we did not as- different politics too. Many more would have joined us, we know, but the good friends in this book make a fine and representative assembly of the intersection of two (mathematical!) classes: affectionately respect ful admirers of Dirk Struik, and the best thinkers of this troubled century. Struik has been among the most steadfast supporters of the Boston Colloquium for the Philosophy of Science, that discussion group which we have been holding at Boston University since 1960, but his luminous collaboration has been welcome, in Boston and Cambridge, for nearly five decades among mathematicians, physicists, philosophical and political thinkers, and especially among the students. It has not mattered whether they have been his own students or not, whether at M.LT. or elsewhere, whether scholars or dropouts, nature-lovers or book worms, anarchists or Republicans, Catholics or Unitarians, Communists or communists, prim or liberated. No doubt he has his preferences! But the main thing for Struik has been to educate and respect the other person.

Bullshit Jobs

Bullshit Jobs
Author: David Graeber
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Total Pages: 368
Release: 2019-05-07
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1501143336

From David Graeber, the bestselling author of The Dawn of Everything and Debt—“a master of opening up thought and stimulating debate” (Slate)—a powerful argument against the rise of meaningless, unfulfilling jobs…and their consequences. Does your job make a meaningful contribution to the world? In the spring of 2013, David Graeber asked this question in a playful, provocative essay titled “On the Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs.” It went viral. After one million online views in seventeen different languages, people all over the world are still debating the answer. There are hordes of people—HR consultants, communication coordinators, telemarketing researchers, corporate lawyers—whose jobs are useless, and, tragically, they know it. These people are caught in bullshit jobs. Graeber explores one of society’s most vexing and deeply felt concerns, indicting among other villains a particular strain of finance capitalism that betrays ideals shared by thinkers ranging from Keynes to Lincoln. “Clever and charismatic” (The New Yorker), Bullshit Jobs gives individuals, corporations, and societies permission to undergo a shift in values, placing creative and caring work at the center of our culture. This book is for everyone who wants to turn their vocation back into an avocation and “a thought-provoking examination of our working lives” (Financial Times).

HRM, Technical Workers and the Multinational Corporation

HRM, Technical Workers and the Multinational Corporation
Author: Patrick McGovern
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 193
Release: 2012-10-12
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1134667841

This book is the first major in-depth study of the impact of contemporary management practices on a rapidly expanding set of white-collar occupations, namely technical workers. It investigates whether HRM schemes such as employee appraisals and performance related pay have transformed technical work to such an extent that it can no longer be described as a 'service contract'. The book contains detailed examination of the nature of managerial control over employees who, by virtue of their committment, present their employers with problems that are often ignored by prescriptive models of HRM. The empirical evidence features case studies of matched pairs of hi-tech firms in the Irish Republic. The author examines recent debates about the nature of employment and the role of the multinational corporations within the so-called 'Celtic Tiger' Irish economy.

Diego Rivera

Diego Rivera
Author: Leah Dickerman
Publisher: The Museum of Modern Art
Total Pages: 153
Release: 2011
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 0870708171

In 1931, Diego Rivera was the subject of The Museum of Modern Art's second monographic exhibition, which set attendance records in its five-week run. The Museum brought Rivera to NewYork six weeks before the opening and provided him a studio space in the building. There he produced five 'portable murals' - large blocks of frescoed plaster, slaked lime and wood that feature bold images drawn from Mexican subject matter and address themes of revolution and class inequity. After the opening, to great publicity, Rivera added three more murals, taking on NewYork subjects through monumental images of the urban working class. Published in conjunction with an exhibition that brings together key works from Rivera's 1931 show and related material, this vividly illustrated catalogue casts the artist as a highly cosmopolitan figure who moved between Russia, Mexico and the United States and examines the intersection of art-making and radical politics in the 1930s.

An Exploration of Technology and its Social Impact

An Exploration of Technology and its Social Impact
Author: Savvas Andreas Katsikides
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages: 120
Release: 2017-05-11
Genre: Science
ISBN: 144389172X

This book provides a set of important articles dealing with technology’s role and its social impact within the new information age. Taking into consideration the rapid changes within the modern social sphere, the book will be of interest to those seeking to understand how technology is currently reshaping life, as well as its capacity to influence social change in the contemporary era. The book is of analytical and critical value, and concerns vital research issues within the context of the emerging information age. It draws together research devoted to key questions examining the relationship between the various new developments of technological systems and their social impact.