Working like Machines: Technological Upgrading and Labour in the Dutch Agri-food Chain

Karin Astrid Siegmann, Petar Ivošević and Oane Visser
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Karin Astrid Siegmann: International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam (ISS), The Netherlands
Petar Ivošević: Independent researcher, The Netherlands
Oane Visser: International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam (ISS), The Netherlands

Work, Employment & Society, 2025, vol. 39, issue 1, 202-225

Abstract: This article engages with the role of technological upgrading for work in agriculture, a sector commonly disregarded in debates about the future of work. Foregrounding migrant work in Dutch horticulture, it explores how technological innovation is connected to the scope and security of employment. Besides, it proposes a heuristic that connects workers’ experience to sectoral dynamics and the wider agri-food chain. Our analysis reads data from a small-scale qualitative study with different actors in the Dutch agri-food sector through the lens of the global value chain literature. Nuancing pessimistic predictions of widespread technological unemployment, we find product upgrading into high value-added products, and process upgrading, such as through climate control in greenhouses, to offer the potential for more and secure employment. However, higher work intensity and the dismantling of entitlements for rest and reproduction to ‘make people work like machines’ represent the underbelly of these dynamics.

Keywords: economic upgrading; employment; global value chains; horticulture; labour; migrants; the Netherlands; precarious work; social upgrading; technological change (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:woemps:v:39:y:2025:i:1:p:202-225

DOI: 10.1177/09500170241244718

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