Technology, Work and Migration
With a little bit of Neoliberalism in the Neighborhood
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Tony Zaragoza
The Evergreen State College
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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
QRIO
Robots could be your friend
Kaikan
Your entertainer
Asimo
Your waiter
AIBO
Your pet
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Your nurse…
“Robot displaces
candy stripers”
CNetNew.com, Feb. 10, 2005
Your doctor…
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.
One of the
first
automated
public
machines
One we all
know and
love
Cash with
convenience,
any time
At the airport
At the library
At the store
“Robot to replace
pharmacy staff”
BBC, August 30, 2005
“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.
On the Farm
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On the Docks
Transport of Commodities
In the Home
The Robo Vacuum
On the Battlefield
Military Reconnaissance
And this is just the beginning here
In the Sky
Predator drone
On the Border:
The new Border Patrol
“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
“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.
Proquest Search for Automation and Robots in title last
30 days
Robotics IndustryAssociation
video
From
www.faireconomy.org
“Growing Divide”
From
www.faireconomy.org
“Growing Divide”
From www.faireconomy.org “Growing Divide”
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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 fulltime 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
Resources on Women, the economy, and Movement Building
Welfare Rights Organizing Coalition
Kennsington Welfare Rights Organization
Purple Rose Campaign
All Women Count
Women’s Economic Agenda Project
International Gender and Trade Network
Institute for Women’s Policy Research
From the Report “Without Housing”
Women, Technology, and Neoliberalism
• The Global Reorganization of Women’s 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 Border–Ciudad Juarez
“The New Agrarian Question”
The ratio of the productivity of the most
advanced capitalist segment of the
world’s 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”
Los Angeles, California
Cairo, Egypt
Jakarta, Indonesia
Shanghi, China
Tehran, Iran
London, England
Tokyo, Japan
New York, New York
Beijing, China
Sao Paolo, Brazil
Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City
Bombay, India
Dhaka, Bangladesh
Kibera district of Nairobi, Kenya
Kibera district of Nairobi, Kenya
Sao Paolo, Brazil
Metaphoric Architecture
Horizontal movement and Vertical Movement
Skyscraper Page
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Rio de Janeiro
Manila, Philippines
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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.
www.harveyfinkle.com
www.economichumanrights.org
www.kwru.org
www.tribunodelpueblo.org
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