Paper Short Abstract:

This paper discusses the changing relationships between ship and desk functions, as decision-making is ‘onshored’ through digitalization. How do these relocations affect work organization, value and (in)visibilities of labor at sea? How can we explore an emerging 'present absence' of humans at sea?

Paper Abstract:

Ongoing automation and digitalization in the maritime industry is characterized by a ‘double maneuver’ transcending the land-sea binary in new ways: On the one hand, there is an intensified orientation towards the sea for ‘blue growth’, and a simultaneous maneuver towards land on the other, e.g. through the ‘onshoring’ of functions through digital technologies and automation. This ‘onshoring’ is facilitated by investments in and developments of digital technologies in shipping and beyond and entails that various functions, such as risk assessment, surveillance, and decision-making, are (partially) moved onshore. This paper discusses the changing relationship between ship and desk functions and labor, by focusing on introductions of digital technologies in a Norwegian-owned shipping company. It sees digitalization as a significantly spatial and socio-technical practice and asks how ‘onshoring’ in the shipping industry affects work organization, representations, and (in)visibilities in the workplace. The paper explores the various forms of relocation that digitalized ‘onshoring’ entails: First, as a (partial) displacement of work functions and labor from ship to desk or control room and second, through a disembedding of digital representations from their originating physical objects, qualities, or processes at sea, to other locations. How do these relocations affect work organization, value, and (in)visibilities of labor at sea? How can we think and rethink anthropological methods by examining digital and other relocations at sea? And more generally: How can we explore and understand what appears to be an emerging notion of ‘present absence’ of humans at sea?