IT in Education: Sociological Perspective

1. IT in Education: Sociological Perspective The Economic Consequences IT Development: The Coming of Informational-Global Capitalism

2. The Advent of Informational-Global Economy and the End of Capitalism? Statement of the Problem The proponents: Bill Gate�s thesis of Friction-Free Capitalism Peter Drucker�s thesis of Post-Capitalist Society Industrial revolution: Knowledge applied tools, process, and products Productivity revolution: Knowledge applied to work Management revolution: Knowledge applied to knowledge

3. The Advent of Informational-Global Economy and the End of Capitalism? Statement of the Problem The opponents: Another stage, if not the highest stage, of capitalism Historical outline of the development of capitalism Mercantile capitalism: 1500-1800 Industrial capitalism: 1800-1940 Organized capitalism: 1950-1970 Fordism Welfare-state corporatism Informational-global capitalism

4. Explication of Basic Conceptual Tools Capitalism: As a mode of production characterized by the following features: Domination of capital over other means of production, including labor Labor power is bought and sold by money wages Production for sale rather than for own use; production for exchange value rather use value Commoditfication as the primary cyclical dynamics of the mode of production: M?C?P?C�?M�, i.e. Money capital ? Commodity (i.e. labor and the means of production) ? Production ? Commodity (products) ? Money Competition among capitalist

5. Explication of Basic Conceptual Tools Becoming global and process of globalization David Harvey (1989): In The Condition of Postmodernity he defined it as a process of time-space compression, �an overwhelming sense of compression of our spatial and temporal world.� (1989, P.240) Anthony Giddens (1994): In The Consequences of Modernity he defines that �Globalization is really about the transformation of space and time. I would define it as action at distance, and relate its growth over recent years to the development of means of instantaneous global communication and mass transportation.� (1994, p. 22)

6. Explication of Basic Conceptual Tools Becoming Global and process of globalization Zygmunt Bauman (1998): Globalization as �annulment of temporal/spatial distances� (1998, p.18). Manuel Castells (1996): In The Network Society he defines globalization as a separation of simultaneous social practice from physical contiguity and the transformation the traditional notion of space of places to space of flows.

7. Explication of Basic Conceptual Tools Becoming informational and the information Technology Paradigm (Castells, 1996) In connection with the development Information Technology (IT) in the last three decades of the 20th century, Castells (1997) characterize changes as The Rise of Networkwork Society and the constitution of the IT paradigm. And the definitive features of the IT paradigm and the logic of IT network, according to Castells, can be characterized as follows.

8. Explication of Basic Conceptual Tools Becoming informational and the information Technology Paradigm (Castells, 1996) Central position of information in production: It replaces land and natural resources in pre-industrial society and capital in industrial society to become the primary factor of production in the value production process. In industrial society, it is information and knowledge acting on technology, which triggered the industrial revolution; but in informational society, it is technology acting on information that revokes technological breakthrough. As a result, technology to act on information has replaced the technology on natural materials and energy to become the major driving force for advancement and competitions.

9. Explication of Basic Conceptual Tools Becoming informational and the information Technology Paradigm (Castells, 1996) Pervasiveness of IT: because information and knowledge are integral part of human activities and modern IT has provided such a penetrating capacities to almost every aspects of human activities, IT has pervaded into every corner of informational society.

10. Explication of Basic Conceptual Tools Becoming informational and the information Technology Paradigm (Castells, 1996) Constitution of network logic: �The Atom is the past. The symbol of science for the next century is the dynamical Net � Whereas the Atom represents clean simplicity, the Net channels the messy power of complexity. �The only organization capable of nonprejudiced growth, or unguided learning is a network. All other typologies limited what can happen. A network swarm is all edges and therefore open-ended any way you come at it. Indeed, the network is the least structured organization that can be said to have any structure at all. �In fact a plurality of truly divergent components can only remain coherent in a network. No other arrangement � chain, pyramid, tree, circle, hub � can contain true diversity work as a whole.� (Kelly, 1995, p.25-27 quoted in Castells, 19976, note71, p. 61-62)

11. Explication of Basic Conceptual Tools Becoming informational and the information Technology Paradigm (Castells, 1996) Constitution of network logic: �Network can now be materially implemented, in all kinds of processes, and organizations, by newly available information technologies. Without them, the networking logic would be too cumbersome to implement. Yet this networking logic is needed to structure the unstructured while preserving flexibaility, since the unstructured is the driving force of innovation in human activity� (Castells, 1996, p. 62)

12. Explication of Basic Conceptual Tools Becoming informational and the information Technology Paradigm (Castells, 1996) Flexibility: The fluid structure of the network and its IT basis provide the network with high degree of modifiabity, reversibility, and reconfigurability. In one word, flexibility has become one of the definitive features of IT network. By flexibility, it refers to the state of affairs in which �not only processes are reversible, but organizations and institutions can be modified, and even fundamentally altered, by rearrangeing their components. What is distinctive to the configuration of the new technological paradigm is its ability to reconfigure, a decisive feature in a society characterized by constant change and organizational fluidity. �.Flexibility could be a liberating force, but also a repressive tendency if the rewriters of rules are always the powers that be. As Mulgan wrote: �Networks are created not just to communicate, but also to gain position, to outcommunicate.�� (Castells, 1996, p. 62)

13. Explication of Basic Conceptual Tools Becoming informational and the information Technology Paradigm (Castells, 1996) Convergence: Built on the above-mentioned features of IT network, the network also equips with high degree of compatibility and convergeability, with other systems.

14. Changes in the Regulative Regime of Capitalism Forms of regulation and control over the labor process Physical or simple control Bureaucratic control Rationalization of division of labor and delegation of authority Formalization of procedures and standards Bureaucratization of responsible autonomy Technical control: Fordism Fragmentation of work Deskilling of work Intensification of work Monopoly over knowledge and information of the labor process

15. Changes in the Regulative Regime of Capitalism Forms of regulation and control over the labor process Informational-global control: Neo-Fordism and Post-Fordism Informational-network monitor and control Flexible division of labor and multi-functional workers Involvement of workers and emphasis on multi-functional specialization and teamwork: Quality circles Total Quality Control (TQC) model: Assumption of five zeros (zero defect in the parts, zero mischief in the machines, zero inventory, zero delay, and zero paperwork)

17. The constitution of the informational-global economy Constitution of global division of labor Producers of high value, based on informational labor Producers of high volume, based on low-cost labor Producers of raw materials, based on natural endowment Redundant producers

18. The constitution of the informational-global economy Constitution of global production network: Microelectronic and computer as examples R&D, innovation, and prototype fabrication in �Technopolis� Skilled fabrication in branch plants in newly industrializing areas in core countries Semi-skilled, large-scale assembly and testing work in offshore newly industrialized countries Customization of device and aftersales maintenance and support in regional centers throughout the globe

21. The constitution of the informational-global economy Constitution of global finance network: Capital and information flows around the globe via hubs and nodes, i.e. international financial centers Constitution of global distribution of consumer goods and services

22. The constitution of the informational-global economy The constitution of the Informational-global capitalism: �It is informational because the productivity and competitiveness of units or agents in this economy (be it firms, regions, or nations) fundamentally depend upon their capacity to generate, process, and apply efficiently knowledge-based information. It is global because the core activities of production, consumption, and circulation, as well as their components (capital, labor, raw materials, management, information, technology, markets) are organized on a global scale either directly or through network of linkages between economic agents.� (Castells, 1996, p. 66) It is an economic system �based on the capacity of IT to be able to work as a unit in real time on a planetary scale.� (Castells, 1996, p.92)

23. The Constitution of the Network Enterprise Internal organization form of network enterprise: Horizontal corporation Flexible specification replacing rigid division of labor in bureaucratic Fordism Flat and networked hierarchy Team management Autonomous but accountable teamwork and/or quality circle Measuring performance by customer satisfaction Reward based on team performance Maximization of contact with suppliers and customers, and swift responses to feedbacks in retool or even reengineer Information, training and retaining of workers

24. The Constitution of the Network Enterprise External organization of network enterprise Multidirectional networking with small and medium business Licensing-subcontracting Corporate strategic alliance

25. The Constitution of the Network Enterprise Manuel Castells characterizes network enterprise as �specific form of enterprise whose system of means is constituted by the intersection of segments of autonomous system of goals. Thus, the components of the network are both autonomous and dependent vis-a-vis the network. �The performance of given network will then depend on two fundamental attributes to the network: its connectedness, that is its structural ability to facilitate noise-free communication between its components; its consistency, that is the extent to which there is sharing of interests between the network�s goals and the goals of its components.� (1996, p.171)

26. The Transformation of Work and Employment Decentralization of Work �The restructuring of firms and organizations, allowed by information technology and stimulated by global competition, is ushering in a fundamental transformation of work: the individualization of labor in the labor process. � The new social and economic organization based on information technologies aims at decentralization management, individualizing work, and customizing markets, thereby segmenting work and fragmenting societies. New information technologies allow at the same time for the decentralization of work tasks and for their coordination in an interactive network of communication in real time, be it between continents or between floors of the same building. The emergence of lean business practices of methods goes hand in hand with widespread business practices of subcontracting, outsourcing, offshoring, consulting, downsizing, and customizing.� (Castells, 1996, p. 265)

27. The Transformation of Work and Employment Debate on Jobless society Automation and computerization will cause rise of unemployment and even a �jobless future (Aronwitz & DiFazio, 1994) Carnoy (2000) and Castells (1996) argue that the jobless thesis is to simplified and misleading.

28. The Transformation of Work and Employment Debate on Jobless society Castells (1996, p. 228-9) characterize the transformation of employment and occupational structure as follows The phasing out of agricultural employment The steady decline of traditional manufacturing employment The rise of both producer services and social services, with the emphasis on business service in the first category, and health services in the second group The increasing diversification of service activities as sources of jobs The rapid rise of managerial, professional, and technical jobs

29. The Transformation of Work and Employment The transformation of work and employment: Debate on Jobless society Castells (1996, p. 228-9) characterize the transformation of employment and occupational structure as follows The formation of a �white-collar� proletariat, made up of clerical and sales workers The relative stability of a substantial share of employment in retail trade The simultaneous increase of the upper and lower levels of the occupational structure The relative upgrading of the occupational structure over time, with an increasing share of those occupations that require higher skills and advanced education proportionally higher than the increase of the lower-level categories

30. The Transformation of Work and Employment The hypothesis of two different informational models The �Service Economy Model� of the US, UK and Canada The �Industrial Production Model� of Japan and Germany

31. The Transformation of Work and Employment The rise of Netwrokers and Flextimers The New division of labor in network enterprise has transformed �work� in the following ways Value-making: It refers to the actual task performed in a given work process The commanders The researchers The designers The integrators The operators The operated

32. The Transformation of Work and Employment The rise of Netwrokers and Flextimers The New division of labor in network enterprise has transformed �work� in the following ways Relation-making: It refers to the relationship between a given organization and its environment, including other organizations The networkers The networked The switched-off

33. The Transformation of Work and Employment The rise of Netwrokers and Flextimers The New division of labor in network enterprise has transformed �work� in the following ways Decision-making: It refers to the relationship between managers and employees in a given organization The deciders The participant The executants

34. The Transformation of Work and Employment Flexibility of work changes important elements of work in the following four ways (Carnoy, 2000, p. 74) The notion of time: Flexible work means less employed time than a thrity-five- or forty-hour per week full-year job The notion of permanency: Flexible work is based explicitly on a fixed-term contract with no commitment for future employment The notion of location: Although the vast majority of workers still work at business sites, increasing numbers of independent contractors work not on-site but in their homes The notion of social contract between employer and employee: the traditional contract based on reciprocal rights, protections, and obligation is rapidly relinquishing.

35. The Transformation of the Class Relation in Informational-Global or Late Capitalism Globalization and denationalization of class relation in capitalism In informational-global capitalism, bourgeoisie as a class are no longer restrained by borders of nation state. They and their production lines are practically globally mobile. Proletariat or more general wage laborers are pit-downed by national borders or even local communities. Antagonistic class relations, not to mention class struggles, are practically unable to constitute.

36. The Transformation of the Class Relation in Informational-Global or Late Capitalism Globalization and polarization of class situations among wage labor: As Robert B. Reich underlines, globalization does not only insert relegating effect on working class in general but also insert elevating or upward mobility on the upper-strata of the knowledge class, in Reich�s own term symbolic analysts. It is because knowledge or skills possess by symbolic analysts are now put onto the global market for sale. As a result, any knowledge and skills that of really profitable or marketable will be auctioned globally. That explains �why the rich are getting richer and the poor, poorer.� (Reich, 1996)

37. The Transformation of the Class Relation in Informational-Global or Late Capitalism Structural changes in the class structure of the late-capitalist society The emergence of the �New Classes� The emergence of the managerial class in private sector: As (i) corporate ownerships are transformed into shareholderships and (ii) ownerships of means of production are further divided into legal/nominal shareholdership and the managerial power control over use of means of production in actual production process; there constitutes a class of managers who are employees and yet have direct control over the process of production in private sector. The emergence of the class of technocrat and bureaucrat in public sector: As state apparatuses expand, employees who manage the technocratic and bureaucratic know-how of governmental and public agencies increase substantially.

38. The Transformation of the Class Relation in Informational-Global or Late Capitalism The emergence of the knowledge class: As information technology spreads and knowledge production replaces manufacturing industries to become the core section of wealth accumulation in knowledge economy, there emerges a new class of know as �symbolic analysts� (coined by Robert B. Reich). The employments of the symbolic analysts may include scientists and researchers; programmers, designers, engineers, marketer and advertisers, consultants in enterprise management, ecology, public relation, etc.

39. The Transformation of the Class Relation in Informational-Global or Late Capitalism The emergence of the McProletariats: It refers to �new proletariats� who are unskilled and poorly paid service workers employed in outsourced centers. Its �reigning symbol is the McDonald�s worker, decked out in the colors of the corporate chain, working near the minimum wage without basic benefits, repetitively performing carefully monitored simple task.� (Kingston, 2000, p. 184)

40. The Transformation of the Class Relation in Informational-Global or Late Capitalism The emergence of the cybertariats: Cybertariat is coined by Ursula Huws in her collection of essays entitled The Making of a Cybertariat (2003) to indicate growing number of low-level, routine, non-manual office workers who are aligned by numbers of structural changes in office work into a common class position, comparable to proletariat in industrial capitalism. These structural changes include

41. The Transformation of the Class Relation in Informational-Global or Late Capitalism The emergence of the cybertariats: These structural changes include Automation and digitalization of productive process of traditional manufacturing industries have given rise to growing number of routine non-manual workers, who fall between the class divisions between bourgeois and proletariats in orthodox Marxist� sense. Changes in marketing strategies in regard to customization of manufacturing goods and provision of after-sale services have given rise to another large number of non-manual white-collar workers. Growth of service industries ranging from life-insurance sales to tourist guide or from website designer to image consultants has boosted yet another sector of non-manual labor.

42. The Transformation of the Class Relation in Informational-Global or Late Capitalism The emergence of the cybertariats: These structural changes include Automation and digitalization of clerical, information-processing and filing work and the shift from Fordist to �information-intensified� noe-Fordist management have not only expanded the population of white collar workers but also �disaggregated�, �unbundled� and made outsourcing of white-collar work possible. (Huwa, 2003) The development of global telecommunication has made office work �delocalizable�, i.e. it can be outsource to any part of the world. As a result, it has put white collar workers in developed countries in a global labor market and in competition with clerical workers in third world countries.

43. The Transformation of the Class Relation in Informational-Global or Late Capitalism The emergence of the cybertariats: These structural changes include Taken together, these changes have constituted a relegating or downward mobility effects on white-collar workers, i.e. making of a cybertariat.

44. The Transformation of the Class Relation in Informational-Global or Late Capitalism Beck�s thesis of structural contradiction in late- capitalist society Persistence of social inequality Waning of class effects: Questions concerning inequality are no longer perceived and political handled as class struggles.� (Beck, 2006, p. 143) Thesis of beyond status and class: �Individualization actually leads to a dissolution of lifeworlds associated with class and status group subculture.

45. The Economic Consequences IT Development: The Coming of Informational-Global Capitalism END