The academy as a logistical institution

• Published in: Cultural studies review Vol. 25; no. 2; pp. 66 - 71
• Main Author: Neilson, Brett
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Carleton Melbourne University Publishing 01.12.2019
• Subjects: Australian Academy of the Humanities; Australian Research Council; Bourdieu, Pierre (1930-2002); Classification; Communication; Cultural studies; Culture; Despotism; Finance; Funding; Logistics; Modes of production; Politics; Power; Researchers; Resilience; Society; Strategies; Study and teaching; Technological innovations; War; New Zealand; Australia
• ISSN: 1837-8692; 1446-8123; 1837-8692
• DOI: 10.5130/csr.v25i2.6877

Over the past decade, I have conducted a series of research projects on the topic of logistics. Understood as the art and science of moving people and goods in ways that benefit communication and transport efficiencies, logistics has become a key discipline of contemporary economy and society. Funded by the Australian Research Council (ARC), the projects I have led with my colleague Ned Rossiter have asked how logistical techniques and technologies shape labour, lives and the constitution of global space and time. Much of this research has focused on shipping ports, which are key sites of global trade where the material bulk of exchange is manifest and software-driven patterns of optimisation subject labour forces to regimes of surveillance, control and coordination. Our research has not been limited to shipping ports, however, and has extended to many other sites and institutions where logistical practices are evident, including circuit board factories and recycling villages in China, new towns on the edges of Indian cities, special economic zones, Chilean copper mines and data centres in Hong Kong and Singapore.