Technology and the Organisation of Work. EEE701 Adults Learning: The Changing Workplace B.

This publication is part of the study materials for the distance education course, Adults Learning: The Changing Workplace B, in the Open Campus Program at Deakin University. The first part of the document analyzes the relationship between technology, skill, and work within the context of the debates concerning deskilling and managerial control strategies and the significance of technology and the organization of work. The following topics are discussed: technology and the organization of work; the deskilling debate (the upgrading, deskilling, and social construction theses; the Touraine and mixed-effects hypotheses; and the agnostic position); the origins of technology; and the flexible specialization thesis (the relationship between the flexible specialization thesis and skills and the limits of flexibility). Contains 56 references. The following papers constitute approximately 85% of the document: "New Technologies, New Skills" (P. Adler); "Technology and Deskilling: The Case of Five Principal Trade Areas in New South Wales" (D. J. Davis); "Intersphere Automation--The 'Factory of the Future'" (R. Kaplinsky); "Information Technologies, the Service Sector and the Restructuring of Consumption" (P. Blackburn, R. Coombs, K. Green); and "The End of Mass Production?" (K. Williams, T. Cutler, J. Williams, C. Haslam). Concluding the document is a 79-item annotated bibliography. (MN)