Charles Umney

@charlesumney.bsky.social

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Industrial relations, technology, sociology of work. Currently focused on technological change in warehousing work among other things. Co-author "Marketization" (Bloomsbury, 2022). https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/marketization-9781913441463/

What is human augmentation and why does it matter for the sociology of work? A conceptualization of worker-centred augmentation ‘Human augmentation’ commonly refers to ‘smart’ technologies that integrate with the human body, like exoskeletons, wearables, or modifications like retinal implants, increasing its cognitive or physical capacity. Many definitions of it are problematically broad or questionable. Nevertheless, the idea has gained traction in journalistic and policy debates. Evangelists for augmentation may posit a near-superhuman synthesis between humans and machines, supposedly resulting in upskilling and empowerment at work. These claims have attracted sceptical analysis from scholars of work and employment, yet there remains a need for further development of a critical research agenda around human augmentation. This article catalyzes this agenda by proposing a new conceptualization of ‘worker-centred’ human augmentation that can be usefully applied in the field. Such a conceptualization requires mediating between giving due weight to the intractable material characteristics of individual ‘augmenting’ technologies, and exploring the channels through which human agency shapes their design and use. We also argue that engaging with human augmentation necessitates critical reflection on ‘human-versus-machine’ framings that remain influential in sociological literature on technology and work.
How does the local state mediate the relationship between technological change and work? Evidence from warehousing in England Abbie Winton, Charles Umney, Gabriella Alberti Abstract The debate on technology and the future of work has so far engaged little with the local state. This is surprising, since the local state’s role as a potentially progressive actor in employment relations systems is attracting renewed interest in sociological scholarship. Through a study of warehousing in northern England, we examine how local state actors can mediate the relationship between technological change and work. We show that they often questioned the policy orthodoxy that private employer-led technological innovation always benefits local working populations, and we develop a typology of three strategies through which they sought to engage with technological trajectories in warehousing workplaces: engagement and advocacy, activation, and conditionality. Our study also shows how their regulatory capacity was limited by the opacity of technological innovation in warehousing, confining them to “soft” strategies which enshrined employer discretion and market imperatives. It concludes by reflecting on alternative visions whereby the local state may become more empowered to shape the future of work.
Sociotechnical Change in British Supermarkets: Examining the Role of Labour Lead author Abbie Winton When predicting the future of retail work, commentators tend to focus on automation and labour replacement and neglect the continued role played by labour, particularly in food retail. To understand this role, this article draws on both interview and newspaper data to show how change unfolded in the sector from before to just after the Coronavirus pandemic. Specifically, it shows how increased technology adoption and use in food retail occurred alongside an increased reliance on labour. The availability of a flexible labour pool that was easy to scale and later disband enabled employers to respond to increased consumer demand rapidly. In contrast to futurist predictions of the proliferation of labour-replacing technologies, the analysis shows how food retailers continued to prioritise short-term solutions contingent on human labour rather than investments in longer-term automation programmes, reflecting historical patterns of sociotechnical change within the sector.
Picture is of the paper abstract which reads: This article examines how understandings of passion shape people’s agency at work, through interviews with UK publicans. It addresses calls to rethink how “passion” is conceptualised in the sociology of work. While discourses around passion are often thought to legitimise individualised working practices, the article explores more collective interpretations. It analyses how publicans exercised agency in negotiating externally-imposed problems including the pandemic and exploitative relationships with leading industry actors. It identifies a collective understanding of passion centralising notions of community, which shaped participants’ agency in responding to these problems in three ways: providing motivation to persist in the industry; a frame for critiquing perceived injustice and (occasionally) mobilising against it; and a resource for reinvention in pursuing business sustainability. The main contribution is thus new concepts for analysing how “collectively-oriented passion” shapes individuals’ agency at work.
Front cover of the book "Marketization: how capitalist exchange disciplines workers and subverts democracy" by Ian Greer and Charles Umney