New Technology and the Workers’ Response: Microelectronics, Labour, and Society ed. by Amiya Kumar Bagchi and Ranabir Samaddar

Abstract

358 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE New Technology and the Workers’ Response: Microelectronics, Labour, and Society. Edited by Amiya Kumar Bagchi and Ranabir Samaddar. New Delhi: Sage Publications, 1995. Pp. 367; tables, notes, index. $39.95 (hardcover). For developing countries trying to chart a course through the con­ fusing waters of global competition, new technologies present dis­ tressing challenges as well as promising opportunities. Through the 1980s, for example, Marxist scholars warned darkly of the micropro­ cessor’s potential to reduce employment by permanently displacing skilled workers; yet, at the same time, others argued that this same technology could enable third world countries to skip the entire in­ dustrial phase of development, leapfrogging directly to the postin­ dustrial stage. To sort out the pluses and minuses, the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences in Calcutta invited Indian and foreign scholars to share their perspectives on the economic and social im­ pact of microelectronics-based technologies in a variety of business and social settings. This volume stems from that 1991 conference. The papers collected here explore both sides of the theme. Some examine the impact of microelectronics technology in Indian work­ places, while others examine the possibility that India and other de­ veloping countries might profitably import the “flexible specializa­ tion” approach developed in the “Asian miracle” economies. In flexible specialization, firms use advanced microelectronics-based communications and manufacturing technology to create clusters of cooperating firms. Two overriding questions emerge: Is micro­ electronics technology truly a threat to employment in a less-devel­ oped country such as India? Could India benefit by attempting to replicate flexible specialization? The volume’s conclusions are nicely captured by Bagchi, who notes in the introductory essay that microelectronics technology is “neither the panacea that some of the purveyors of the technology or their propagandists would claim; nor is it, in itself, a threat to the working or living conditions of the workers” (p. 22). Laurids S. Lauridsen (“New Technologies, Flexibilization, and Changing Capi­ tal-Labour Relations”) explains why: “The relationship between technology and human labour—between technological change and labour relations—is contingent” (p. 178). The outcome can be af­ fected by the social and political intentions of managers and engi­ neers, as well as by how workers respond, adapt, organize, and try to affect the outcomes of technological change. To understand what happens in any particular instance of technological innovation in the workplace, Lauridsen argues, one must examine how new tech­ nologies interact with labor control at the level of production, with labor market characteristics, and with the changing bargaining power of labor. Microelectronics technology can be used to create worker loyalty, cement good relationships among cooperating firms, TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 359 and create the conditions for rapid economic growth. On the flip side, a callous management can use this same technology to beat down wages and casualize labor. These conclusions will not surprise historians of technology, who have learned not only to react skepti­ cally to technological determinism but also to recognize the large role that contingency plays when people, society, and technologies interact. In India, the confrontation between technology and labor has been noisiest in the newspaper industry, one ofthe first to computer­ ize. The role of contingency is quite apparent. Radha D’Souza’s pa­ per on the introduction of microelectronics technology in the Bom­ bay newspaper industry paints a picture more in line with Marxist predictions: newspaper owners would take advantage ofworker lock­ outs and strikes to sneak microelectronics-based technology into the workplace; unions failed to address the issues posed by this technol­ ogy, focusing instead on wages. As the implications of the new tech­ nology revealed themselves in work reassignments and forced retire­ ments, workers lost faith in the unions and refused to accept the settlements, leading to a series of nasty battles—an “unnecessarily costly affair,” in D’Souza’s depiction. But Ranabir Samaddar’s paper shows that there is another way. In south India, when management quickly realized that the new technology could be used to improve layout and increase circulation instead of beating down wages, it worked out a win-win pact with the unions. Microelectronics technology is not necessarily a villain, and...