[Themaintainers] From Managerial Feudalism to the Revolt of the Caring Classes

Su su at generis.name
Tue Mar 31 20:06:02 EDT 2020


Turns out someone’s started up a COVID oral histories project already:
https://twitter.com/Jason_M_Kelly/status/1244636365029064707

It’s got to be pretty recent and there’s no detail currently on the
interview process, but it might be worth getting in touch and at least
suggesting these topics.

On Mon, Mar 30, 2020 at 6:22 AM Andrew Russell <andy at themaintainers.org>
wrote:

> I’ve been daydreaming about a distributed oral history/interview project,
> consisting of interviews with “essential” workers to document their
> experiences. One could imagine at least 3 categories of interview subjects:
> those deemed essential before COVID19; those who’ve been recategorized
> (like my friends at my school’s IT help desk and our local wine & liquor
> store); and those not deemed essential by the state, but appear so in the
> eyes of the researcher. Non wage domestic labor is one clear example of the
> third category...
>
> Andy
>
>
>
> On Mar 30, 2020, at 3:42 AM, Dorothy Howard <dhoward at ucsd.edu> wrote:
>
> 
>
> I think the concept of "frontlines" workers (COVID-19 + evocation of
> wartime measures) and the legal designation of "essential services" is
> fraught but essentially has to do with the social processes of valuing
> infrastructural labor. In the context of free and open source software and
> other infrastructural labor that involves voluntary processes or volunteer
> work, maintenance workers doing essential things to keep infrastructure
> like software going are excluded from the legal protections and recognition
> of the designation of being "essential", yet are still less visible to
> different publics who are suddenly recognizing "essential labor" and care
> workers as underrecognized occupations or bringing them to the center of
> attention about where care and respect and risk should be allocated in
> society. When we evoke the term essential services as a way of recognizing
> often invisibilized labor, my question is who does this designation still
> exclude and how can resources(ing) follow recognition?
>
> With care,
>
> Dorothy
>
>
> On Sun, Mar 29, 2020 at 11:31 PM Ishi Crew <mediaentropy at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> I've seen this talk (must be alot of work to transcribe it; and i'm sort
>> of writing something on this topic, and am aware of graeber's views )
>>
>> In my area we have something we call the 'virus' (or the V (for victory)
>> I r U.S.   --- one for all   ).
>>
>> How many 'maintainers' are essential workers and how many are
>> innessential?  I have seen some suggestions that some anthropologists,
>> economists, fashion models, wine tasters, McDonald's hamburger cooks and
>> cleaners, musicians and mathematicians and artists, and museum curators and
>> securty guards, and web ad programmers,  are inessential.    Or perhaps
>> they are the 'rare' essence of the universe.
>>
>> On Sun, Mar 29, 2020 at 1:54 AM Su <su at generis.name> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi, all. Long-time listener, blah blah. Lee et al., I'm @TopLeftBrick
>>> on Twitter *waves* We've had a little contact over the years, I've
>>> been lurking here since pretty much the beginning and uh, have a LOT
>>> of free time to catch up on lists lately because Reasons.
>>>
>>> Anyway, in case anyone was interested or wanted an easier way to grab
>>> a quote I put up a transcript of this talk the other day at
>>>
>>> http://opentranscripts.org/transcript/managerial-feudalism-revolt-caring-classes/
>>> It's…kinda of the moment right now.
>>>
>>> On Fri, Dec 27, 2019 at 10:51 PM Camille E Acey <connect at camilleacey.com>
>>> wrote:
>>> >
>>> > New David Graeber
>>> https://media.ccc.de/v/36c3-11241-from_managerial_feudalism_to_the_revolt_of_the_caring_classes
>>> > --
>>> > Camille E. Acey
>>> > connect at camilleacey.com
>>> > New York, NY - USA (GMT -5)
>>> >
>>> > "Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation,
>>> and that is an act of political warfare." - Audre
>>> Lorde_______________________________________________
>>> > Themaintainers mailing list
>>> > Themaintainers at lists.stevens.edu
>>> > https://lists.stevens.edu/mailman/listinfo/themaintainers
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Themaintainers mailing list
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>
>
> --
> Dorothy Rose Howard
> PhD Student, Communication
> UC San Diego
>
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