Workplace Learning through Human-Machine Interaction in a Transient Multilingual Blue-Collar Work Environment

Abstract

This article explores processes of jointly negotiating work practices (i.e., workplace learning) in a contemporary blue-collar work environment characterized by transience, language diversity, and limited opportunities for human-human interaction. The article is based on linguistic-ethnographic fieldwork in a metal foundry in the Dutch-German borderland, where many employees have temporary contracts and diverse language backgrounds, and where many production tasks are delegated to machines. The article shows that human-machine interaction, combined with a newcomer’s ability to observe and hypothesize, can fulfill vital functions for workplace learning processes, while the temporariness of work relations can demotivate employees to invest in these processes.