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

我的人种学研究将遵循参与计划升级的工程师不断变化的条件，以提高英国电信网络的速度和容量。该研究将研究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。这项研究将与通信工人工会（CWU）的大伦敦联合分支合作进行，CWU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，因为人们感受到了新的工作监管和协调模式的压力。总体目标是评估维护和更新复杂网络的无形劳动力的社会经济作用，因为它受到重大的政治审查。虽然光纤构成了英国网络的大部分，但只有2%可以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对于提供超快速，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。然而，升级的核心是对任何城市地区的电信都具有挑战性的任务-取代铜线，并将光纤电缆穿过“本地环路”，铺设在人行道和道路下，从本地电话交换机直接进入家庭和企业。这就是为什么前国家垄断企业英国电信（BT）通过其子公司Openreach保留了英国大部分“本地环路”的责任，表示可以在没有全国性FTTP的情况下获得“足够好”的速度和数据容量。这项研究将审查升级的政治和实际要求，因为它们与工程人员的活动交叉。一个核心问题可能是：如何在升级过程中对私营企业和消费者利益进行估值，重新配置电信作为公共产品的看法？这项研究也将必然追踪伦敦的城市变化。它将追踪“重新布线”的材料复杂性--当传统技术与新技术相结合时，工人的技能和知识如何与可能的耐腐蚀材料相互作用？它还将研究升级的社会经济轮廓。在展示基础设施的劳动力是如何嵌入到被资本主义逻辑重塑的城市背景结构中时，研究将借鉴城市研究的跨学科方法，该方法着眼于人，材料和基础设施（例如建筑物，交通系统，移动的手机）的“社会生活”如何相互作用。但它将主要由各种人类学方法来构建基础设施、工作和技术。作为研究的一部分，我计划开展一个口述历史项目，讲述电信行业的工作生活和工会，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。我将在有关会议上介绍调查结果，并起草两篇文章供发表。

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.