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NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY Liberation Technology?: Workers' Knowledge and the Micro-Politics of Adopting Computer-Automation in Industry A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS For the degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Field of Sociology By Christopher Robert Wellin EVANSTON, ILLINOIS December 1997 Volume 1 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number: 9814335 Copyright 1997 by Wellin, Christopher Robert All rights reserved. UMI Microform 9814335 Copyright 1998, by UMI Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. © Copyright by Christopher Robert Wellin 1997 All Rights Reserved ii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ABSTRACT Liberation Technology?: Workers' Knowledge and the Micro-Politics of Adopting Computer-Automation in Industry Christopher Robert Wellin Social research on technological changes in industry has tended to focus on their broad consequences for workers' autonomy, power, and job security, or to compare various technical forms along historical and organizational dimensions. What has gone undescribed and under-theorized in this macro-level tradition is the widespread process in which firms transform production systems from within. In this dissertation, an ethnographic case-study of a food processing firm, I follow their construction of a new plant, and the introduction and implementation of computer- automation in several production lines. I document the importance of workers' “shop floor” knowledge throughout this process, and analyze the immediate political and iii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ideological context in which managers obtained from workers flexible cooperation, despite the company's tradition of adversarial, even punitive labor relations. I analyze the process in terms of three phases of negotiation— broadly conceived— in which managers gain access to and appropriate workers' knowledge, and then redistribute their discretion to exercise that knowledge in the new factory. I conclude that the effects of the transition were to expand the functional scope and authority of the minority of workers (15 percent of the workforce)in the highly-automated jobs. But, for the majority of workers the new technology has led to an intensification of labor and did not bring the promised relief from close supervision. More broadly, I hope to have demonstrated the benefits of integrating the study of technical change with an ethnographic perspective on organizational culture. iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Although it is de rigueur for us sociologists to expose institutions as uncaring, rule-bound and arbitrary, when I reflect on my years at Northwestern, nothing could be farther from my mind. I am unable to express, let alone repay, the gratitude I feel toward the department for eight years of intellectual and personal support. I am also grateful to the superb undergraduate students whom I was privileged to teach and to learn from during those years. I extend warm thanks to the department's administrative staff, who are unfailingly professional, patient, and gracious. Cheryl Andrist, Stephanie Leonard, Rosline Gerome, and Julia Harris-Sacony— all made the department a place where friendship and work miraculously got done. My dissertation research was rather ambitious--seven years from start to finish— and that turns out to be a dangerous thing for a graduate student to do. One's life and identity rise and fall with the status of the project, and after several years the patience and faith of all concerned can be tested. Unplanned delays in access to my case v with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. compounded what, in practical terms, was already a daunting task. When combined with the share of personal adversity I faced along the way, some of these years were a struggle to get through. That I did, and am able to claim friendships and work that I'm proud of, is testimony to those who stayed steadfastly in my corner. Dale Jaffe and Eleanor Miller, of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, are sociologists who gave me most of what I needed to make my own way. As teachers and mentors, they helped me negotiate graduate school with a strong sense, both of the rewards of teaching and of myself as someone who could be a creative sociologist. Also, their candor about the conflicting demands of academic and personal careers has made it easier for me to weigh choices that, I hope, will enhance my humanity and sanity in the uncertainty of the career to come. And the chance to collaborate with Dale, my first and most important teacher, has been a privilege. I am hardly unique when I say that Howard Becker' s quietly subversive and brilliant voice (which I first heard through his timeless writings) was a powerful reason why I vi Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. pursued sociology. He leaves original and important imprints on every subject that he touches. And, no rester on laurels, he is just now awaiting responses to Tricks of the Trade, a book of stories that I '11 bet are not unlike those he shared with those of us lucky enough to do be part of his field methods seminar. It is among the delights of my life, never to be gotten over, to have had his warm friendship and wisdom to draw on. I hope in the future I will have a fraction of Howie's capacity to work hard and--somehow— always to be so calm, available and without cynicism. My relationship with Bernard Beck began within minutes of my arrival in Evanston, with his invitation (courtesy of the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on the Arts) to do what became a study of work careers in the theater. Bemie's constant presence has been a remarkable blessing to me. Many of my most joyful times have been spent talking/doing sociology with this very fine and brilliant man. Bernie constantly pushes one to dispense with the cant, the rhetoric, vanity, obfuscation, theory-talk, and piety in so much of academic research. His insights into institutions (ivy-covered and otherwise) are so knowing and prescient vii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. that, often, I was reduced in his office to fits of cathartic laughter. But his seriousness, about stating ideas honestly and pursuing them creatively to their important implications, will be with me always. Bemie's generosity of time and energy, and his care in helping me to have wonderful and relevant teaching experiences, are blessings that an entire career will be needed fully to reap. Allan Schnaiberg is a rarity, both as a scholar and a human being. Largely responsible for establishing the growing sub-field of environmental sociology, he also has a remarkable capacity for human empathy and insight. Allan's vocal support of this project, and of my ability to complete it, was right on time and absolutely essential to my success. Allan also helped me see connections between my work and macro-level changes in political economy which I have yet to take full advantage of— but, I hope to in the book to come?! And his lucid and practical responses to written drafts were invaluable. I freely admit that when I approached Arthur Stinchcombe to chair my committee, I was unaware of how important and relevant his own career's work would be for my viii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. own. In a world where so much theorizing and writing about organizations seems hermetically sealed off from anyone's reality, Art has produced work that is stunning for its combination of theoretical originality, elegance, and empirical usefulness. Art is also a person of uncommon intellectual breadth and discipline. During the long months when I was unable to be as productive as either of us wanted, I felt his disapproval as a tangible burden.