Nugent, Catherine. 2024. Making infrastructure work: the labour of telecommunication workers in London. Doctoral thesis, Goldsmiths, University of London [Thesis]

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	Text (Making infrastructure work: the labour of telecommunication workers in London) ANT_thesis_NugentC_2024.pdf - Accepted Version Permissions: Administrator Access Only Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives. Download (18MB)

Abstract or Description

This thesis is a study of the work of London telecommunication technicians (called “engineers” in the sector). The context is the upgrading of the UK’s broadband internet to comprehensive fibre-optic technology, making possible the very fast transmission of unlimited data. The context is linked to the spread of new technologies, including “Artificial Intelligence” applications.

The thesis outlines the history of UK telecommunications, leading up to the upgrade. Two chapters provide supplementary perspectives: an account of the role of the Communication Workers Union in shaping workplace conditions; a description of the delivery of “full fibre” to a Southwark housing estate, discussing the local state’s role in providing infrastructure. The core ethnographic chapters are situated in the “Last Mile” segment of the network where delivery of broadband services takes place. My participants were almost all employees of Openreach, the subsidiary of BT which looks after the UK’s largest telephone and internet network. My focus on telecommunications fills a gap in studies of technical labour (Orr, 1996, Barley and Orr, 1997, Pallensen and Jacobsen, 2018).

Work on global labour conditions by anthropologists (Mollona, De Neve and Parry, 2009; Kasmir and Carbonella, 2014), has emphasised diverse forms of precarity (Lazar and Sanchez, 2019). This case provides a contrast — of relatively secure employment and a strong trade union, although livelihoods are now under threat.

Whereas other studies of infrastructure highlight breakdown (Graham, 2010), this makes the necessary maintenance of infrastructure, even as it is being renewed, more visible. It analyses the problem-solving skills and practices of engineers in the context of London’s urban materiality. Drawing on work on repair and caring for objects (Jackson, 2014, Schabacher, 2021), the study shows how this infrastructure is stabilised by engineering labour. It also opens up questions about the social value of the internet as a utility.

Item Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Identification Number (DOI):	https://doi.org/10.25602/GOLD.00037212
Keywords:	labour, infrastructure, technology, internet, urban skills, materiality
Departments, Centres and Research Units:	Anthropology
Date:	31 May 2024
Item ID:	37212
Date Deposited:	04 Jul 2024 14:55
Last Modified:	04 Jul 2024 15:00
URI:	https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/37212

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