Workmanship: “Task Orientation” and “Coping” with Worn-out Equipment at the “Iriski” Candy Factory

Abstract

The article is devoted to а conceptual analysis of the term “workmanship” in the labor of industrial workers. Based on a critical reading of Tim Ingold’s “taskscape” theory, an attempt is made to answer a number of questions: Can industrial workers be creative? Do you need to have workmanship in order to work with industrial equipment? What is the role of equipment wear and tear in the industrial labor process? This paper reports findings from an ethnography of labor at the “Iriski” candy factory. It is concluded that—due to the wear and tear of the equipment—the labor of the operators of the candy factory requires more involvement and the use of their creative skills (“living knowledge”, according to Andre Gorz). Thus, the deterioration of equipment stimulates the creativity of the operators and makes their skills more unique. Their workmanship in the work process is determined by how skillfully they are able to “cope” with wear and tear and maintain the continuous operation of the packaging cycle. All this makes them, on the one hand, more involved in labor, but, on the other hand, more “exploited”, since their “workmanship” remains invisible to management, much like the widespread equipment deterioration of the factory infrastructure.