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IJS Lecture: Kate McDonald, "Foot Work: The Labor of Innovation in Japan's 'Transportation Society'"

Flyer with several Japanese people in front of a plane
Mon, March 15, 2021
3:30 pm - 5:00 pm
Online (Registration Required)

The Institute for Japanese Studies presents:

"Foot Work: The Labor of Innovation in Japan's 'Transportation Society.'"

Kate McDonald
University of California, Santa Barbara

Flyer: McDonald Flyer [PDF]

Abstract: Humans power transport. This is obviously true for the early twentieth century. It's easy to find images of rickshaws on city streets in Tokyo. But it's equally true for the twenty-first century. Look no further than the parcel delivery workers sprinting up and down apartment-building staircases. Despite this continuity, human-powered technologies such as the rickshaw symbolize Japan's past while the promise of automated systems such as parcel delivery drones symbolize Japan's future. Why? Returning to the charged history of labor and innovation in Japan’s transportation society, this talk shows how we can use the lives of transport workers to craft a history of technological change that places human power squarely in the present.