Procrastination as a statement?
I am back to school and thus read a lot of interesting stuff. Right now I am preparing for a presentation in a class called "Inside technology – social construction of technology" and am reading an article about social choice in machine design. Basically it says that mechanization of the production process in metal cutting industry "mirrors the antagonistic social relations of capitalist production".
At some point it states: "Workers practiced pacing for many reasons: to keep some time for themselves, to exercise authority over their own work, to avoid killing 'gravy' piece-rate jobs by overproducing and risking a rate cut, to stretch out available work for fear of layoffs, to exercise their creativity and ingenuity in order to 'make out' on 'stinkers (poorly rated jobs), and, of course, to express hostility to management" (I added the italic). All these are described as "collective cooperation and labor-prescribed norms of behavior".
Now I am asking myself: what about procrastination? We, as students, usually tend to procrastinate, don't we? I find the act of procrastination similar to that of pacing – postponing things without an 'objective' reason. So, when we do that, are we exercising authority over our studies or even more than that (of course) expressing our hostility to the institutions? Anyhow, it seems like procrastination can be viewed as a form of collective cooperation or kind of a norm of behavior. In other words, now, when we procrastinate, we can view it as a proletarian statement! :)
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In case you are interested, the full citation of the article is:
David F. Noble "Social Choice in Machine Design: The Case of Automatically Controlled Machine Tools." In MacKenzie and Wajcman (eds.) The Social Shaping of Technology. First Edition (1985), Open University Press. Second Edition (1999). Philadelphia and Milton Keynes: Open University Press.
At some point it states: "Workers practiced pacing for many reasons: to keep some time for themselves, to exercise authority over their own work, to avoid killing 'gravy' piece-rate jobs by overproducing and risking a rate cut, to stretch out available work for fear of layoffs, to exercise their creativity and ingenuity in order to 'make out' on 'stinkers (poorly rated jobs), and, of course, to express hostility to management" (I added the italic). All these are described as "collective cooperation and labor-prescribed norms of behavior".
Now I am asking myself: what about procrastination? We, as students, usually tend to procrastinate, don't we? I find the act of procrastination similar to that of pacing – postponing things without an 'objective' reason. So, when we do that, are we exercising authority over our studies or even more than that (of course) expressing our hostility to the institutions? Anyhow, it seems like procrastination can be viewed as a form of collective cooperation or kind of a norm of behavior. In other words, now, when we procrastinate, we can view it as a proletarian statement! :)
-----
In case you are interested, the full citation of the article is:
David F. Noble "Social Choice in Machine Design: The Case of Automatically Controlled Machine Tools." In MacKenzie and Wajcman (eds.) The Social Shaping of Technology. First Edition (1985), Open University Press. Second Edition (1999). Philadelphia and Milton Keynes: Open University Press.
4 comments:
A word from comrade Barriga, who couldn't post her responce because her ideology denies opening accounts with Blogger:
HA! I do agree that procrastination is a collective enterprise...maybe it is even proletarian...now I will procrastinate by thinking of how this is related to the "obedience" strikes, in which you slow down production by strictly obeying rules.
THEN, by a combination of procrastination some days and obedience strikes on others, we will achieve my final goal, which is that no one does anything anymore...
;)
ah!comrade Epstein, thank you for re-setting the settings so that the un-accounted can speak!
in procrastinating spirit,
Barriga
Proletarian statement sounds very glamorous :)
As for procrastination, you speak for yourself. I never procrastinate!
Lisa, I always new you are one of a kind! I am procrastinating as i am writing these lines :)
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