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The cassava processing industry in Ghana is dominated by small-scale processors who contribute valuably in terms of processed products such as gari, cassava flour, and cassava dough, among others, and as a result play a major role in the postharvest food system of the country. Their activities depend mostly on traditional methods of processing which have limitations in relation to the quality and quantity of the processed cassava products. They also rely mostly on manual labour which can be slow, costly or unavailable. Mechanisation of key operations in cassava processing activities has been identified as a means of increasing production, reducing postharvest losses as well as saving time. This study sought to assess the need for adoption of interventions to address challenges encountered during processing of cassava into a local staple known as gari (roasted fermented cassava grits). Cassava processors in selected parts of Ashanti and Bono East regions of Ghana were involved in the study. Focus group discussions and semi-structured questionnaires were employed for data collection. Results show that the main technological interventions used by small-scale processors in gari production are the grating machine and screw press. It was, however, noted that other key areas that require interventions are peeling and roasting. All the processors interviewed use manual means for cassava peeling and it was identified as the operation that requires the highest number of persons (15-18 people), to peel about 5-6 tonnes of cassava using about 6-9 hours. The process of manual peeling was identified as the main source of postharvest loss during small-scale processing of gari, resulting in about 13.90 (±1.26) % loss of fresh cassava which can produce about 178 kg of gari (from 5-6 tonnes of cassava). An effective mechanical peeler is therefore identified as key to facilitate gari/ processing in terms of operation speed and eliminating the over-dependence on manual labour. Other important developed interventions like mechanical roasters and improved stoves are also recommended to enhance gari processing. Outcome from this study is useful to researchers, investors, processors, policy makers and other stakeholders on the specific aspects of the gari processing to focus on in terms of research and investment.

With the occurrence of emerging technology, the world faces the risk of jobs being automated in the future. Labor automation itself refers to substituting technology for human labor to perform specific task or jobs. This study aims to find out whether this claim is applicable to Indonesia as a newly industrialized country and what can be done to resolve this issue? To test the hypothesis of how Labor automation can be applicable to Indonesia, this research aims to analyze the impact on how technology on jobs and what variables might be replaced in the future—using predictions from past statistics comparing how these past few years have changed with the development of technology. The research analyzed previous relevant studies on automation, how opportunities get created, how jobs get transformed, and what challenges are posed by emerging technologies. The major challenges that may be faced in this case is unemployment due to disappearing labor jobs. These results suggest that Indonesia will still be impacted with the risk of labor jobs being automated. On this basis, to prevent major unemployment issue, Indonesia needs to raise awareness for the younger generation to prepare for their future better, by enriching them with skills and ability to adapt with continuous changes.

With the rapid growth of the furniture product line industry and IKEA as the one of the pioneers, manual labour (and its limits of stability and high cost) is increasingly being replaced by automat...

Using a novel, nationally representative dataset containing the expectations of over 300,000 Australians, individuals are shown to form expectations in a manner inadequately explained by popular expectation mechanisms. Approximately one in five individuals form inflation expectations that are negatively related to their own‐income changes, even after accounting for their level of optimism regarding future economic conditions and their observation of economic news. These individuals are more likely to be engaged in manual labour and to be on lower income brackets. The inflation expectations of such individuals rise, even as Phillips curve predictions of inflation fall. The findings are particularly important for inflation dynamics during economic downturns when large numbers of consumers are likely to heavily increase their inflation expectations, potentially resulting in large inflation surprises.

‘Psychotechnics’, Weimar Germany’s science du jour, typically is framed as a symptom of ‘technological media’ – obscuring the persistent significance of ‘dexterity’, ‘skill’ and ‘manual labour’ at the time. More broadly, there is a tendency to construe ‘the haptic’ as predominantly a casualty of modernity: skilled hands replaced by conveyor belts; skilled hands defended by the rearguard actions of arts-and-crafts movements; skilled hands destroyed by industrialized warfare. Drawing on contemporary investigations into the ‘organ of touch’, this essay aims to complicate this picture by reconstructing the proto-ergonomic project of Friedrich Herig, a German engineer, amateur prehistorian and expert on craft labour who rose to distinction in the 1920s as a designer of ‘ideal’ hand tools. Herig’s eclectic sources of inspiration reveal that matters of ‘touch’, far from obsolete, were intimately bound up with matters of tools – their design, uses and putative origins – and thus, with matters of (manual) labour.

Although global demand for palm oil has been increasing, most activities in the oil palm plantations still rely heavily on manual labour, which includes fresh fruit bunch (FFB) harvesting and loose fruit (LF) collection. As a result, harvesters and/or collectors face ergonomic risks resulting in musculoskeletal disorder (MSD) due to awkward, extreme and repetitive posture during their daily work routines. Traditionally, indirect approaches were adopted to assess these risks using a survey or manual visual observations. In this study, a direct measurement approach was performed using Inertial Measurement Units, and surface Electromyography sensors. The instruments were attached to different body parts of the plantation workers to quantify their muscle activities and assess the ergonomics risks during FFB harvesting and LF collection. The results revealed that the workers generally displayed poor and discomfort posture in both activities. Biceps, multifidus and longissimus muscles were found to be heavily used during FFB harvesting. Longissimus, iliocostalis, and multifidus muscles were the most used muscles during LF collection. These findings can be beneficial in the design of various assistive tools which could improve workers' posture, reduce the risk of injury and MSD, and potentially improve their overall productivity and quality of life.

Drawing on a case study of algorithmically controlled manual labour in German manufacturing and delivery logistics, this article develops the concept of cybernetic proletarianization. It does so by joining an empirical analysis of labour processes with theoretical class analysis. Thus, it reconstructs Marx’s understanding of technical proletarianization as a dialectic between expulsion and reintegration of living labour in production processes. In the cases researched here, a qualitative and quantitative expulsion of living labour could be observed in different forms: First, deskilled flexibilization via digital instructions on working steps; second, a cybernetic mode of work intensification that is based on a permanent digital evaluation of the labour process; third, data-based automation, which builds on the data collected from the labour processes. This expulsion is counterweighted by a process of reintegration of devaluated living labour due to new highly labour-intensive forms of production and distribution, which are enabled by algorithmic work control. However, these processes are highly conflictual, resulting in different ‘technopolitics from below’, in which workers influence or even disrupt the processes of cybernetic proletarianization.

The construction industry has been examined as a highly unsafe industry because of more number of deaths caused by many incidents/accidents. The working sites need changes within the nature of labour, the situation of manual labour, and the mixture of skilled and unskilled workers. As the Indian construction industry remains labour-intensive, the correct harmonization between workers, artisan, customers, and workforce is required for a secure labour environment which is considerably lacking. The research has demonstrated the recognition of unsafe working conditions. And so, the underestimation of safety risk may be a widespread problem. Therefore, effective safety administration is the major thing to acknowledge and managing hazards and prioritisation to safety is a must and this will also lead to enhanced success in project accomplishment. The work was initiated by preparing a questionnaire survey among the various persons involved in this work, it paved the way to analyse and estimate their present system of practice happening with respect to safety in the real estate sector in a metro city and to ascertain the quality of output received through the questionnaire and also to quantify the data with statistical analysis. It also helps to identify the relative importance of the data and the influencing factor among the output of the questionnaire. It revealed that psychological factors as the major influencer in the safety of building sectors. It is further helped to optimize the factors influencing safety in the construction industry.

Craft food and beverage makers regularly emphasize transparency about the ethical, sustainable sourcing of their ingredients and the human labour underpinning their production, all of which helps elevate the status of their products and occupational communities. Yet, as with other niche ethical consumption markets, craft industries continue to rely on employment conditions for agricultural workers that reproduce inequalities of race, class, and citizenship in the dominant food system. This paper interrogates the contradiction between the exaltation of craft cidermakers’ labour and the devaluation of farmworker labour by assessing how craft beverage actors make sense of inequalities facing manually skilled agricultural workers. Through a focus on the emerging craft cider industry, this paper draws on in-depth interviews and ethnographic data with a range of urban and rural cider actors in the Pacific Northwest (British Columbia, Oregon, and Washington State). I find that actors in the craft cider industry engage with inequalities affecting farmworkers through three main patterns: (1) Justifications of the status quo; (2) Supply chain fog; and (3) Misgiving/critique. By using an analytical framework that integrates critical agrarianism and the politics of sight, this study provides insights into both barriers and opportunities to redistribute social recognition and material rewards across food supply chains.

The author carries out a retrospective analysis of social mobility elevators and channels functioning within the collective farm system in the USSR in the 1930s. The subject of research is the collective farm peasantry and its border social groups (machine operators, administrative staff of collective farms, and machine and tractor station workers). It is concluded that multidirectional channels and lifts of intergroup and intragroup social mobility operated in Soviet rural areas in the 1930s. The most widespread channel of social mobility was collectivisation. Intensive social processes took place inside collective farms, which resembled social elevators that had an internal corporate character. A professional career in collective farms could be used as a mechanism of mobility: external elevators, institutionalised state practices, “positive” behavioural practices, and “positive” socio-political record. Channels of social and professional mobility functioned within the collective farm system. The most socially significant of them was the transition of workers engaged in horse and manual labour to machine operators. The collective farm system was integrated into the system of social elevators and channels operating in the USSR, but transition to them from collective farms was limited. Administrative, educational, professional, gender, and age barriers were in place for the social mobility of collective farmers. Chance to go beyond collective farms was given to young people receiving education and conscription. Being sentenced to prison meant the collective farmer’s descent to the bottom of the Soviet social ladder. The mechanisms of social descent could be: “negative” behavioural practices, illegal actions, and “negative” socio-political record.

In the textile and allied process organisations, it is approximately started that more than 1500 fabric and allied textile processing industries are exaggerated, partially closed and put down the lid off for a range of reasons such as deprived management, poor supplier presentation, lack of planning for efficiency, fluctuation of throughput, poor speculation, waste analysis, manual labour problems, funds / labour ratio, gathering of stocks, poor continuation of possessions, deficiencies in the quality of fabric, low capacity utilization, age of plant and equipment, high investment and input but low throughput, poor research and development, lack of energy, workers’ fear of loss of jobs, work force mix and work ethic. The main purpose of this work is to analyze the breathing conditions in textile fabric sector, corroborate the break even of Total Productivity (TP), analyze, design and explore a robust work for improvement of yield and quality scope in the fabric handing out industry using replacement intelligence techniques. It needs to be compatible with the reality of textile and fabric processing industries. The decidedly risk events from yield and quality measurement were originated by fuzzy systems and results are wrapped up amongst the textile fabric processing industry.

Sand is a raw material in the building and construction industry. Its sustainable supply is required to support infrastructure development in emerging cities in Ghana and elsewhere. However, sand is not adequately recognised as building construction foundational material, and is not sufficiently addressed by policy, planning, legislation and institutional management and remains a grey area in mainstream research. The increasing population in Tamale requires shelter which leads to exploitation of more sand. This study assessed sand winning from the periphery to support the core, Tamale. The study adopted crosssectional design with a mixed method approach. It involved a primary target of 200 sand winners and a secondary target of 59 household heads in a multi-stage sampling. Primary data were generated using questionnaire, key informant interview guide and personal observation. Data were analysed using Statistical Package for Social Scientists’ descriptive statistics, central tendencies and cross tabulation with chi square test. The results showed that sand winning was done in six districts outside Tamale Metropolitan Assembly. Sand was winned from riverbeds, river walls and sand deposits. Sand winners preferred the use of manual labour to excavators. Sand winning provided livelihoods for tipper truck drivers and loading boys. Government regulation of the activity is limited and unsatisfactory. There was cordial relationship between sand winners and sand winning communities. It is recommended that government creates an agency to manage sand winning. Keywords: Sand Winning, Concretisation, Ecological Modernisation, Tipper Truck, Tamale

This paper investigates the integration of laser profile sensor to an industrial robotic arm for automating the quality inspection in manufacturing processes that requires a manual labour intensive work. The aim was to register the measurements from a laser profile sensor mounted on a six degrees-of-freedom robot with respect to the robot base frame. The registration is based on a six degrees-of-freedom calibration, which is an essential step for several automated manufacturing processes that require high level of accuracy in tool positioning and alignment on one hand, and quality inspection systems that require flexibility and accurate measurements on the other hand. The investigation compromises of two calibration procedures namely the calibration using a sharp object and the planar constraints. The solution of the calibration procedures estimated from both iterative and optimization solvers is thoroughly discussed. By implementing a simulation platform that generates virtual data for the two procedures with additional levels of noise, the six-dimensional poses are estimated and compared to the ground truth. Finally, an experimental test using a laser profile from Acuity mounted on Mitsubishi RV-6SDL manipulator is presented to investigate the measurement accuracy with four estimated laser poses. The calibration procedure using a sharp object shows the most accurate simulation and experimental results under the effect of noise.

Paddy is major predominant crop during kharif in Visakhapatnam district of Andhra Pradesh, cultivated in an area of 102074 ha, out of total cropped area of 180164 ha with productivity of 2524 kg/ha. Farmers grow crop by adopting traditional method of paddy cultivation, use more seed rate, close spacing, late transplanting with over aged seedlings common phenomenon due to erotic rainfall Scarcity of labour and escalation in labour wages, reduction in labor efficiency are leading to low net returns. Organized On Farm Trials (OFTs) in farmer fields in two seasons Kharif , 2018 and Kharif , 2019. MSRI technology in paddy recorded 20.76% yield over normal transplanting method of paddy cultivation during both Kharif seasons. The results from the study showed that the farmers realized additional net income of Rs.15038 due to increased grain yield by 20.76% with reduction of cost of cultivation by Rs. 1150, it could be attributed to reduction in manual labour per ha and also increase in yield attributes.

“Industry 4.0” marks the advent of a new wave of industrial robotics designed to bring increased automation to “extreme” touch practices and enhance productivity. This article presents an ethnography of touch in two industrial settings using fourth generation industrial robots (a Glass Factory and a Waste Management Center) to critically explore the social and sensorial implications of such technologies for workers. We attend to manifestations of dirt and danger as encountered through describing workers’ sensory experiences and identity formation. The contribution of the article is two-fold. The first is analytical through the development of three “filters” to grasp the complexity of the social and sensorial dynamics of touch in situ while tracing dispersed mediating effects of the introduction of novel technologies. The second is empirical, teasing out themes embedded in the sociosensorial dynamics of touch that intersect with gender, ethnicity, and class and relate to the technological mediation of touch.

Après un début d’institutionnalisation sous la République de Weimar, la sociologie du travail allemande se développe à partir des années 1960 autour des thématiques des relations professionnelles, de la technique et du travail ouvrier qualifié. L’affirmation dans les années 1980 d’un paradigme de la subjectivation élargit le spectre d’analyse vers la dimension agissante et incarnée du travail. Bien que ces différentes orientations de recherche communiquent peu entre elles, elles trouvent un cadre fédérateur dans la référence marxiste et l’ambition de contribuer à un diagnostic critique de la société. Mais cette ambition critique est aujourd’hui en quête d’une nouvelle théorie de la société, alors que le mode dominant de financement contractuel de la recherche laisse peu de latitude pour des chantiers théoriques d’ampleur. After a modicum of initial institutionalisation under the Weimar Republic, German sociology of work established itself during the 1960s, largely revolving around themes such as industrial relations, technology and skilled industrial labour. The affirmation of a subjectivation paradigm during the 1980s broadened the spectrum of analysis to encompass the agency-related and embodied dimensions of work. Although these various research orientations remain relatively compartementalised, they have hitherto shared a unifying framework based on Marxist references and an aspiraton to offer a critical diagnosis of society. It remains that this critical ambition is currently in search of a new theory of society, even as the dominant mode for funding contract research leaves little leeway for broad theoretical investigations. Después de un comienzo de institucionalización bajo la República de Weimar, la sociología del trabajo alemana se desarrolla a partir de los años 1960 en torno a las temáticas de las relaciones profesionales, de la técnica y del trabajo obrero calificado. La afirmación en los años 1980 de un paradigma de la subjetivación amplía el espectro de análisis hacia la dimensión activa y encarnada del trabajo. Aunque estas diferentes orientaciones de investigación comunican poco entre ellas, encuentran un marco unificador en la referencia marxista y la ambición de contribuir a un diagnóstico crítico de la sociedad. Pero esta ambición crítica está actualmente en busca de una nueva teoría de la sociedad, mientras que la forma dominante de financiamiento contractual de la investigación deja poca libertad para obras teóricas de envergadura.

Formal education was used by the apartheid government to prepare black South Africans for manual labour, thus there was little curricular focus on the development of higher-order cognitive ...

The pursuit of up scaling accuracy and conserving precious time, money and manual labour at the same time, improving the comfort of the patient has always been the aim and end of medical manufacturing technology. Towards this goal, fabrication of tooth aligners with high precision, lesser cost and enhanced comfort to patients would be a highly significant step. A pilot study has been performed with the above aim and by utilizing state-of-the-art Additive Manufacturing techniques. In this study, treatment/alignment of the teeth is done by Geomagic Touch Haptic Device with Freeform Plus modelling software. Customized direct clear and hard aligner is fabricated by Objet260 Connex, solid ortho model and assembled ortho model is fabricated by uPrint machine. The success of this study would lead to very comfortable tooth aligners in place of the traditional ones. This would come as a solution to many complex dental problems, while being affordable for the patients.

There has been criticism of how Fair-Trade products represent workers in remote parts of the world where packaging offers an encounter with distant others which romanticizes and homogenizes them as a pre-modern form of ethnicity. Such workers are shown as always engaged in authentic, simple, honest decontextualized manual labor. And they are depicted as highly appreciative of, and empowered by, the act of ethical shopping. This paper shows that a close social semiotic analysis of Fair-Trade packaging reveals a different set of meanings which sit alongside the decontextualized ones. Designs integrate these workers into more contemporary kinds of modernist, rational, design chic, which communicates its own kind of honesty and authenticity. We consider how this, too, shapes how such consumers encounter distant others and its consequence for the meaning of the act of ethical shopping, where consumers can buy into moral alignment offered by products.

Tarih seyri içerisinde insanlar, yaşamlarını idame ettirmek için belirli işler edinmiştir. Birçoğu beden gücüne ve el emeğine dayanan bu işler zamanla değişerek günümüze meslek dediğimiz kavramı doğurmuştur. Bir insanın geçimini sağlamak için belli kurallar çerçevesinde, bilgi ve becerilere dayalı olarak yaptığı sürekli işe meslek denir. Tarihi süreç içerisinde yaşayan devletlerin bıraktıkları resmi kayıtlara yansıyan meslekler, günümüz tarihçileri ve iktisatçıları için bir şehrin veya bölgenin ekonomik ve sosyal potansiyelini ortaya koymak açısından ideal birer veri kaynağı olmuştur. Osmanlı Devleti’nin Tanzimat Dönemi (1839-1876) ile başlayan yeniden yapılanmasının bir ayağı da sosyal ve ekonomik eşitliğin sağlanmasıydı. Bu bağlamda 1844-1845 yılında yapılan sayımlar neticesinde çıkan veriler “Temettuat Defterleri” denen kayıtlara geçirilmiştir. Bu defterler yardımıyla 19. yüzyılda kayıtların tutulduğu merkezlerin sosyal ve ekonomik durumu hakkında ayrıntılı bilgiler elde edilebilmektedir. Bu çalışmada coğrafî konum ve tarihsel gelişim açısından birbirine yakın olan Zile ve Bozok kazaları seçilmiştir. Çalışmanın ana kaynağını 1844-1845 yıllarına ait Zile ve Bozok Temettuat Defterleri oluşturmaktadır. Bu defterlerden adı geçen kazalarda yaşayan gayrimüslim ahalinin uğraştıkları meslekler ve bunlardan elde ettikleri gelirler değerlendirilmiştir. Bu bağlamda 1844-45’te Zile’de sekizinde Müslim-gayrimüslimin bir arada yaşadığı ve birisinde sadece gayrimüslim ahalinin yaşadığı toplamda yirmi mahalle; Bozok’ta ise yalnız dört mahallesinde Müslim-gayrimüslimin bir arada yaşadığı toplamda dokuz mahalleye ait Temettuat kayıtları baştan sona taranmıştır. Yapılan taramalar sonrasında Zile kaza merkezinde 122 farklı meslek tespit edilmiş ve bu mesleklerden gayrimüslimlerin icra ettiği 45’i etraflıca ele alınmıştır. Aynı şekilde, Bozok kaza merkezinde 166 farklı meslek tespit edilmiş ve bu mesleklerden gayrimüslim ahalinin icra ettiği 99 meslek üzerinde detaylı olarak durulmuştur. Ayrıca çalışmada iki merkezde tespit edilen mesleklerin benzer ve farklı yanları ele alınmıştır. Çalışma özelde Zile ve Bozok kazalarında, genelde ise Osmanlı Devleti’nin Anadolu’daki topraklarında yaşayan gayrimüslim ahalinin ekonomiye katkısını ortaya koymaya yönelik mütevazı bir çalışma olma amacı taşımaktadır., Throughout the course of history, people have acquired certain works to maintain their lives. These works, many of which are based on body strength and manual labour, have changed over time, and created the concept that we call the profession today. A person's continuous work which based on knowledge and skills, within the framework of certain rules, is called profession. The professions reflected in the official records left by the states living in the historical process have been ideal data sources for today's historians and economists in terms of revealing the economic and social potential of a city or region. One of the pillars of the restructuring of the Ottoman Empire, which began with the Tanzimat Period (1839-1876), was providing social and economic equality within the society. In this context, the data obtained from the censuses made in 1844-1845 were recorded under name of “Temettuat Registers “. With the help of these records, detailed information can be obtained about the social and economic status of the areas that subject to the censuses in 19th century. In this study, two township centre, Zile and Bozok which both shows similarities in their geographical location and historical development, has been chosen as the subject area. The main source of the study is Zile and Bozok Temettuat Registers of 1844-1845. From these records, the occupations of the non-Muslim inhabitants who were living in the mentioned places and their incomes have been evaluated. In this context, in 1844-45, there were a total of twenty neighbourhoods in Zile, eight of them were inhabited by Muslim and non-Muslims together, and one of them was inhabited only by non-Muslim residents. However, in Bozok there were nine neighbourhood and in four of them Muslim and non-Muslims were living together. After detailed research in these neighbourhoods, 122 different occupations were identified in the centre of Zile and 45 of these occupations were handled in detail. Likewise, 166 different occupations were identified in Bozok township centre and 99 occupations of non-Muslim population were studied in detail. Additionally, similar and different aspects of the occupations identified in the two centres and discussed. This study aims in general aspect to reveal the economic contribution of non-Muslim inhabitants in the Anatolian territories of the Ottoman Empire and in particular targets the reveal Zile and Bozok townships’ economic contributions to the area and to the country.

Although rooted in tasks of manual labour, craft production is increasingly cast as part of the creative industries through a shared mode of production that emphasizes the aesthetic, design and cultural features of the final product, as well as a common experience of precariousness among workers. This paper highlights an emerging connection between craft production and the creative industries based on the glamourization of work, a characteristic that has been noted in the creative industries but that has received less attention in craft-based sectors. Focusing on the case of the craft brewing sector in Portland, Oregon, the paper documents the newfound cachet attached to craft brewing work and contrasts it against the everyday experiences of work in the sector. In doing so, the paper develops the argument that, while the recent glamourization of craft brewing as an occupation has allowed craft brewers in Portland to assume a quasi-celebrity status and has appeared to bring craft brewing in closer alignment with other forms of creative work, it has not resulted in improved working conditions or enhanced prospects for creativity. Rather, the glamourization of craft brewing work has exacerbated precarious working conditions in the sector by creating an oversupply of potential workers, which has raised entry barriers, while simultaneously keeping wages low.