Archive for March 2018

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[ecrea] new book: technologies of consumer labor: a history of self-service

Thu Mar 01 09:44:00 GMT 2018






Michael Palm, /Technologies of Consumer Labor: A History of Self-Service /(Routledge, 2017)


available in hardback, paperback, and as an e-book, or email (mpalm /at/ unc.edu) for a free pdf.


https://www.routledge.com/Technologies-of-Consumer-Labor-A-History-of-Self-Service/Palm/p/book/9781138186477


This book documents and examines the history of technology used by consumers to serve oneself. The telephone’s development as a self-service technology functions as the narrative spine, beginning with the advent of rotary dialing eliminating most operator services and transforming every local connection into an instance of self-service. Today, nearly a century later, consumers manipulate 0-9 keypads on a plethora of digital machines. Throughout the book Palm employs a combination of historical, political-economic and cultural analysis to describe how the telephone keypad was absorbed into business models across media, retail and financial industries, as the interface on everyday machines including the ATM, cell phone and debit card reader. He argues that the naturalization of self-service telephony shaped consumers’ attitudes and expectations about digital technology.


Introduction: Phoning It In, or Consumer Labor and the Telephone

1. Please Help Yourself: Self-Service Shopping and the "Revolution in Distribution"

2. Phantom of the Operator: Rotary Dialing and the Automation of Everyday Life

3. Then Press #: Touch-Tone Phones and Digital Interface

4. What’s in a PIN? ATMs and Keypads beyond the Telephone

Conclusion: Smart Phones and the Costs of Payment


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