The Terror of the Machine: Technology, Work, Gender, and Ecology on the U.S.-Mexico Border (CMAS Border & Migration Studies Series) - Softcover

Peña, Devon G.

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9780292765627: The Terror of the Machine: Technology, Work, Gender, and Ecology on the U.S.-Mexico Border (CMAS Border & Migration Studies Series)
Softcover
ISBN 10: 0292765622 ISBN 13: 9780292765627
Publisher: University of Texas Press, 1997

Synopsis

Born of thirteen years of field research, this interdisciplinary work explores the complex intersections of technology, class, gender, and ecology in the transnational milieu of Mexico's maquiladoras, foreign-owned assembly plants located along the U.S. border.

Devon Peña examines workplace and community struggles from the perspective of the women who work in the maquiladoras. He describes the workers' struggles for workplace democracy, social justice, and sustainable development. He also observes the circulation of struggle from the factory to the community, highlighting the efforts to establish worker-owned cooperatives in the border region during the 1970s and 1980s.

Female maquila workers are typically portrayed as passive, apolitical, and easily exploited. This book, however, presents an opposing view, investigating the "subaltern life of the shop floor"—the workers' informal methods of resistance to hazardous conditions, sexual harassment, and managerial tyranny. Using survey research, oral history, discourse analysis, and site ethnography, the author develops a cogent critique of labor-process theory, a critique grounded on his extensive study of actual workplace politics in the maquiladoras.

The Terror of the Machine is a trenchant analysis of the political, cultural, and environmental effects of maquila industrialization and an eloquent and persuasive call for alternatives in the direction of ecologically sustainable and culturally appropriate modes of development.

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About the Author

Devon G. Peña is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Washington.

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Publisher
University of Texas Press
Publication date
1997
Language
English
ISBN 10 
0292765622
ISBN 13 
9780292765627
Binding
Paperback
Number of pages
477
Rating
  • 4.05 out of 5 stars
    22 ratings by Goodreads

Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

9780292765610: The Terror of the Machine: Technology, Work, Gender, and Ecology on the U.S.-Mexico Border (Cmas Border & Migration Studies Series)

Featured Edition

ISBN 10:  0292765614 ISBN 13:  9780292765610
Publisher: University of Texas Press, 1997
Hardcover