[spectre] Technopolitics Special Event: John Barker, "Bloody Taylorism and Cognitive Capitalism"

[Armin Medosch]

Technopolitics Special Event
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John Barker, "Bloody Taylorism and Cognitive Capitalism"
Lecture and Discussion

BOEM, Tuesday 11th of December 2012, 8 pm, Koppstrasse 26, 1160 Wien

John Barker presents results of his and Ines Doujak’s recent research 
Loomshuttles Warpaths, linking global production chains, labour regimes 
and technology with particular reference to the textile and clothing 
industry. The lecture will be followed by an open discussion. The event 
is part of a series of meetings of the Technopolitics Study Group in 
Vienna.

Key points of the lecture are

- The co-existence of different modes of production in the same world 
with particular reference to the textile and clothing industry
- the particular forms of labour discipline in each mode with reference 
to pre-industrial modes of intensity of labour
- what does labour saving machinery mean
- the assumptions of “sourcing”  the ideology of free trade and the 
ICT-led revolution in logistics.
- the outsourcing of risk
- the non-repeatability of textiles as a take-off for national 
industrial development
- Are we now seeing  the difference between the Marxist categories 
reserve army of labour and surplus population, that is the expendability 
of  certain forms of people and their labour.

John Barker is a novelist and has written extensively on political 
economy for Mute, Variant, and Adbusters magazines as well as the 
journal Science as Culture.

Technopolitics is the name of a project that combines research with 
self-education through lectures, discussions and other events; we also 
strive to create repositories of shared online resources and join theory 
with a praxis oriented approach.

Technopolitics emerged out of discussions between Brian Holmes and Armin 
Medosch, and has become a research theme explored by a growing number of 
people in Chicago, Vienna and other places. An initial collection of 
ideas and notes can be found here: http://www.thenextlayer.org/

After Technopolitics at Boem "Smelling the Rat" in 2011, this is the second 
time BOEM is hosting a technopolitics meeting. 
http://www.thenextlayer.org/node/1359

The BOEM* is, according to its self-description, a typical 
ex-Yugoslavian place. A little bit messy or you could also say: with 
patina. Used. For more than a decade it´s been well known as “Yugocafé”, 
which was operated in combination with construction companies. A typical 
Viennese corner-café.

BOEM* As A Basis Of Transcultural Supply, As Research Initiative.

http://boem.postism.org/about