Tinkering with the Future
Tinkering with the Future
This chapter revisits the notion that new forms of work organization, practice, and morality have placed a premium on productivity, and considers the implications for anthropological approaches to the embodied worker. It explores Silicon Valley's three natural experiments in linking the body to the work practices of the new economy. The first is derived from the fact that whole bodies, not abstract clusters of skills, are the entities being employed. Second, the structural linkage between employer and health care is being rethought, and job-based insurance care is a phenomenon under siege. Third, deep medical diversity is taking root, combining alternative countercultural care with a wealth of immigrant-based medical beliefs and practices. Knowledge workers are on the cutting edge of these changes.
Keywords: work organization, work practice, morality, productivity, Silicon Valley, health care, knowledge workers
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