Paper short abstract:

This paper examines the experiences of workers and the role of the state as new automated technologies are introduced into the container terminals. The paper examines the struggles that shape infrastructure over both very short and very long time scales.

Paper long abstract:

Extraordinary developments in new technologies have sparked widespread concerns about the future of jobs and social inequality. This paper examines the experiences of workers and the role of the state as new automated technologies are introduced into the container terminals that are at the heart of global trade. It does so from a position of an engaged anthropologist who has spent six years working on union campaigns to preserve jobs and conditions on the Australian waterfront during the rapid introduction of new technologies. Interviews were also carried out with experienced workers in the midst of dealing with these changes. Automation has been fostered by fierce competition between companies. But this competition was forcefully implemented by the Australian government, which insisted on having three nearly identical container terminals adjacent to each other in its relatively small ports - a requirement that was neither necessary or sustainable. The paper takes a long view to examine massive port container terminal infrastructure in motion. What does infrastructural change mean for the people who work with it? Why does it happen? The paper also explores day-to-day struggles and relationships of power that shape how changes to infrastructure are implemented and what outcome is settled on.