kumar: who's professional?

Krishan Kumar’s skepticism about the “information revolution” brings a healthy moderating voice to discussions about the promises of technology. In “From post-industrial to post-modern society,” Kumar claims that if this really were a revolution, we’d see some social changes as well. We are seeing those social changes, but only as an intensification of the post-industrial society—workforces are becoming deskilled and feminized and further from the centers of power. And all of this is a result of technologies of control, to keep pace with a faster lifestyle.

So, besides the fact that I resent to coupling of “feminization” with “deskilling,” I think Kumar’s critique falls a bit short. He notes the problems with this scenario of the extinction of middle managers and skilled workers, which are substantial. But he offers no real alternative. If he implies an argument against the implementation of washing machines as they put washers out of work, then should we slow technology in order to keep people at work? The jobs that are being optimized through machines are perhaps jobs no one ever dreamed of when they were growing up. The jobs that remain—nurse, personal assistant, lawyer, hairdresser—are perhaps more desirable jobs. I’m strongly opposed to the idea of curtailing technology in order to preserve jobs that people are perhaps better without in the first place. The solution is not to keep unskilled workers in their unskilled jobs, but to emphasize education to give them skills. Or to look at other skills “unskilled workers” have, such as language facility, home repair, etc. No one is “unskilled,” of course. And while I may be setting him up as a straw man here, Kumar’s characterization of plumbers and store managers as sham-professionals indicates his own isolation in the ivory tower. I’d like to see him fix his own bathtub or schedule a slew of part-time workers! Perhaps then he would be convinced that even those outside of the new “knowledge economy” help to keep it going.