A few tangents you might explore:

It's hard to overstate the influence of Norbert Wiener's Cybernetics (and popular writing like The Human use of Human Beings) on subsequent management theorists.

SHOT's very own David Allen Grier has written quite a lot on the labor processes used in scientific computing before and during the introduction of automatic computing machinery. These are not directly related to "automation" per se (which term was coined circa 1940) but I found them very helpful in providing historical context and illustrating the basic continuity of some tendencies in the technical division of labor from the pre- to post- automatic computing eras.

Finally, SHOT's own Nathan Ensmenger recently published The Computer Boys Take Over, an invaluable history of some of the changes in occupational structure engendered by "computerization". It's particularly good on gender.

On Fri, Jun 12, 2015 at 6:16 PM, Bjorn Westergard <bjornw@gmail.com> wrote:

Here are some sources I've found helpful, albeit for a very particular set of questions around automation.

Marxian Historians, Social Scientists:
Nobel - Forces of Production (a one-time SHOT member)
Braverman - Labor and Monopoly Capital
Pollock - Automation: A Study of Its Social and Economic Consequences

Influential Popular Writers:
Rifkin - The End of Work
Andre Gorz - Farewell to the Working Class

Economists:
Leontief, Autor, Brynjolfsson, McAfee
Levy - The New Division of Labor
Vivarelli - Innovation and Employment: A Survey

Management Theorists:
Herbert Simon - The Corporation: Will It be Managed by Machines? (published 1960)
Drucker - The Practice of Management

On Fri, Jun 12, 2015 at 1:29 PM, Daniel Ferrell <returnofjayhawk@hotmail.com> wrote:

SIGCIS members,
Concerning the subject of automation, and how it relates to modern society--particularly, the economic and psychological effects that ensue, seems to be a thought-provoking topic in our current milieu. Can anyone suggest any good publications on this topic?

-Daniel Ferrell

Home Acceptance Corporation (NMLS #1151715).
65 S. Outer Rd.
P.O. Box 72
Benton, MO 63736

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