This course focuses on the evolution of modern technologies and their relationship to labor history. We ask about the ways in which technological change is transforming the lives and terms of employment of workers in the United States and in selected areas of Asia and Latin America. What is the role of technology in production? What is the relationship between economic development and social inequality? Does “hi-tech’ have different effects on women and men? What about the connection between new technologies, immigration, and ethnicity? Is technological advance the most effective path toward economic development. These are some of the questions the course seeks to answer.

1. Introducing the issues

The changing meanings of technology.- Technology, progress and rationality. Technology and social policy. Relationship between science and technology. Theoretical frameworks and conceptual tools. The sociological approach. A historical sketch: modern technology and industrial capitalism.

Reading:

• Volti, Rudi. 1992. Society and Technological Change. New York: St. Martin's Press (Chapters 1-6). (On reserve and Book Center)

2. Political Economy and the global economy

Competing outlooks: Neoclassical and Marxist approaches. Technology in the context of political economy.

Readings:

• Wolf, Eric. 1982. Europe and the People Without History. Berkeley: University of California Press (Chapter 1 pp. 3-23 and Chapter 3 pp. 73-100). (On reserve).
• Volti, Rudi. 1992. Society and Technological Change. (Chapters 7-9).
• Marx, Karl. 1859. Preface to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy.

3. Investors, inventors and workers

Guilds, artisans, and wage workers.- The question of social class. Machines as adversaries. Luddites and saboteurs. Factory production and the principles of scientific management. Mechanization: conveyor belts and assembly lines. The rise of trade unionism, anarchism and socialism. Free enterprise and the modern state: repercussions on technological advance. Fordism and Neo-Fordism.

Readings:

• Hedley, Alan R. 1992. Making a Living: Technology and Change. New York: Harper (Book Center).
• Griffin, Larry J., Michael E. Wallace and Beth A. Rubin. 1986. "Capitalist Resistance to the organization of Labor Before the New Deal: Why? How? Success? American Sociological Review, Vol. 51(April:147-167. (On reserve).
• Arrighi, Giovani. 1995. The Long Twenty-First Century. New York: Random.

3. The Rise of Electronics and Computer Technology

Firms, corporations and mega-corporations. Research and Development. The military complex, defense and aerospace. The electronics industry. Computer-aided design and production. Numerical control, mechanization, automation, robotization. Neo-Fordism and flexible production.

• Siegel, Leni. 1980. Delicate Bonds: The Global Semiconductor Industry. Mountainview, California: Pacific Studies Center. (On reserve).
• Kennedy, Paul. 1994. Preparing for the Twenty-First Century. New York: Random.
• Nash, June. 1989. From Tank Town to High Tech: The Clash of Community and Industrial Cycles. Albany: State University of New York Press.

4. Advanced Technology and Contemporary Economic Development

Social and political questions. Capital flight and the internationalization of production. Global competition.- Underdevelopment and the export alternative. The role of the state in advanced and less developed countries. Advanced technology, internationalization and the control of workers. The decline of trade unionism. The rise of Asian 'Tigers' and Latin American 'NICs'. Free trade and the emergence of economic blocs. Decline or Restructuring: What next?

Readings:

• Shaiken, Harley. 1994. "Advanced Manufacturing and Mexico: A New International Division of Labor." Latin American Research Review 29 2: 39-72.
• Fernandez-Kelly, M.Patricia. 1983. For We Are Sold, I and my People: Women and Industry in Mexico's Frontier. Albany: State University of New York Press.
• Gordon, David. 1996. Fat and Mean: The Corporate Squeeze of Working Americans and the Myth of Managerial "Downsizing." New York: The Free Press.

5. Computer Technology and Economic Restructuring in the United States

The shift from manufacturing to services. An information-based society? High-tech yuppies and hamburger-flippers. Deindustrialization. Subcontracting. Changing terms of employment and income distribution. The new migration.- The rise of the global city. Economic restructuring and the informal economy. Minorities, immigrants and labor markets. Are some minority groups redundant in the world system of production?

Readings:

• Fernandez-Kelly, M. Patricia. 1993. "Labor Force Recomposition and Industrial Restructuring in Electronics: Implications for Free Trade." Hofstra Labor Law Journal 10, 2(Spring): 623-717 (on reserve).
• Sassen, Saskia. 1994. Cities in a World Economy. Newbury Park, California: Sage Publications.

6. Global competition and the American Dilemma

Industrial Policy and the role of the state. The new quandary: exploitation versus labor market redundancy. Regional implications.

Readings:

• Fernandez-Kelly, M. Patricia and Richard Schauffler. 1994. Divided Fates: Immigrant Children in a Restructured Economy. Unpublished (on reserve).
• Reich, Robert. 1991. The Work of Nations: Preparing Ourselves for 21st-Century Capitalism. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
• Thurow, Lester. 1996. The Future of Capitalism. New York: Morrow.

7. Two special cases: Reproductive technologies and genetic engineering

Issues of gender and class. The ideological factors. Conclusions and Rejoinders.

Readings:

• Singer and Wells. 1992. Making Babies: The New Science and Ethnics of Conception. New York: Charles Scribner.
• Vogel, Joseph. 1994. Genes for Sale. Oxford: Oxford University Press.