AgTech’ and the restructuring of agrifood labour regimes

Digital technologies, migrant labour and the intensification of production in the UK glasshouse sector

Bibliographic Data

ID11489656
AuthorsAdrian Smith (0000-0001-8027-712X, Department of Management University of Sussex Business School, University of Sussex Brighton UK, corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume39
Issue3
Pages309-334
Publication date2024-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueNew Technology Work and Employment (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0268-1072 • E-ISSN: 1468-005X
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/ntwe.12294
OpenAlexW4398137844
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited64

This article examines the challenges surrounding the adoption of robotic automation and ‘AgTech’ in glasshouse agrifood production and considers ways in which growers and technology capital are seeking to transform the organisation of work at the point of production because of digital technological interventions. The article does so by examining the deployment by growers of ‘AgTech’ in the glasshouse agrifood sector in the context of the labour regime centred around seasonal migrant labour supply in the UK. The article makes three main contributions. Conceptually it centres technological transformation of the workplace within the context of wider labour regimes. Second, it argues that transformations of the labour process at the point of production through the introduction of ‘AgTech’ are one response by growers to labour supply shortages. Third, it examines the attempts by grower capital to intensify and fragment the nature of work as a result of the introduction of ‘AgTech’

Agronomy · Biology · Business · Economic growth · Economics · Greenhouse · Labour economics · Migrant workers · Restructuring · Digital Economy and Work Transformation · Global trade, sustainability, and social impact · Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy