Digitalization in Industry

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiii

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2. Toward an Analytical Understanding of Domination and Emancipation in Digitalizing Industries

   • David Seibt, Simon Schaupp, Uli Meyer

   Pages 1-25

3. Emancipation and Domination in the Workplace

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 27-27

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   2. Labor Democracy in Digitalizing Industries: Emancipating or “Sandboxing” Participation in Discourses on Technology and New Forms of Work?

      • Yannick Kalff

      Pages 29-60

   3. From Lean Production to Industrie 4.0: More Autonomy for Employees?

      • Florian Butollo, Ulrich Jürgens, Martin Krzywdzinski

      Pages 61-80

   4. “Designing Freedom”: On (Post)Industrial Governmentality and Its Cybernetic Fundaments

      • Felix Maschewski, Anna-Verena Nosthoff

      Pages 81-110

   5. It’s All in the Game: Emancipation in Digitalized Working Environments

      • Janosch Schobin, Philipp Staab

      Pages 111-131

4. Promises of Emancipation Through Digital Fabrication

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 133-133

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   2. Concrete Utopias of Digitalization Compared: The Case of the Post-Work and the Maker Movements

      • Philipp Frey, Christoph Schneider

      Pages 135-152

   3. Controlling Labor in Makeathons: On the Recuperation of Emancipation in Industrial Labor Processes

      • Klara-Aylin Wenten

      Pages 153-177

   4. Unpacking Reshoring: The GE GeoSpring Case

      • ginger coons

      Pages 179-203

5. Emancipating, Configuring, and Infrastructuring Users

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 205-205

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   2. Digital Platforms: Producing and Infrastructuring Users in the Age of Airbnb

      • Attila Bruni, Fabio M. Esposito

      Pages 207-232

   3. Governing the Elderly Body: Technocare Policy and Industrial Promises of Freedom

      • Gunhild Tøndel, David Seibt

      Pages 233-259

   4. The Digitalization of Musical Instruments and Musical Practice

      • Andreas Möllenkamp

      Pages 261-283

6. Back Matter

   Pages 285-289

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This book traces how the current wave of industrial digitalization relates to processes of domination and emancipation. It aims to counter techno-deterministic narratives that would connect a perceived new ‘industrial revolution’ with clear-cut societal consequences. In order to do this, the volume intervenes into three ongoing discussions which pertain to  emancipation and domination in the workplace, promises of emancipation through digital fabrication, and the idea of emancipating, configuring, and infrastructuring the users of industrial products. Within this framework it addresses topics including democratic participation, management thinking, gamification, the maker movement, reshoring, digital platforms, and the automation of healthcare.

• Science and technology studies
• Technopolitics
• Technology politics
• Innovation studies
• Politics of work
• Technology
• Digitalization
• Emancipation
• Domination
• Work
• Body
• Design
• Taylorism
• Communication Technologies
• Social emancipation

• Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany

  Uli Meyer, Simon Schaupp, David Seibt

Simon J. Schaupp is a PhD candidate and assistant at the chair for social structure analysis of the University of Basel, Switzerland. He published on the techno-politics of algorithmic management and cybernetization.

David Seibt is a PhD candidate at the Munich Center for Technology in Society at the Technical University of Munich, Germany. He works on the connection of digital fabrication, industrial organization, and the industrial configuration of users.

Uli Meyer is head of the Post-Doc Lab Reorganizing Industries at the Munich Center for Technology in Society, Technical University of Munich, Germany. He is acting professor for the Sociology of Digital Work at the Ruhr Universität Bochum, Germany. His research focuses on the reorganization of contemporary industries in the wake of the most recent wave of digitalization.

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