for the New Englanders among us

[David Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>]

    Sponsored by the Technology and Culture Seminar of the MIT
                    Community Fellows Program




           Friday, January 21 and Saturday, January 22
                         9:00 am - 5:00 pm
                 Building 6, MIT, Cambridge, MA




New England is a world center of the current technological
transformation, in which computers, electronics and genetics are
opening new modes of production and communication. In the midst of
this technological revolution, tens of thousands of people have
been laid off from high tech industries. These newly
unemployed include both highly-trained workers and new entrants
into the workforce. This conference will examine the factors
underlying this disturbing trend, and identify directions needed
to insure that increases in productivity raise the standard of
living of all members of society.


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PLENARY SESSIONS:


THE IMPACT OF THE HIGH TECHNOLOGY REVOLUTION ON PRODUCTIVITY
Friday, 9:00 am


Ken Reeves, Mayor, City of Cambridge
Prof. Jon King, MIT
Prof. Tom Kochan, MIT Sloan School
Prof. Helen Shapiro, Harvard Business School
David Arian, President, International Longshoremen and
     Warehouseman's Union




THE IMPACT OF THE HIGH TECHNOLOGY REVOLUTION ON JOBS
Friday, 4:00 pm


Juliet Schor, Director, Women's Studies Program, Harvard
Richard Barnet, Institute of Policy Studies
General Baker, National Organizing Committee of the Unemployed,
     Detroit




HOW TO INSURE THAT THE NEW TECHNOLOGY RAISES THE GENERAL STANDARD
OF LIVING
Saturday, 9:00 am


Prof. Sarah Kuhn, Policy and Planning, UMASS-Lowell
Prof. Abdul Alkalimat, African-American Studies, Northeastern
     University
Prof. Noam Chomsky, MIT
David Feickert, European Trade Union Conference




WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE: JOB CREATION
Saturday, 1:30 pm


Prof. Mel King, Director, Community Fellows Program, MIT
Prof. Elaine Bernard, Director, Trade Union Program, Harvard
John LaRose, Oilfield Workers' Union, Trinidad




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WORKSHOPS


FRIDAY 11:00 AM


Changing Production technologies
     The Engineer's Role
     The Impact of Information on Industrial Production
     Cleaner and Safer Production Technologies
     Shop Floor Initiatives


The Internationalization of Production: NAFTA
     Moving Plants Abroad
     Corporate Strategies
     NAFTA and the Trade Unions
     The European Situation


The Telecommunications Revolution
     The National Information Infrastructure
     Insuring Public Access
     Employment Impacts


The Biotechnology Industry
     Projected Growth
     Impact on Pharmaceuticals
     Unfulfilled Promises




FRIDAY 2:00 PM


Entering the High Tech Job Market
     The High-Tech Job Market
     A Students View
     High Tech Skills for the Disenfranchised


The Electronic Office
     The Automated Office
     Undervalued Technical Work
     Electronic Surveillance


The Changing Reality of Computer Industry Jobs
     Part-time Work
     Closing Doors to Minority Youth
     Coping with Layoffs
     High Tech Peace Corps?


Converting from Military to Civilian Research and Development
     Civilian R&D in the Post Cold War Period
     Prospects at Lincoln Lab
     Physics After the Code War
     Campus-Based Efforts


Sociobiological Justifications of Social Inequality
     Brain and Behavior
     Exploding the Gene Myth
     The Myth of the Underclass
     Medicalization of Social Problems




SATURDAY 11:00 AM


The Impact of Unemployment on Education
     The Struggle for Public Education
     The New Technology and New Illiteracy: Black Community's
            Survival Crisis
     Education for Unemployment


Alternatives to Plant Closings
     The National Pattern of Layoffs
     The Employee Buy-out of Market Forge
     State Intervention
     Restructuring Labor/Management Relations?


Converting from Military to Civilian Production
     Historical Precedents
     The Machinists Role
     Federal Financing
     Conversion Efforts in Massachusetts


Struggles in the Shadow of the High Tech Industry
     Building a Youth Center in the High Tech Shadow
     Child Care in the High Tech Shadow
     The Carpenter's Union Experience


The Politics of Agriculture and Food Production
     The Hybrid Corn Experience
     Mechanization of Agriculture
     Regulation of Genetically Engineered Foods
     Agribusiness and Ecology




To reserve program documents and register, send $5 to Patricia
Weinmann, 312 Memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA 02139. Make checks
payable to "The Technology and Culture Seminar."


For more information, contact Patricia Weinmann, (617) 253-0108,
or email paradise () mit edu.