Automated agrifood futures: robotics, labor and the distributive politics of digital agriculture

This paper draws from interviews with (1) US farmers who have adopted automated systems; (2) individuals employed by North American firms that engineer, manufacture, and/or repair these technologies; and (3) US farm laborers (immigrant and domestic) and representatives from farm labor organizations....

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe Journal of peasant studies Vol. 47; no. 1; pp. 184 - 207
Main Author Carolan, Michael
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published London Routledge 02.01.2020
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Subjects
Agriculture
anticipatory action
Automation
Capitalism
Farmers
imaginary
Immigrants
Labor movements
Politics
Robotics
Robots
smart farming
sociotechnical
temporality
United States > US
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Summary:This paper draws from interviews with (1) US farmers who have adopted automated systems; (2) individuals employed by North American firms that engineer, manufacture, and/or repair these technologies; and (3) US farm laborers (immigrant and domestic) and representatives from farm labor organizations. The argument draws from the literature interrogating the fictional expectations that underlie capitalist reproduction, reading it through a distributed (ontological) lens. The framework questions whether concepts like 'automation' and 'skill' provide sufficient analytic and conceptual clarity to critically engage these platforms and suggests that we think about what these technologies do rather than fixate on what each is.
ISSN:0306-6150
1743-9361
DOI:10.1080/03066150.2019.1584189