Computer Capitalism: Environment, Health, and Labor in the American Computer Industry

How might the history of computing look different if we centered workers and nature? My dissertation argues that approaching computer history from a labor-environmental history perspective highlights unequal environmental and health impacts of computer production. I examine the roles of workers, health, and nature in the history of the United States computer industry from the 1950s to the present. Like countless other commodities, computers consist of natural elements that, through labor, have been transformed into products. However, the computer industry has historically framed computing technology as virtual and post-industrial, free from the smokestacks and drudgery of industrial capitalism. Despite the clean, safe, post-industrial image that the industry has projected of itself, it has historically involved industrial labor with high rates of workplace injury, including manufacturing workers being exposed to hazardous solvents. The same chemicals that have harmed workers in computer manufacturing plants have also seeped into soil and groundwater, with long-term impacts on surrounding communities. For example, Santa Clara County (better known as Silicon Valley) has more federal “Superfund” toxic cleanup sites than any other county in the United States, in large part because of its history of computer industry pollution. These health and environmental impacts have been experienced unequally throughout history, with marginalized groups facing increased health risks both within the computer workplace and in surrounding, polluted communities. Analyzing labor and environment in computer history underscores the materiality of the digital economy and links computer history with the historical literature on labor, environmental justice, and capitalism.

This poster summarizes my dissertation with visuals that illustrate the industrial processes and environmental/health impacts of each stage of computer production. It includes photographs of the computer production process, comics created by occupational health and environmental activists, and maps of areas polluted by computer production. Viewed together and interpreted through this labor-environmental history lens, these visuals show how computing has historically been a material (rather than virtual) industry with substantive, unequal impacts on bodies and places.