Challenges of computerization: the example of the printing unions

计算机化的挑战：印刷工会的例子

基本信息

批准号：
290706649
负责人：
Privatdozent Dr. Karsten Uhl
金额：
--
依托单位：
KZ-Gedenkstätte Mittelbau-Dora
依托单位国家：
德国
项目类别：
Research Grants
财政年份：
2016
资助国家：
德国
起止时间：
2015-12-31 至 2021-12-31
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/290706649?language=en
关键词：
Challenges computerization example printing unions

项目摘要

This project deals with technological, social, and cultural transformations in the printing industry during the 1970s and 1980s. It is crucial to focus on this context for investigating the trade union crisis of this period. The printing union gives a good example, because of its strong position rested on a strong force of qualified workers. The project will investigate the period from the 1950s to the 1980s, starting in a decade in which artisan printing developed into industrial printing. The main focus will be on the invention of computer technology during the 1970s and 1980s; the establishment of Desktop Publishing since 1985 then marks the preliminary completion of computerization in printing industry. The project hence examines the role technological change played for the trade union crisis. Automation - in printing industry foremost in the special form of computerization - challenged the unions in three ways: Firstly, on the discursive level, labour's traditional believe in technological progress in general became fragile. Union members discussed if automation's social impacts could still be shaped by union power. Secondly, on the level of political action, strikes being the unions' most important power resource became vulnerable: computerization enabled production outside of the factory and even without skilled workers. Thirdly, on the level of workers' self-perception, the image of printers belonging to an aristocracy of labour became obsolete in context of computerization. The formerly distinct self-perception of skilled workers, being of utmost importance for union stability, split into a multitude of qualification profiles and self-perceptions. This project will show in which respect the three levels were interconnected, i.e. it will show whether changes on one level affected the other levels. The project examines historical actors on three dimensions: local, national, and international. On the local level, the printing union's local associations and work councils will be investigated. On the national level the German printing union and the German Trade Union Federation will be analysed, and on the international level, the International Graphical Federation and the European Trade Union Congress will be investigated. Further, it is of utmost importance to examine to which extent the union crisis was first caused by technological change and then pushed the trade union movement's Europeanization.

该项目涉及 20 世纪 70 年代和 80 年代印刷行业的技术、社会和文化变革。关注这一背景对于考察这一时期的工会危机至关重要。印刷工会就是一个很好的例子，因为它的强大地位依赖于强大的合格工人力量。该项目将调查 20 世纪 50 年代至 80 年代的时期，从手工印刷发展为工业印刷的十年开始。主要关注 20 世纪 70 年代和 80 年代计算机技术的发明； 1985年桌面出版的建立，标志着印刷业电脑化的初步完成。因此，该项目研究了技术变革在工会危机中所发挥的作用。自动化——在印刷工业中最重要的是计算机化的特殊形式——从三个方面对工会提出了挑战：首先，在话语层面上，劳工对技术进步的传统信念总体上变得脆弱。工会成员讨论了自动化的社会影响是否仍然可以由工会权力决定。其次，在政治行动层面，罢工作为工会最重要的权力资源变得脆弱：计算机化使得生产能够在工厂外进行，甚至不需要熟练工人。第三，在工人的自我认知层面，印刷工属于劳动贵族的形象在计算机化的背景下已经过时了。技术工人以前独特的自我认知对于工会的稳定至关重要，现在分裂成多种资格概况和自我认知。该项目将显示这三个级别在哪些方面是相互关联的，即它将显示一个级别的变化是否影响其他级别。该项目从三个维度考察历史参与者：地方、国家和国际。在地方层面，印刷工会的地方协会和工作委员会将受到调查。在国家层面上，将分析德国印刷工会和德国工会联合会；在国际层面上，将调查国际印刷联合会和欧洲工会大会。此外，最重要的是考察工会危机在多大程度上首先是由技术变革引起的，然后推动了工会运动的欧洲化。