Craftsmanship in the Age of Automation

Abstract

What happens to work with the increasing degree of automation, robotization, and digital systems? We usually understand automation as the use of mechanical machines, robots, or computers to do things that humans have done before. In theory, this assumes that tasks are clearly defined, clearly bounded, and inscribed in either mechanical movements or software that replicates a workflow. In this thesis, conventional perspectives on automation are challenged by developing a concept of automation that requires us to understand technology as part of a larger social and technological system, where both humans and machines are involved. Automation is not an endpoint where machines replace people, but rather a longer ongoing process. The study of automation is a study of its enabling conditions. This project is based on ethnographic fieldwork in the Norwegian construction industry, a sector not typically considered a carrier of innovative "high-tech" solutions. Part of the answer to the question of what happens to work involves what happens to workers' skills. Although there is little reason to believe that people will lose their jobs due to robotization and automation, we need to examine what actually happens to work and workers as technological systems change. This thesis shows that, through a longer historical process, the nature of work shifts from being craftsmanship-based to becoming increasingly controlled, planned, and routinized. Additionally, skills are altered by the increasing use of prefabricated elements, standards, measurement, and skills are organized differently. The doctoral project proposes a new way to talk about skills in contexts of increasing automation, where skills are understood on a continuum between two poles called "weaving" vs. "stacking." The former suggests skills where the craftsman is central to the production process, while the latter refers to skills in a more automated context. The question posed, therefore, is how work changes in a context where automation is increasingly enabled. Even if it is not valid to say that jobs are directly lost, something is happening. This perspective thus helps raise the question: if we are not merely losing our jobs or skills, what else happens when things become more automated in society? What happens to us as human beings?