Saturday, March 7, 2009
The Corruption of Division of Labor
In Durkheim's sobering concluding chapters, he discusses the
pathological/corrupted forms of division of labor that exist in today's
society. In contrast to Book I & II, Book III discusses the
division of labor as a source of unnatural inequality when it is forced
upon people or regulations are not in place to keep the division just.
It seems that Durkheim sees this corruption occurring partially because
economists have misinterepreted the division of labor as merely leading
to increased efficiency when, in fact, the division of labor is a means
of social solidarity that allows greater freedom for the individual
(Durkheim 1997:308). Further, this solidarity is partially dependent on
the government being properly organized in a fashion that allows it to
serve as a means of connection between people leading otherwise diverse
lives and having the regulations in place to ensure that production is
in balance with consumption (Durkheim 1997:296 and 303). With that
said, Durkheim does not call for negative regulations nor does he deny
that the economic system eventually corrects for inconsistencies, but
he sees regulations as necessary for stability of the system to avoid
crashes like we are seeing in our current economy (Durkheim 1997:303).
Rather than go into further summary of this last section, I'm going to diverge slightly here and discuss some contemporary theory that seems like it might be seeking to achieve some of the goals of solidarity within division of labor. I am speaking of coordination theory, a theory which I have only recently stumbled upon (literally stumbled upon) and one that comes out of the world of management information systems (MIS) and has found application within human-computer interaction (HCI). This theory seeks to form a model of the ways in which activity within a system is divided and the ways in which they communicate and interact to achieve a shared goal where their tasks are divided. In application, it seeks to find ways in which information technology can be utilized to make it easier for the individual actors performing their separate tasks to be informed when the dependency they are waiting on has been met so they can fulfill their role in the system. Again, I have done very little readin on this particular theory, so I cannot speak of it in detail, but I'm pointing it out in case their interest in it, although I'm personally very skeptical as to its originality but I do enjoy its general practicality and seeming simplicity. It's of particular interest to me as I'm beginning to delve into the emerging area of service design, which is an area of current expansion within HCI that I'm planning to cover in a course I'm teaching this summer on the 'emerging practices of HCI', although like coordination theory, service design seems to not be wholly original either as many aspects of it seems to simply be a relabeling of 'experience design' where the focus is on the entire user experience rather than just the usability of the product's functions. On a side note, if any reader wishes to take this course, it is being offered online and on-campus as HCI 596X at Iowa State University (feel free to request a copy of the syllabus). The group project will be service design oriented, but the individual projects will be more traditional interaction design focusing on the usability of a computer application or web site. My apologies for the plug of the course in this blog post, but I'm hoping to get some students in the course with an interest in the social sciences as it will be a good addition to the group of primarily engineers and psychologists that make up the core of Iowa State's HCI program (it should be noted that internationally, HCI as a discipline is shifting in the direction of the social sciences as computers continually serve as a means of connecting people and become less about an individual performing isolated work).
Durkheim, Emile. 1997 (1893) The Division of Labor in Society. W.D. Halls, trans. NY: Free Press.
Rather than go into further summary of this last section, I'm going to diverge slightly here and discuss some contemporary theory that seems like it might be seeking to achieve some of the goals of solidarity within division of labor. I am speaking of coordination theory, a theory which I have only recently stumbled upon (literally stumbled upon) and one that comes out of the world of management information systems (MIS) and has found application within human-computer interaction (HCI). This theory seeks to form a model of the ways in which activity within a system is divided and the ways in which they communicate and interact to achieve a shared goal where their tasks are divided. In application, it seeks to find ways in which information technology can be utilized to make it easier for the individual actors performing their separate tasks to be informed when the dependency they are waiting on has been met so they can fulfill their role in the system. Again, I have done very little readin on this particular theory, so I cannot speak of it in detail, but I'm pointing it out in case their interest in it, although I'm personally very skeptical as to its originality but I do enjoy its general practicality and seeming simplicity. It's of particular interest to me as I'm beginning to delve into the emerging area of service design, which is an area of current expansion within HCI that I'm planning to cover in a course I'm teaching this summer on the 'emerging practices of HCI', although like coordination theory, service design seems to not be wholly original either as many aspects of it seems to simply be a relabeling of 'experience design' where the focus is on the entire user experience rather than just the usability of the product's functions. On a side note, if any reader wishes to take this course, it is being offered online and on-campus as HCI 596X at Iowa State University (feel free to request a copy of the syllabus). The group project will be service design oriented, but the individual projects will be more traditional interaction design focusing on the usability of a computer application or web site. My apologies for the plug of the course in this blog post, but I'm hoping to get some students in the course with an interest in the social sciences as it will be a good addition to the group of primarily engineers and psychologists that make up the core of Iowa State's HCI program (it should be noted that internationally, HCI as a discipline is shifting in the direction of the social sciences as computers continually serve as a means of connecting people and become less about an individual performing isolated work).
Durkheim, Emile. 1997 (1893) The Division of Labor in Society. W.D. Halls, trans. NY: Free Press.
posted by Mike Oren # 3:11 PM
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