During the transition, however, deskilling may be able to go farther than we like to believe if the customers can be led to expect less and less. This is often presented as giving them "more choice."
On Tue, May 21, 2013 at 5:06 PM, Wojtek S <wsoko52 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Joanna: "I'm guessing this is a historic first yes? I mean no previous
> civilization has consciously sought mass idiocy."
>
> [WS:] How about the idiocy of the rural life bemoaned by the Old Man ;)?
>
> More seriously, I take your point that unpaid internship is
> hyperexploitation rather than deskilling, but as such it has historical
> precedence (apprenticeship).
>
> The way I look at this is that these processes are relative rather than
> absolute. Deskilling of white collar jobs can go only so far - you cannot
> hire complete ignoramuses to do these jobs effectively. You need so
> minimum skill level. Instead, these efforts aim at removing workers'
> autonomy that is rather high in many white collar occupations. You still
> need to have some level of skills, but by dividing jobs into simpler
> routines the control is shifted upwards to the management. This is
> particularly evident in teaching -where direct service providers (teachers
> and adjuncts) lost control over two most important aspects of these jobs -
> curriculum and evaluations. The same applies to medical practice, where
> doctors lose control (although to a lesser extent) over important decision
> - such as the course of treatment, which is shifting to HMO management and
> inscos.
>
> None of it is likely to result in idiocracy, but rather in a Soviet style
> workplace discipline.
>
>
>
> --
> Wojtek
>
> "An anarchist is a neoliberal without money."
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