Is workplace technology gender and race neutral? COLLAPSE Is workplace technology gender and race neutral? Or do you think the particular applications of technology depend on either cultural stereotypes or the differential treatment of workers? Answer this question by providing two or three examples that demonstrate your point of view. In what ways does it matter that household labor is still seen as “not work”? How does the development of improved household technology during the 20th and 21st centuries affect your answer? ″Iron and steel mills were often hailed as markers of national greatness and the advance of civilization. In 1876, George Thurston described the then-new Edgar Thomson steel mill in Braddock, Pennsylvania as ′a striking illustration of the progress of civilization. No grander monument to the growth of the nation or the triumph of American manufactures and of American mechanics, could well be built.′″ Yet , as we have seen, these mills, so dependent in their form and grandness on advanced technology, hardly were to the benefit of ″American mechanics.″ And that is often true when technology is implemented today as well. So, how should we assess and evaluate technology that creates losers as well as winners? In the present day, could we – and how could we – insure that the benefits of technology are used, first of all, to ensure that no one is a loser? Please give a concrete example. “The economic conflict had an ideological dimension. Carnegie and his partners, determined to drive down labor costs, wanted complete freedom to set wages and working conditions without union interference, to control what they saw as solely their property. By contrast, workers felt they had a moral claim on the company, having contributed to its success through their skill and toil. Many shared what at the time was a common democratic vision in which working people (or at least the white, English speaking man among them) should have a say in both civic and industrial life.” What place and “say” should workers have in American society? What say should they have in the workplace and in politics? And most broadly, is democracy possible in an industrialized society with great economic inequality? Think about what you mean by ″democracy.″
