Designing democracy: The UTOPIA-project and the role of the nordic labor movement in technological change during the 1970s and 1980s

Abstract

By using the UTOPIA-project as an example, this paper highlights the role of the Nordic labor movement in technological change and underlines that there are different incentives for technological change. While corporations developing technology usually pursued increased efficiency in production, the UTOPIA-project aimed at other, alternative goals such as translating social values regarding job skills, quality of work, and quality of products into new computer hardware and software for the graphic industries. In the larger context, the UTOPIA-project can be seen as an attempt by the labor movement to revitalize and realize the old dream of industrial democracy by designing computing technology.