| Drawing on Michel Foucault's analysis of Jeremy Bentham's
Panopticon, Zuboff sees computer technology expanding and deepening the
power of surveillance techniques to discipline
workers. According to Foucault, the point of the Panopticon is to induce
the belief that one is constantly observed, without requiring that such
actually be the case. Eventually those who are observed will internalize
the Panoptic gaze, disciplining their own actions to bring them into line
with the expectations of the observers. Zuboff ranges Foucault's analysis
alongside her study of the Work Force Supervisory System (WFSS) at Metro
Tel, a large urban telephone company. The WFSS combined two data bases:
tasks to be done, and workers available to do them. Each task was assigned
a "price" -- the amount of time deemed necessary to complete it -- and
matched with a worker whose efficiency ranking and experience tallied with
the task. While on the whole Zuboff interprets her data as supporting Foucault's
analysis, some important new structural features emerge that indicate that
leaving embodiment out of account also carries a price.
As Metro Tel managers came to rely on the information provided on the computer screen, they reported spending less time on the shop floor interacting with the craftspeople. Diminished were the negotiations between foreman and worker that often included contextual information about the worker's situation; the foreman was no longer aware of personal factors such as family tragedy or illness that might temporarily affect a worker's productivity. Also diminished was the give-and-take between worker and foreman that established a mutuality of interest between them. In Zuboff's analysis, this represents a shift from a consensual relationship of authority to an "informated" relationship in which reified categories of analysis displace personal negotiations. These tendencies, already evident at the first level of management, were exacerbated as one moved up the corporate hierarchy. The Materiality of Informatics, by N. Katherine Hayles (p.150-51). Configurations, 1992, 1.1:147-170 |