Engineers at work: the politics and practices of transforming the UK's internet infrastructure

我的人种学研究将跟随工程师们不断变化的条件，他们参与了一项计划中的升级，以提高英国电信网络的速度和容量。这项研究将考察这些基础设施工人生产什么，他们如何生产，以及他们对为社会带来更大连通性的观点。这项研究将与通讯工人工会(CWU)的大伦敦联合分会合作进行，该分会组织了一些这样的工程师。它将跟踪工会对升级项目的干预，因为新的工作模式、监管和协调的压力正在感受到。总体目标是评估维护和更新复杂网络的隐形劳动力的社会经济角色，因为它受到了重要的政治审查。尽管光纤构成了英国网络的大部分，但只有2%的人可以被指定为超高速互联网和“无处不在的连接”所需的“光纤到户”(FTTP)。然而，政府的行业监管机构Ofcom和许多电信企业声称，广泛的FTTP对于提供超高速、高数据容量的网络至关重要，该网络可以满足消费者、企业和公共服务的未来需求，包括大数据应用、云计算、“物联网”和工作自动化。但升级的核心是对任何城市地区的电信来说都是一项具有挑战性的任务--更换铜线，将光纤电缆穿过“本地环路”，从人行道和道路下，从本地电话交换机直接接入家庭和企业。这就是为什么前国有垄断企业英国电信(BT)表示，没有全国性的FTTP就可以获得“足够好”的速度和数据容量的原因之一。英国电信通过其子公司OpenReach保留了英国大部分“本地环路”的责任。这项研究将审查升级的政治和实际要求，因为它们与工程劳动力的活动相交。一个核心问题可能是：升级过程中对私营企业和消费者利益的评估将如何改变人们对电信是一种公共产品的看法？这项研究还必然会追踪伦敦的城市变化。它将追溯“重新布线”的材料复杂性--随着传统技术与新技术的结合，工人的技能和知识如何与可能具有抵抗力的材料相互作用？它还将研究升级的社会经济轮廓。在展示基础设施的劳动如何嵌入被资本主义逻辑重塑的城市背景的结构中，这项研究将利用城市研究的跨学科方法，着眼于人、材料和基础设施(例如建筑、交通系统、移动电话)的“社会生活”如何相互作用。但它将主要由基础设施、工作和技术的各种人类学方法构成。作为研究的一部分，我计划进行一个关于电信业工作生活和工会的口述历史项目，回顾该行业的私有化。。将举办讲习班，与工会线人和其他人讨论政策制定问题。我将在相关会议上提交研究结果，并起草两篇文章发表。

My ethnographic research will follow changing conditions for the engineers involved in a planned upgrade to increase the speed and capacity of the UK's telecommunications network. The research will examine what these infrastructure workers produce, how they produce it, and the perspectives they have on bringing greater connectivity to society. The research will be conducted in collaboration with the Greater London Combined branch of the Communication Workers Union's (CWU), which organises some of these engineers. It will track the union's intervention into the upgrading project as the pressures of new modes of work regulation and co-ordination are felt. The overall aim is to assess the socio-economic roles of the often invisible labours which maintain and renew a complex network, as it comes under significant political scrutiny.Although fibre makes up most of the UK network, only 2% can be designated the "Fibre to the Premises" (FTTP) required for ultra-fast internet and "ubiquitous connectivity". Yet the government's industry watchdog Ofcom, and many telecoms businesses, claim extensive FTTP is essential to deliver the ultra-fast, high-data capacity network which can match the future needs of consumers, businesses, and public services, including big data applications, cloud computing, the "Internet of Things" and automation of work.Yet at the heart of the upgrade is a challenging task for telecommunications in any urban area - replacing copper wiring, and threading fibre optic cables through the "local loop", under pavements and roads, from local telephone exchanges and directly into homes and businesses. This is one reason why former state monopoly BT, who through their subsidiary Openreach retain responsibility for most of the UK's "local loop", says "good enough" speeds and data capacity can be obtained without nationwide FTTP. The research will examine the political and practical claims for upgrade as they intersect with the activities of the engineering workforce. A central question is likely to be: how is the valorisation of private corporate and consumer interests in the upgrade reconfiguring perceptions of telecommunications as a public good? The research will also, necessarily, track urban change in London. It will trace the material complexities of "rewiring" - how do the skills and knowledge of workers interact with the likely resistant materials, as legacy technologies are combined with new ones? It will also look at the socio-economic contours of the upgrade. In showing how the labour of the infrastructure is embedded in the fabric of an urban context being reshaped by capitalist logics, the research will draw on the interdisciplinary approach of urban studies which looks at how the "social lives" of both people, materials and infrastructures (e.g. buildings, transport systems, mobile phones) interact. But it will mainly be framed by a variety of anthropological approaches to infrastructure, work and technology.As part of the research I plan an oral history project on working lives and trade unions in telecommunications, looking back at the privatisation of the industry. . Workshops will be held to discuss policy development with union informants and others. I will present findings at relevant conferences and draft two articles for publication.