Human-Centred Systems in the Global Economy: Proceedings from the International Workshop on Industrial Cultures and Human-Centred Systems held by Tokyo Keizai University in Tokyo 1990

269 Pages·1992·6.897 MB·English

by  Achille Ardigò (auth.), Yuji Masuda BA, BE, ME (eds.)

Human-Centred Systems in the Global Economy
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND SOCIETY
Series Editor: KARAMJIT S. GILL
Knowledge, SkiII and Artificial InteIIigence
Bo Goranzon and Ingela losefson (Eds.)
Artificial InteIIigence, Culture and Language:
On Education and Work
Bo Goranzon and Magnus Florin (Eds.)
Designing Human-centred Technology: A Cross-disciplinary
Project in Computer-aided Manufacturing
H.H. Rosenbrock (Ed.)
The Shape of Future Technology:
The Anthropocentric Alternative
Peter BrOdner
Crossing the Border: The Social and Engineering Design of
Computer Integrated Manufacturing Systems
1. Martin Corbett, Lauge Baungaard Rasmussen and
Felix Rauner
Artificial Intelligence and Human Institutions
Richard Ennals
Dialogue and Technology: Art and Knowledge
Bo Goranzon and Magnus Florin (Eds.)
Understanding the Artificial:
On the Future Shape of Artificial Intelligence
Massimo Negrotti (Ed.)
Computer-aided Manufacturing and Women's Employment:
The Clothing Industry in Four EC Countries
Swasti Mitter (Ed.)
Connectionism in Context
Andy Clark and Rudi Lutz (Eds.)
Yuji Masuda (Ed.)
Human-Centred Systems
in the Global Economy
Proceedings from the International Workshop on
Industrial Cultures and Human-Centred Systems
held by Tokyo Keizai University in Tokyo, 1990
With Introduction by Mike Cooley
With 20 Figures
Springer-Verlag
London Berlin Heidelberg New York
Paris Tokyo Hong Kong
Barcelona Budapest
Yuji Masuda, BA, BE, ME
Faculty of Business Administration
Tokyo Keizai University
1-7 Minami-cho
Kokubunji-Shi
Tokyo 185, Japan
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Human-Centred Systems in the Global Economy: Proceedings from the
International Workshop on Industrial Cultures and Human-Centred Systems held
by Tokyo Keizai University in Tokyo, 1990. - (Artificial Intelligence and Society
Series)
I. Masuda, Yuji II. Series
006.3
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
International Workshop on Industrial Cultures and Human Centred
Systems (1990 : Tokyo, Japan)
Human centred systems in the global economy: proceedings from the
International Workshop on Industrial Cultures and Human Centred
Systems, held by Tokyo Keizai University in Tokyo, May 1990 1 Yuji
Masuda (ed.) ; with introduction by Mike Cooley.
p. cm. -- (Artificial intelligence and society)
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN-13: 978-3-540-19745-4 e-ISBN-13: 978-1-4471-1967-8
DOl: 10.1007/978-1-4471-1967-8
I. Industrial sociology--Congresses. 2. Technology--Social
aspects-Congresses. I. Masuda, Yuji, 1938- II. Tokyo Keizai
Daigaku. 1Il. Title. IV. Series.
HD6952.I58 1990 92-10114
306.3 '6--dc20 CIP
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@Springer-Verlag London Limited 1992
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Preface
This book originates from an international workshop held in
Tokyo in May 1990 on Industrial Cultures and Human-Centred
Systems. The workshop brought together researchers and
practitioners from Japan, Europe, South East Asia, Eastern
Europe, Soviet Union, and North America in the areas of
industrial and production cultures, human-centred systems and
anthropocentric technologies, organisational innovation,
technological change and working life issues. The workshop also
discussed contextual issues of industrial culture, society and
technology, technology and the citizen in the modern society,
technology and knowledge transfer.
The workshop was organised as part of the centenary
celebrations of the Tokyo Keizai University, and was the first
workshop on human-centred systems in Japan. The interest in
industrial cultures, globalisation, and technology shaping is
increasing not only in Europe but also in Japan and North
America. The present volume is a contribution to the widening of
the European debate on human-centred manufacturing systems to
broader issues of industrial cultures, economic competitiveness
and globalisation of knowledge. The international debate on these
issues is covered in the international journal, AI & Society, and its
sister book series on Anificial Intelligence and Society. The
interest in societal and cultural issues in the volume is also a
reflection of the current European debates on human-centred ness
and sustainable systems design, social and cultural shaping of
technology, information technology and social citizenship.
The contributions to the volume vary in their styles of
articulation and presentation, and have been largely left in their
original form so as to reflect the cultural diversity and research
traditions of the contributors. I very warmly appreciate the
support and advice given by Karamjit S. Gill and Mike Cooley in
bringing out this volume. The SEAKE Centre researchers Jim
Thorpe, John GffiZe, David Smith assisted by Harinder Gill have
supported me in coordinating the editing and the production of the
manuscript. I am indebted to Tokyo Keizai University for
sponsoring the workshop and this book.
Tokyo Yuji Masuda
November 1991
Introduction
Mike Cooley
The term human-centred was first used in 1976 when I described
'telechiric devices' which respond to human skill and ingenuity
and did not objectivise or marginalise human capacities. They
were, therefore, in the Heidegger sense, tools rather than
machines. The term arose in the rich and diverse context of the
Lucas Workers' Plan for socially useful, sustainable technologyl.
The Plan caused quite a stir at that time and was met with
incredulity by those who should have known better.
In order to demonstrate in practice what might be possible,
projects and prototypes were developed to demonstrate different
aspects of the Plan. Many of the products proposed at that time
are being manufactured worldwide as the growing consciousness
of environmental issues requires a dramatic realignment of what
we perceive economic feasibility to be.
Demonstrating the wider concepts of human-centredness proved,
however, to be much more difficult. It was not until 1983 that a
multidisciplinary team of engineers, social scientists, philosophers
and academics, linked with industrialists in Denmark, Germany
and Britain approached the EEC for funding to design and
demonstrate the world's first Human-Centred Computer Integrated
Manufacturing System (ESPRIT Project 1217). This inevitably
meant that the project had to be highly focussed on production
systems so that the attributes of such a system could be clearly
demonstrated. This was done successfully but since most people
heard of human-centred systems for the first time in a CIM
context, they came to think of it as applying solely to
manufacturing concerns. This was an unfortunate but
understandable narrowing of the scope of the concept.
The great service that Tokyo Keizai University and Professor
Yuji Masuda have done with this present book is to restore
human-centred systems to their rightful, more universal context.
The book is also timely. Spectacular failures of machine centred
systems, particularly in the United States, have brought into sharp
focus the vulnerability and lack of robustness in those systems
where the human capacity to handle uncertainty has been
systematically removed. As ESPRIT 1217 has demonstrated, a
human-centred system is less vulnerable to disturbance, displays
less downtime and is significantly more productive2•
viii Introduction
These are, of course, the instrumental and economic
considerations. Of more long term significance are the issues of
human dignity, motivation and the form, nature and role of
science and technology as the most extraordinary millennium in
human history edges precariously to the dawn of the 21st century.
The present book is rich in the issues covered, embracing such
topics as industrial culture, diversity, anthropocentric systems,
political and economic interdependence and much, much more.
Fortunately, these are not merely viewed from the usual
Eurocentric standpoint. They may be said to represent a truly
global view and reflect the insights of researchers, academics and
policy makers from Japan, China, Soviet Union, Sri Lanka,
Australia, Hungary, France, Belgium, Denmark, Italy and
England.
Given Japan's pivotal role in the world economy, the growing
interest in human-centred systems in that country is an important
boost for ideas which started out so unpretentiously at Lucas
Aerospace in 1973. Tokyo Keizai University is to be thanked for
deciding to celebrate its 90th anniversary by hosting this event in
Tokyo.
Notes
Cooley, M (1987) Architect or Bee? Chatto & Windus,
1
London. Japanese edition ISBN 4-275-01329-8 COO 36 P329E
Tokyo 1989.
Rosenbrock, H H (1990) Machines with a Purpose, Oxford
2
University Press, London. Forthcoming Japanese edition
Tokyo 1992.
Contents
Contributors ....................................................... xiii
SECTION I. Industrial Cultures and Technology Development
1. The Use of New Technologies in the Development
of Social Citizenship and of the Welfare State
Achille Ardigo ....................................................... 3
2. Working Women in Japan - After Enforcement of
the Equal Opportunity in Employment Law
Yukiko Inoue ........ .......... ............ ....... ......... ........... 11
3. Adjustment in Foreign Assignment: A Comparative
Study of Japanese and American Expatriates in
Australia
Kuniko Mochimaru ................................................. 21
4. Intercorporate Relations in Japan
Hiroshi Okumura ................................................... 43
5. Social Structure under the New Information
Technology
Fumihiko Sato.fuka ................................................. 51
6. Can the Family Survive the New Communications
Media? 'Human-centredness' and the Challenge of
Consumer Technologies
David Smith .......................................................... 59
7. Anthropocentric Production Systems in the Context
of European Integration
Werner Wobbe ...................................................... 71
8. The Beginning of the Third Industrial Revolution
and Changes in Industrial Sociology: Towards a Better
Environment for Man
Valery K. Zilitsev ................................................... 83
x Contents
9. Industry, Culture and Technology Transfer:
Contemplation on Recent Changes in China's
Consumption Culture
Feng Zlzao-Kui ...................................................... 89
SECTION II. New Technology and the Shaping of World
Economy and Industrial Cultures
10. The New Shape of Industrial Culture and
Technological Development
Mike Cooley.. ................................... .................... 101
11. The Coming New Age of Politico-Economic
Interdependence in the Global Economy
Alexander Dynkin ................................................... 109
12. High-Tech Development, Competition, and
Industrial Culture in the Age of the Global Economy
Marc Giget ........ ................................................... 113
13. New Trends in the Producer-Consumer
Relationship: A Vital Aspect of Industrial Cultures
Andras Hernadi ..................................................... 123
14. Impacts of Information Technology on Japanese
Industrial Culture
Takao Nuki ........................................................... 131
15. Japanese Human Resource Management in the
Cross-Cultural Interface: A Case Study of US-Sited
Japanese Subsidiaries
Kazuo Takeuchi ..................................................... 141
16. Industrial Cultures in the Age of the Global
Economy
Yuji Masuda ......................................................... 153
SECTION III. Human-centred Shaping of New Technologies:
The Praxis
17. Theoretical Reflections from Experiences with
Computer Aided Design and Manufacturing
Richard J. Badham ................................................. 165
Contents xi
18. Human Centredness: A 21st Century Paradigm for
Industrial Cultures
Karanljit S. Gill ..................................................... 179
19. The Evolution of Information in Human and
Artefactual Systems
Susantha Goonatilake .............................................. 199
20. A Conceptual Framework for the Concept of the
Artificial
Massimo Negrotti ................................................... 213
21. Dialogue and Design of Computer-Based Technology
Satinder P. Gill ..................................................... 217
22. Applying Human Centred Concepts to the
Development of Expert Systems in Manufacturing
Peter Holden ........................................................ 229
23. Anthropocentric Principles - Tools and Organisation
of Industrial Design
Lauge Baungaard Rasmussen and Poul Tettrup .............. 249
24. Skill in Software Production - The Deskiller is
Deskilled
Yoshihiro Sato ............................ , ......... .......... ....... 261