Temporalities, time and the everyday: new technology as a marker of change in an Estonian mine

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the relationship between men and mining technology in an Estonian oil shale mine. It traces the linear time of socialism and postsocialism, arguing that for Estonian miners, the end of socialism might not have been as radical of a change as changing the mining technology in early 2000s. The introduction of the new technology changed the nature and perception of miners’ work, as well as the opportunities of controlling the everyday tempo of work. The way miners talk about new technology (novaia tekhnika) opens a window for exploring the different temporalities of socialism and capitalism. It allows seeing the way the time, through the state and the market, shapes small time of the everyday, the tempo of and rhythm of work. The wider changes from socialism to neoliberal capitalism which alter workplace relations, and create new class structures, are most acutely experienced at the nexus where new technology changes the rhythm and pace of work, the bodily activity of production which Bourdieu calls tempo. Furthermore, the introduction of new technology has implications to the job security and health of miners.

KEYWORDS:

• Multiple temporalities
• capitalism
• tempo
• mining labour
• new technology
• heterochrony

Acknowledgements

This research was conducted during my doctoral studies funded by the Estonian Centre for Academic Mobility. I would like to thank my supervisors Frances Pine and Mao Mollona for advice on the earlier draft of this paper. I also received helpful feedback from Jonathan Parry, Rebecca Prentice, Jessie Sklair, Theo Rakopolous, Tim Martindale, Sergei Oushakine, John Schoeberlein and Laura Adams.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Eeva Kesküla is a senior researcher at Tallinn University, School of Humanities, running a project on Health and Safety in heavy industry. She completed her Ph.D. at Goldsmiths, University of London and her postdoc at Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Germany. She has done fieldwork in Estonia and Kazakhstan and her research interests include anthropology of work, industrial health and safety, gender and work, class and postsocialism.

Notes

1 In absolute terms, accident rate in the Estonian mines has decreased in comparison with the previous decades. The statistics, however, does not consider the significant reduction of staff in the mines. Furthermore, injuries that are not very serious are usually not recorded as a common agreement between mine management and workers and tend to happen ‘in the garage’ or ‘at home’.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Eesti Teadusagentuur [PUT1263]; Sihtasutus Archimedes [PhD studies grant].