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COVID-19’s Impact Upon Labor and Value Chains in the Agrifood Industry: A case study
Get PDFWe explore the impact of automation and digitalization on labor in the US agrifood system during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study considers each of the primary nodes in the system stretching from consumer through grocery stores and restaurants to last-mile delivery, distribution, food processing, farming, and agri-inputs. Not only automation and digitalization, but also the role of platforms such as Amazon, and food delivery firms such as GrubHub, Instacart, and Uber Eats are discussed. For restaurants, we consider not only dine-in restaurants, but also “ghost kitchens”. Furthermore, the possibility that farmers or distributors could disintermediate other nodes and deal directly with consumers is discussed. We conclude that, as a generalization, the further upstream one goes from the consumer, the less immediate and disruptive automation is likely to be for labor. However, our overall conclusion is that, given the current trajectories, labor is becoming increasingly precarious. If the current labor shortages continue, then automation is likely to accelerate. Platformization, while rampant in the relationships with final consumers, is likely to be less rapidly adopted further upstream where relationships are B-to-B and thus composed of actors that are wary of sharing data.This work has been funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research of Germany (BMBF) (grant no.: 16DII111, 16DII112, 16DII113, 16DII114, 16DII115, 16DII116, 16DII117 – „Deutsches Internet-Institut“
The Impact of the German Implementation of Article 17 CDSM Directive on Selected Online Platforms
Get PDFThe EU legislator responded to the challenges of the digital transformation and the increase of online communication with Directive 2019/790 on copyright and related rights in the Digital Single Market (CDSMD), which intends to establish a legal framework for the use of copyright and related rights in the online environment. Germany transposed art 17 CDSMD through a new Act on the Copyright Liability of Online Content Sharing Service Providers (OCSSP Act), which entered into force on August 1, 2021. This paper examines whether the terms and conditions and other publicly accessible copyright policies of eight services (i.e., YouTube, Rumble, TikTok, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, SoundCloud, and Pinterest) changed upon the entry into force of the OCSSP Act. For this purpose, we reviewed and analyzed the relevant German-language websites of the services four times between July 2021 and November 2021. Our data collection reveals few changes in the terms and conditions of platforms over time but significant differences between the services in relation to their use of content recognition technology. The concluding section discusses the implications of these findings for the future of copyright policy in the EU
Deglobalisierung, Rekonfiguration oder Business as Usual? COVID-19 und die Grenzen der Rückverlagerung globalisierter Produktion
Get PDFThe economic difficulties following the COVID-19 pandemic have seemingly reinforced the need for geographic restructuring and a reshoring of production, as they have demonstrated the vulnerability of globalized production. This article provides an assessment of the impact of COVID-19 on the geographies of production. Criticizing overly simplified perspectives on globalization, the article argues that global production networks are multiscalar and politically shaped phenomena. Based on these theoretical considerations and case studies on the automotive, electronics and clothing industries, the article concludes that the COVID-19 pandemic cannot be interpreted as a trigger for a general retreat from global manufacturing, but it reinforced longer-standing shifts toward more multipolar production and consumption structures. While the issue of global production network resilience has attracted greater attention in corporate strategies and industrial policies, the localization and regionalization of production networks is only one of several strategies, and it has hardly been implemented so far. Ongoing disruptions of supply chains, increased transport costs, and, above all, geopolitically and environmentally motivated policies could well lead to greater re- or nearshoring. Political efforts in this direction are, however, limited by pre-existing global economic development paths and the balance of power associated with them. In the conclusions, the article stresses the necessity of a politically motivated restructuring of global production networks in the context of an urgently needed social-ecological transformation.Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEA
Die Vermessung der Arbeitswelt. Wearables und digitale Assistenzsysteme in Fertigung und Logistik
Get PDFDer intelligente Arbeitshandschuh oder die smarte Brille: Mit der Digitalisierung rückt datenaufzeichnende Hardware eng an den Körper der Beschäftigten. Bewegungen, Vitalzeichen und selbst Emotionen können damit sichtbar werden. Was viele privat gerne zur Kontrolle von sportlichen Aktivitäten oder dem Monitoring der Gesundheit nutzen, eröffnet am Arbeitsplatz eine neue Dimension der Kontrolle. Die Studie gibt Einblicke in betriebliche Anwendungsfälle und die Einschätzungen von Beschäftigten. Es zeigen sich widersprüchliche Erfahrungen und ein deutlicher Gestaltungsauftrag
Skill formation, automation and governance. Comparing German and Korean automotive manufacturers in Central-Eastern Europe
Get PDFPurpose Building on neo-institutionalism models of the transfer of human resource management (HRM) practices within multinational companies, this paper aims to analyze the transfer of skill formation concepts using the cases of two automotive OEMs in Slovakia. The purpose of the paper is twofold. First, it aims to explain the differences between the two multinationals. Second, it builds on the empirical analysis to reconsider the neo-institutionalist theoretical framework. Design/methodology/approach The paper is based on two qualitative case studies of automotive multinationals in Slovakia. The home country locations of both companies represent different approaches to skill formation: systematic vocational education for blue-collar workers is regarded as crucial at the German manufacturer, while the Korean company relies mainly on on-the-job-training and puts much less emphasis on skilled blue-collar work. Findings The paper shows that the differences between the companies are related to different understandings of technology/automation. It argues that the increasing automation and the decentralization of responsibilities for the product-launch processes supported the transfer of German skill formation concepts to the plant in Slovakia, while the Korean manufacturer’s specific engineering-led automation concept and centralization of product launch responsibilities in its Korean headquarters reduced the need to invest in skill formation for blue collars abroad. The paper concludes that theories of the transfer of HRM practices within multinationals must include technological factors and must also develop more specific concepts of the centralization of multinationals. Originality/value The paper is to the knowledge the first to include technology as a core variable into the neo-institutionalist theory in the field of international business and HRM. While the relationship between technology and organization has gained huge prominence in the recent discussions about digitalization, it has been so far neglected by scholars of international business
Social Media and the Digital Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere
Get PDFThis article explores the question of how to understand social media following the Habermasian theory of the structural transformation of the public sphere. We argue for a return to political-economic fundamentals as the basis for analysing the public sphere and seek to establish a characteristic connection between digital-behavioural control and singularised audiences in the context of proprietary markets. In the digital constellation, it is less a matter of immobilising the citizen as a consumer but rather of their political activation – albeit in conditions under which commercial interests have primacy: privatisation without privatism
Mobilization and support structures in radical right party networks. Digital political communication ecologies in the 2019 European parliament elections
Get PDFThe 2019 European Parliament elections seemingly fostered concerted political action among radical right parties (RRPs) to fortify their positions and mobilize publics on a pan-European scale. Digital platforms provide central infrastructure for networks among political actors and user interactions on the ground. Our study, therefore, investigates the intra- and transnational networking on Twitter established by RRPs’ strategic communication and user interactions. To understand how distinct political and media-related opportunity structures align with different intensities, types, and meanings of digital connections, we investigate the salience, actor types, and geographical scopes as well as the functions of digital connections within and across Twitter networks in Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, and Sweden during the EP election campaigns. Our results indicate the influence of parties’ structural power position on networked communication: The ecologies around RRPs in government reflect their integration in national discourses and competition. The networks of RRPs in opposition display a self-referential campaign ecology for the promotion and distribution of candidates, content, and positions. Transnationality in these networks is structured by EU-level collaboration and driven by civil society and political entrepreneurs, who appear keener to mobilize across borders.This work was supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research [grant no 16DII114 and 16DII125]
A Pragmatic Way to Open Management Research and Education: Playfulness, Ambiguity, and Deterritorialization
Get PDFThe open science movement has reached management research and education. Around the world, management scholars discuss, probe, and evaluate ways to make their work practices less ‘closed’ and more ‘open.’ However, how exactly such new work practices change management knowledge and teaching depends, to a large extent, on practitioners’ philosophical interpretation of ‘openness.’ Today, openness in management research and education is mainly interpreted as a feature of the input to or output from knowledge work. These interpretations conceive of research and education as relatively stable entities which can be opened at some clearly defined points. Our study aims to unsettle this conception and propose a new and more radical interpretation of openness. We propose to reconsider openness via the processual approach of American Pragmatism and thereby in a sense that dispenses with requiring the predisposition of research and education as stable entities. Via this interpretation of openness, management research and education can be transformed into a co-productive democratic movement which can bring about knowledge commons interwoven with true managerial and societal problems. To offer a first description of openness as a process that can transform management research and education, we analyze ethnographic material from two types of pragmatist experiments, which the first author facilitated between 2016 and 2021. We identify three key dimensions in the process of opening research and education: playfulness, ambiguity, and deterritorialization. Our study advances debates on the question of how management research can be more immediately helpful to management practitioners and students’ concerns
Extending the framework of algorithmic regulation. The Uber case
Get PDFIn this article, we take forward recent initiatives to assess regulation based on contemporary computer technologies such as big data and artificial intelligence. In order to characterize current phenomena of regulation in the digital age, we build on Karen Yeung’s concept of “algorithmic regulation,” extending it by building bridges to the fields of quantification, classification, and evaluation research, as well as to science and technology studies. This allows us to develop a more fine-grained conceptual framework that analyzes the three components of algorithmic regulation as representation, direction, and intervention and proposes subdimensions for each. Based on a case study of the algorithmic regulation of Uber drivers, we show the usefulness of the framework for assessing regulation in the digital age and as a starting point for critique and alternative models of algorithmic regulation
Wachsende Kluft zwischen Vorreiterunternehmen und Nachzüglern: Digitalisierung, Automatisierung und organisatorischer Wandel in Folge der COVID-19-Krise
Get PDFDie COVID-19-Krise hat massiven Einfluss auf die Arbeitswelt. Basierend auf einer standardisierten Befragung von 540 Betrieben und 34 qualitativen Fallstudien in sechs Branchen (Automobil, Chemie, Maschinenbau, Logistik, Gesundheit und Finanzdienstleistungen) untersucht die vorliegende Studie, wie sich im Kontext der Pandemie die Digitalisierungs- und Automatisierungsstrategien von Unternehmen verändert haben. Die Analyse zeigt, dass die befragten Betriebe die Krise im Großen und Ganzen gut bewältigt haben. Dabei zeigt sich allerdings eine zunehmende Polarisierung. Digitale Vorreiter haben Digitalisierungsmaßnahmen während der Pandemie in stärkerem Maße intensiviert, als jene, die in dieser Hinsicht bereits vor der Pandemie zurücklagen. Der Fokus der Digitalisierung während der Pandemie lag insbesondere auf der Unterstützung von Prozessen in der Verwaltung, dem Personalmanagement und dem Vertrieb. Automatisierung spielte primär in diesen Feldern eine Rolle und nur eine Minderheit der Befragten erwartete mittelfristig Beschäftigungsverluste. Ein zentraler Befund der vorliegenden Studie ist zudem der Zusammenhang zwischen technischer und organisatorischer Innovation. Es lässt sich beobachten, dass jene Unternehmen, die stärker in technische Digitalisierungsprozesse investiert haben, zugleich auch eher geneigt waren, organisatorische Veränderungen im Hinblick auf Führungsstile, Arbeitszeit und Arbeitsorganisation vorzunehmen.This work has been funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research of Germany (BMBF) (grant no.: 16DII111, 16DII112, 16DII113, 16DII114, 16DII115, 16DII116, 16DII117 – „Deutsches Internet-Institut“