new book on society and computing

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@columbia.edu>]

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                          Book Announcement
  
  CUTTING EDGE
  Technology, Information Capitalism and Social Revolution
  
  Edited by Jim Davis, Thomas A. Hirschl and Michael Stack
  
  Published by Verso, Fall, 1997
  
  Available at bookstores now
  
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  A robot can build a car. But a robot cannot buy a car... The
  explosion in the development of computer- and robotic-based
  manufacturing is seeing the rapid expansion of laborless
  production systems. Such systems create enormous instability, both
  for the overall economy where money previously paid in wages is
  now invested in labor-saving technology and therefore cannot be
  spent on goods, and for workers whose jobs are being deskilled or
  are simply disappearing.
  
  Bringing together contributions from workers employed in the new
  electronics and information industries with work from theorists in
  economics, politics and science, Cutting Edge provides an up-to-
  the-minute analysis of the complex relations between technology
  and work.
  
  Paperback
  1 85984 185 6
  £15.00 / $19.00
  
  Hardback
  1 85984 830 3
  £40.00 / $60.00
  
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  >From the introduction to _Cutting Edge_:
  
  "How is one to make sense of the world today? Contemporary
  political and economic events as well as recent technological
  developments defy conventional analysis. The general breakdown of
  the post-World War II social order is well underway, visibly
  evident in the dramatic dissolution of the Eastern European and
  Soviet socialist economies. The dramatic polarization of wealth
  and poverty -- not just between the technologized and under-
  technologized nations, or north and south, but also within the
  technologized center -- exposes the "capitalism has won" and
  "history is over" pronouncements as rather premature. The
  socioeconomic polarization matures as the powers of science and
  technology leap ahead at breakneck speed.
  
  "While the traditional Left has lost much of its appeal, and the
  world's labor unions are on the defensive, new forces have stepped
  onto the world stage. Scenes from this drama are as diverse as the
  Los Angeles rebellion in 1992, the Chiapas uprising beginning in
  1994, the regular eruptions in the industrial heart of the U.S.,
  the tent cities and marches of the welfare recipients and the
  homeless in Philadelphia, Detroit, Boston, Oakland and other U.S.
  cities, the labor strikes in France, Korea, Canada, Germany,
  Russia, and the  new student movement emerging in the U.S. and
  elsewhere. The world has entered a period of upheaval.
  
  "This collection of essays attempts to make sense of trends and
  developments as the 20th century draws to a close. The pieces
  share an attempt to confront the contradictions of society today,
  and put them on a firm material footing. Despite the many gloomy
  signals as this is written, they betray a spirit of optimism about
  the future."
  
  [The complete introduction may be found online at
  http://www.mcs.com/~jdav/ce/intro.html ]
  
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  CONTENTS:
  
  1. Introduction: Integrated Circuits, Circuits of Capital and
  Revolutionary Change
  
  
  2. Robots and Capitalism
  Tessa Morris-Suzuki
  
  
  3. Why Machines Cannot Create Value; or, Marx's Theory of Machines
  George Caffentzis
  
  
  4. Capitalism in the Computer Age and Afterword
  Tessa Morris-Suzuki
  
  
  5. High Tech Hype: Promises and Reality of Technology in the 21st
  Century
  Guglielmo Carchedi
  
  
  6. Value Creation in the Late Twentieth Century and the Rise of
  the Knowledge Worker
  Martin Kenney
  
  
  7. The Information Commodity: A Preliminary View
  Dan Schiller
  
  
  8. The Digital Advantage
  Jim Davis and Michael Stack
  
  
  9. The Biotechnology Revolution: Self-Replicating Factories and
  the Ownership of Life Forms
  Jonathan King
  
  
  10. Structural Unemployment and the Qualitative Transformation of
  Capitalism
  Tom Hirschl
  
  
  11. How Will North America Work in the Twenty-First Century?
  Sally Lerner
  
  
  12. Cycles and Circuits of Struggle in High-Technology Capitalism
  Nick Witheford
  
  
  13. A Note on Automation and Alienation
  Ramin Ramtin
  
  
  14. New Technologies, Neoliberalism and Social Polarization in
  Mexico's Agriculture
  Gerardo Otero, Stephanie Scott and Chris Balletto
  
  
  15. The New Technological Imperative in Africa: Class Struggle on
  the Edge of Third-Wave Revolution
  Abdul Alkalimat
  
  
  16. Heresies and Prophecies: The Social and Political Fall-out of
  the Technological Revolution
  A. Sivanandan
  
  
  17. The Birth of a Modern Proletariat
  Nelson Peery
  
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