Joseph Cook
(PhD Researcher in Digital Anthropology, University College London, UK)
Abstract:
To many the contemporary corporate office exhibits many qualities reminiscent of Bentham’s Panopticon. Through both the exposed nature of the open-plan physical space and the assumption of workers being overseen through digital technologies, developments around such environments are understandably a concern of many modern labour unions. This paper tries to look at both sides of this argument by engaging with the thoughts and actions of those that design such spaces. Evidence-based designers claim to be delivering democracy, representing the worker in the design process and using data to create more humane spaces. By using online employee surveys, gathering utilisation data through sensors, swipe cards or video recordings, and interviewing workers, workplace strategy and design professionals aim to create spaces that not only work for business, but also take into account worker preferences in creating spaces that promote wellbeing and employee satisfaction. To labour unions though the cons of such engagement are often seen as outweighing the pros – with the ‘evidence’ gathered simply a continuation of scientific management into white collar professions, cleverly disguising the power of such data as concern. This paper draws on information gained through extensive ethnographic fieldwork in the workplace design team of one of the world’s largest architecture firms, along with interviews with trade union officials in the UK, to understand the role of both data-gathering and trade unions in the digital landscape of labour and the physical landscape of the office.
Joseph Cook is a PhD Researcher in Digital Anthropology at University College London (UCL), and a Research Assistant at UCL’s Urban Laboratory. Previously working in architecture, his current ethnographic research is interested in links between architectural design and organisational culture, the anthropology of work and data, and historical and novel forms of measurement in the workplace.