Technology, Work and Migration With a little bit of Neoliberalism in the Neighborhood

1
Technology, Work and MigrationWith a little bit
of Neoliberalism in the Neighborhood

• Tony Zaragoza
• The Evergreen State College

2
(No Transcript)
3
Technology, Work and Migration

• How Widespread is the use of Robotics
  Automation in the Global Economy?
• What are some of the impacts of the growing use
  of automation in conjunction with other economic
  forces?
• Neoliberalism in the Neighborhood
• Migration, Megacities, Slums, Skyscrapers, and
  Mansions
• New class and growing movement of the global
  displaced

4

• QRIO
• Robots could be your friend

5

• Kaikan
• Your entertainer

6

• Asimo
• Your waiter

7

• AIBO
• Your pet

8

• Your nurse
• Robot displaces candy stripers
• CNetNew.com, Feb. 10, 2005

9

• Your doctor

10

• Your personal servant
• Domestic robot to debut in Japan
• A robot that recognises up to 10 faces and
  understands 10,000 words is to be offered to
  Japanese consumers looking for a high-tech helper
  in the house.

11

• One of the first automated public machines
• One we all know and love
• Cash with convenience, any time

12

• At the airport

13
At the library
14
At the store
15

• Robot to replace pharmacy staff
• BBC, August 30, 2005

16

• Palletizers Man vs. machine
• Modern Materials Handling Boston Jun 2001
• Higher throughputs, fewer injuries, more
  consistent stacking, improved accuracy. These are
  just a few of the benefits automated palletizing
  systems have over manual stacking of pallets.
  When labor savings and injury reductions are
  factored in, it is easy to see economic
  justification for automation for those companies
  that build a large number of pallets daily. Most
  can see paybacks on systems in a short amount of
  time. Another advantage is reliability.

17
On the Farm
18
Transport of Commodities
On the Docks
19
In the Home The Robo Vacuum
20
On the Battlefield Military Reconnaissance And
this is just the beginning here
21
In the Sky Predator drone
22
On the Border The new Border Patrol
23
Gloomy Outlook For Factory Jobs Is Likely to
Darken Wall Street Journal New York, N.Y. Feb
19, 2003 European business rushes to automate
Wall Street Journal New York Jul 23,
1997 Robots take service jobs The Gold Coast
Bulletin. Southport, Qld. Nov 23, 2006. p.
23 Robots get jobs as announcers The Salina
Journal. Salina, Kan. Jun 20, 2006. p. B1
Scientists develop robots to do world's most
risky jobs Morag Lindsay. The Press and Journal.
Aberdeen (UK) Sep 12, 2006. p. 10 The
Technology Road Map for Tree Fruit Production WA
State Program Initiatives 1. Automate Orchard and
Fruit Handling Operations 2. Optimize Fruit
Quality, Nutritional Value, and Safety 3. Deliver
Digital Rural Information Technologies
24
Beyond the BOOM TIMES Virginia town devastated
as foreign competition, automation eat away at
workers' livelihoods The Atlanta Journal the
Atlanta Constitution Atlanta, Ga. Apr 2,
2000 Robotics increase performance, reduce
labor Material Handling Management Cleveland
Oct 2002 Israel Moves to Automate Its
Agriculture --- Use of Robots Grows As
Palestinian Problem Wall Street
Journal. (Eastern edition). New York, N.Y. Jun
9, 1993.  pg. PAGEA.8 Field hands vs.
machines Technology's potential part of
immigration debate The Atlanta Journal -
Constitution. Atlanta, Ga. Jun 1, 2006.
 pg. B.1 Washington --- Something's changed this
season at Bland Farms in the heart of Georgia's
Vidalia onion country.Although digging up onions
is still a laborious process done by hand by
temporary workers from Mexico, the next step in
the harvest has fast-forwarded into the computer
age. This year, the crop is being brought from
the fields into a warehouse where a machine
electronically sizes up each gourmet onion
according to its weight and shape and fills
45-pound boxes with just the right mix for
grocery stores around the country."It's pretty
high tech," said Delbert Bland, owner of the
Glennville operation, who first saw the device in
fruit farms on the West Coast. The nearly 1.5
million machine will gradually pay for itself by
reducing his work force, which he cut by 50, he
said.
25
Proquest Search for Automation and Robots in
title last 30 days
26
Robotics IndustryAssociation video
27
(No Transcript)
28
From www.faireconomy.org Growing Divide
29
From www.faireconomy.org Growing Divide
30
From www.faireconomy.org Growing Divide
31
The annual work hours of low-income single
mothers rose from about 900 per year in 1994 to
over 1,200 six years later, an increase of 320
hours per year. This amounts to two more months
of full-time work, a historically large shift
over a relatively short time period.
In 2003, 29.4 of women earned poverty-level
wages or less, significantly more than the share
of men (19.6). Women are also much less likely
to earn very high wages. In 2003 only 9.4 of
women, but 17.5 of men, earned at least three
times the poverty-level wage. From State of
Working America 2004/2005--Women
32
Resources on Women, the economy, and Movement
Building
Welfare Rights Organizing Coalition Kennsington
Welfare Rights Organization Purple Rose
Campaign All Women Count Womens Economic
Agenda Project International Gender and Trade
Network Institute for Womens Policy Research
33
From the Report Without Housing
34
(No Transcript)
35
Women, Technology, and Neoliberalism

• The Global Reorganization of Womens Work
• Break up of family structure as men migrate
  alone
• Women go migrate and emigrate for work
• Growth of Informal Sector as part of the formal
  economy
• Prostitution
• Sweatshop Labor
• Mail-order Brides
• Death on the BorderCiudad Juarez

36

• The New Agrarian Question
• The ratio of the productivity of the most
  advanced capitalist segment of the worlds
  agriculture to the poorest, which was around 10
  to 1 before 1940, is now approaching 2000 to 1!
• What would happen to those billions of people
  living in the countryside?
• Now those who have recently arrived and their
  children are situated on the margins of the main
  productive systems, creating favorable conditions
  for the substitution of community solidarities
  for class consciousness.
• Meanwhile, women are even more victimized by
  economic precariousness than are men, resulting
  in deterioration of their material and social
  conditions.
• Samir Amin, World Poverty, Pauperization,
  Capital Accumulation

37
(No Transcript)
38
(No Transcript)
39
(No Transcript)
40
Los Angeles, California
41
Cairo, Egypt
42
Jakarta, Indonesia
43
Shanghi, China
44
Tehran, Iran
45
London, England
46
Tokyo, Japan
47
New York, New York
48
Beijing, China
49
Sao Paolo, Brazil
50
Mexico City
51
Mexico City
52
Mexico City
53
(No Transcript)
54
Bombay, India
55
Dhaka, Bangladesh
56
Kibera district of Nairobi, Kenya
57
Kibera district of Nairobi, Kenya
58
Sao Paolo, Brazil
59
Metaphoric Architecture Horizontal movement and
Vertical Movement
Skyscraper Page
60

• Rio de Janeiro Manila, Philippines

61
(No Transcript)
62
(No Transcript)
63
(No Transcript)
64
(No Transcript)
65
LYTLE HOUSE MERCER ISLAND, WASH.
Price 40 million Built in 2001, this
four-bedroom chateau-style house sits on the
shore of Lake Washington between Seattle and
Bellevue. It is the home of Chuck and Karen
Lytle, retirement-community developers. Neighbors
include the Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and
the Seattle Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren. A
70-foot indoor saltwater pool is ringed by
Egyptian-themed columns.
66
www.harveyfinkle.com
67
www.economichumanrights.org
68
www.kwru.org
69
(No Transcript)
70
www.tribunodelpueblo.org
71
Perhaps robots can be our friends. They could
save us all a lot of work, produce what we all
need, and offer us all a lot of free time. Maybe
it just depends on who owns and controls them . .
. The few or the many?