New new technologies: the future and the present of work in information and communication technology

• Author: Ursula Holtgrewe
• Published date: 01 March 2014
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/ntwe.12025
• Date: 01 March 2014

Invited Commentary

New new technologies: the future and the

present of work in information and

communication technology1

Ursula Holtgrewe

This paper outlines a selection of technological and organisa-

tional developments in the information and communication

technology (ICT) sector and analyses their likely challenges for

workers and trade unions around the globe. It addresses the

convergence of telecommunications and information technol-

ogy, the related developments of ubiquitous computing,

‘clouds’ and ‘big data’, and the possibilities of crowdsourcing

and relates these technologies to the last decades’ patterns of

value chain restructuring. The paper is based on desk research

of European and international sources, on sector analyses and

technology forecasts by, for instance, the European Union and

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development,

and some national actors. These prognoses are analysed

through the lens of recent research into ICT working environ-

ments and ICT value chains, identifying upcoming and ongoing

challenges for both workers and unions, and outlining possible

research perspectives.

Keywords: ICT, virtual work, restructuring, globalisation,

technology, unions.

Introduction

The informationand communication technology (ICT) sector is probably the sector that

is most emblematic of society-wide progress and innovation, both technologically and

economically. Indeed, practices of technology use, employment and work organisation

in the sector often pioneer developments in other sectors. The obvious reason is that

this sector develops a large proportion of the technologies that visiblychange work and

life throughout societies and economies. It builds its practices on the self-applications

of its own inventions. Simultaneously, these technologies diffuse into other sectors and

spheres of society, both changing these contexts and being adapted to them.

For these reasons of sheer pervasiveness,dynamism and impact,ICT, like space travel

in the 1960s, has come to comprehensively represent images and expectations of ‘the

future’, and in particular, the ‘future of work’. Hopes of ongoing progress, economic

Ursula Holtgrewe (holtgrewe@forba.at) is the scientific director of Forschungs- und Beratungsstelle

Arbeitswelt, Vienna. Her research interests include service work and organisation, ICT and job quality.

New Technology, Work and Employment 29:1

ISSN 0268-1072

© 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd The future and present of work in ICT 9

growth, skill upgrading and possibly also democratisation are attached to new ICTs as

well as fears of totalitarian control, alienation, job loss and insecurity.Often, hopes and

fears are interrelated: the hopes imply an underlying fear of getting disconnected and

being left behind, and the fears carry a bleak relish of submission to overwhelming

external forces. Either way, in many policy-oriented or more general accounts of the

‘future of work’, with either a critical or an affirmative outlook, this future appears to

be determined by technology-driven trends that converge upon a blueprint designed

by the advancedactors of the ICT industry. The implicationis that other parts of society

are lagging behind and needing to adapt to that future.

This paper aims to go beyond an overly linear view of ‘the future’. It provides a

commentary on a selection of technological, economic and organisational develop-

ments in the ICT sector and analyses their opportunities and challenges for workers

and trade unions around the globe. Todo this, it combines a range of different research

perspectives and levels of analysis: the basis is desk research of European and inter-

national sources, on sector analyses and technology forecasts by, for instance, the

European Union (EU) and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

(OECD) (European Commission 2012a; 2012b, OECD, 2012), and some national actors

that take technology developments, business and innovation activity into account.

These prognoses have a somewhat descriptive angle and a tendency to extrapolate

current developments into the near future, emphasising labour markets, skill levels

and competitiveness. In contrast, accounts in a more popular genre of literature that

accentuate the ‘newness’ of new technologies (e.g. Mayer-Schönberger and Cukier,

2013) reach farther into the future and focus on dramatic change and new qualities of

either innovation or surveillance. The commentaryprovided here considers both genres

through the lens of recent research into ICT working environments, which increasingly

takes transnational restructuring of ICT value chains and production networks into

account. Two theoretical angles provide insight: recent labour process theory addresses

the adaptability and ever-changing capacities of contemporary, financialisedcapitalism

to both access new sources of value and externalise cost (e.g. Boreham et al., 2007;

Taylor, 2010; Thompson, 2013), and more relational approaches investigate the organi-

sational and societal contextuality of new technology use (Tuomi, 2002; Garsten and

Wulff, 2003; Orlikowski, 2007; Holtgrewe, 2008) with a focus on its ironies, obstacles

and limitations. This admittedly eclectic exploration aims to do both: on the one hand,

recognise the speed and impact of ICTs and the power of particular actors in the field

(namely the large ICT multinationals) to shape large parts of societies’ technology use

according to their needs and strategies. On the other hand, assess the ways in which

technologies are shaped through their uses and also the ways in which stakeholders

and collective actors, labour market, education and training institutions, social and

cultural life and workers’ and consumers’ experiences, and occupational identities

shape the context in which ICT actors operate. Unions and civil society actors can and

need to influence their use in the interest of workers, citizens and society at large. The

paper thus does not present first-hand research results as such—which in many new

and dynamic areas do not exist yet. It uses existing research and knowledge of these

mechanisms to identify current and upcoming challenges and generate hypotheses on

likely developments. The overall assumption is that new technologies and develop-

ments that converge in ICT and expand its possibilities into further reaches of work

and society are likely to unfold their impacts along similar lines as previous develop-

ments and that from current research into work and restructuring, we can risk some

forecasts.

Trends in the ICT industry

Restructuring and relocation of work

Restructuring, outsourcing and offshoring have been characteristics of the ICT sector

for years. Because ICT overall has been enhancing the integration and expansion of

value chains and workflows beyondorganisational boundaries, it is not surprising that

© 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd10 New Technology, Work and Employment