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Book Announcement
CUTTING EDGE
Technology, Information Capitalism and Social Revolution
Edited by Jim Davis, Thomas A. Hirschl and Michael Stack
Published by Verso, Fall, 1997
Available at bookstores now
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A robot can build a car. But a robot cannot buy a car... The
explosion in the development of computer- and robotic-based
manufacturing is seeing the rapid expansion of laborless
production systems. Such systems create enormous instability, both
for the overall economy where money previously paid in wages is
now invested in labor-saving technology and therefore cannot be
spent on goods, and for workers whose jobs are being deskilled or
are simply disappearing.
Bringing together contributions from workers employed in the new
electronics and information industries with work from theorists in
economics, politics and science, Cutting Edge provides an up-to-
the-minute analysis of the complex relations between technology
and work.
Paperback
1 85984 185 6
£15.00 / $19.00
Hardback
1 85984 830 3
£40.00 / $60.00
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>From the introduction to _Cutting Edge_:
"How is one to make sense of the world today? Contemporary
political and economic events as well as recent technological
developments defy conventional analysis. The general breakdown of
the post-World War II social order is well underway, visibly
evident in the dramatic dissolution of the Eastern European and
Soviet socialist economies. The dramatic polarization of wealth
and poverty -- not just between the technologized and under-
technologized nations, or north and south, but also within the
technologized center -- exposes the "capitalism has won" and
"history is over" pronouncements as rather premature. The
socioeconomic polarization matures as the powers of science and
technology leap ahead at breakneck speed.
"While the traditional Left has lost much of its appeal, and the
world's labor unions are on the defensive, new forces have stepped
onto the world stage. Scenes from this drama are as diverse as the
Los Angeles rebellion in 1992, the Chiapas uprising beginning in
1994, the regular eruptions in the industrial heart of the U.S.,
the tent cities and marches of the welfare recipients and the
homeless in Philadelphia, Detroit, Boston, Oakland and other U.S.
cities, the labor strikes in France, Korea, Canada, Germany,
Russia, and the new student movement emerging in the U.S. and
elsewhere. The world has entered a period of upheaval.
"This collection of essays attempts to make sense of trends and
developments as the 20th century draws to a close. The pieces
share an attempt to confront the contradictions of society today,
and put them on a firm material footing. Despite the many gloomy
signals as this is written, they betray a spirit of optimism about
the future."
[The complete introduction may be found online at
http://www.mcs.com/~jdav/ce/intro.html ]
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CONTENTS:
1. Introduction: Integrated Circuits, Circuits of Capital and
Revolutionary Change
2. Robots and Capitalism
Tessa Morris-Suzuki
3. Why Machines Cannot Create Value; or, Marx's Theory of Machines
George Caffentzis
4. Capitalism in the Computer Age and Afterword
Tessa Morris-Suzuki
5. High Tech Hype: Promises and Reality of Technology in the 21st
Century
Guglielmo Carchedi
6. Value Creation in the Late Twentieth Century and the Rise of
the Knowledge Worker
Martin Kenney
7. The Information Commodity: A Preliminary View
Dan Schiller
8. The Digital Advantage
Jim Davis and Michael Stack
9. The Biotechnology Revolution: Self-Replicating Factories and
the Ownership of Life Forms
Jonathan King
10. Structural Unemployment and the Qualitative Transformation of
Capitalism
Tom Hirschl
11. How Will North America Work in the Twenty-First Century?
Sally Lerner
12. Cycles and Circuits of Struggle in High-Technology Capitalism
Nick Witheford
13. A Note on Automation and Alienation
Ramin Ramtin
14. New Technologies, Neoliberalism and Social Polarization in
Mexico's Agriculture
Gerardo Otero, Stephanie Scott and Chris Balletto
15. The New Technological Imperative in Africa: Class Struggle on
the Edge of Third-Wave Revolution
Abdul Alkalimat
16. Heresies and Prophecies: The Social and Political Fall-out of
the Technological Revolution
A. Sivanandan
17. The Birth of a Modern Proletariat
Nelson Peery
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(please repost as appropriate)
