New Divisions of Digital Labour in Architecture

Abstract

As architecture intersects with computer science to engage with large-scale data sets and informational systems, this demands new skills, competencies and commitments. Informed by the findings of an online survey, this article explores how, who and to what extent those in the profession of architecture are investing in technology knowledge and skills, and under what material conditions this occurs. Survey data collected from five large-scale architecture practices in Sydney, Australia finds that while technology-related skills are highly valued in the profession, more men than women are engaging with computationally intensive software and technology skills building remains a largely unstructured and often self-directed enterprise. Drawing on feminist technology studies and digital labour perspectives, it is argued that the drive to computationalise the profession of architecture rests heavily on discretionary, aspirational and invisible labour practices that disadvantage employees with lesser reserves of economic and social capital, and particularly women. This further contributes to revealing neo-liberalism’s influence on the concrete practices of the architecture workplace and highlights how the diminished structural role of employers breeds uneven opportunities and inequitable working conditions.

Choose your future: a feminist perspective on Construction 4.0 as techno-utopia or digital dystopia

“…These gendered contexts of construction, digital careers, and industry transformation, thus conflate to gender Construction 4.0 as a robustly masculine venture, with a marginalised female workforce (Wajcman, 2004;Walby, et al, 2009). The new data-driven labour associated with emerging practices in architectural, engineering, and other construction professions looks set to disadvantage women (Gardner, 2019).…”

Gendered Division of Digital Labor in Parenting: A Qualitative Study in Urban China

“…As feminist scholars point out, both gender and its relationship with technology are mainly expressed and constructed in people's "doing" (Gardner, 2019;Wajcman, 2007Wajcman, , 2010West & Zimmerman, 1987). In this study, the gendered division of digital labor and the mutual construction of gendered parenting and digital technology are produced in the daily childcare practices and interactions of Chinese parents.…”

“…The concept of "digital labor" was originally developed by labor and media scholars to describe "the leisure-oriented, unpaid activities" of Internet users that are appropriated by Internet companies for profit (Gandini, 2020, p. 369). In recent years, the concept of digital labor has been used in multiple disciplines to analyze activities related to production, consumption, leisure, and reproduction that are performed via digital technology and media (Gandini, 2020;Gardner, 2019;Scholz, 2013). Therefore, the concept of digital labor has become a general expression for tasks or activities with a digital component, with the specific implications of the term contingent on the theoretical and empirical context in which it is used (Gandini, 2020;Gardner, 2019;Scholz, 2013).…”

“…In recent years, the concept of digital labor has been used in multiple disciplines to analyze activities related to production, consumption, leisure, and reproduction that are performed via digital technology and media (Gandini, 2020;Gardner, 2019;Scholz, 2013). Therefore, the concept of digital labor has become a general expression for tasks or activities with a digital component, with the specific implications of the term contingent on the theoretical and empirical context in which it is used (Gandini, 2020;Gardner, 2019;Scholz, 2013). Some scholars (Jarrett, 2016;Scholz, 2013) have argued that unwaged digital labor in the domains of production and consumption is similar to women's labor in the family, such as housework and childcare, in its invisible, unpaid, and undervalued nature.…”

Keeping up with the Code - Communicating the Decision Making History of Architectural Scripts

“…An architectural script can be defined as codetypically written in a visual programming language such as Grasshopper or Dynamo-that intends to "automate repetitive activities...extend design experimentation... [and] improve file-to-factory protocols" (Burry 2011, p.8-9). As this type of work is not yet typically undertaken by all employees in architectural practices (Gardner 2018(Gardner , 2019 it is often not well understood or valued. Additionally, there is limited evidence of established workplace procedures for documenting the decision-making history (DMH) of architectural code (Peng et al 2000).…”