| 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 |