Skilfulness: “Task Orientation” and “Coping” with Worn-out Equipment at the Iriski Toffee Factory near Moscow

Аннотация

The article is devoted to a conceptual analysis of the concept of “skilfulness” in the labour of industrial workers. On the basis of a critical reading of Ingold’s “taskscape” theory, a series of questions is addressed. Can the labour of industrial workers be creative? Must one be skilled in order to work with industrial equipment? What part does the wearing-out of equipment play in the process of industrial labour? The empirical basis was formed by material from a year’s participant observation at the Iriski Toffee Factory. The conclusion is drawn that, as a result of the equipment’s disrepair, the work of the toffee factory operatives requires a greater involvement and the use of creative skills (Gorz’s “savoirfaire”). Thus, disrepair encourages creativity in the operatives’ labour and makes their skills more unique. Their skilfulness in the labour process is determined by how skilfully they are able to “cope” with disrepair and maintain uninterrupted work in the packing cycle. On the one hand, all this makes them more involved in the work, but on the other, more “exploited”, since their skilfulness remains unnoticed by the management, as does the universal disrepair of the factory infrastructure.