Deep Automation and the World of Work

Alongside digitalisation and advances in interactive web-based communication, we now witness advances in robotics, 3D printing, artificial intelligence (AI) and self-tracking technology, such as Fitbit or smart phone apps that are invading the workplace. In this chapter, debates on technology, old and new, are reviewed, and a Marxist interpretation is presented. The relationship between technology, innovation and capital accumulation is rehearsed, before focussing on the computerisation and digitalisation as a distinct form of innovation. Attention is focussed on how the concepts of socially necessary labour time and abstract labour may help us understand the real role of ICT at work. Computers and related technologies are not neutral agents of change but are used by capital as part and parcel of exploitative labour practices and capital accumulation.

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