Robot

Agriculture

Engineering

Ecology

Pure mathematics

Biology

Automation

Distributive property

Futures contract

Archaeology

Economics

Biochemistry

Computer science

Business

Reading (process)

Mechanical engineering

CLARITY

Reproduction

Mathematics

Politics

Geography

Political science

Sociology

Robotics

Artificial intelligence

Financial economics

Chemistry

The Journal of Peasant Studies

This paper draws from interviews with (1) US farmers who have adopted automated systems; (2) individuals employed by North American firms that engineer, manufacture, and/or repair these technologies; and (3) US farm laborers (immigrant and domestic) and representatives from farm labor organizations. The argument draws from the literature interrogating the fictional expectations that underlie capitalist reproduction, reading it through a distributed (ontological) lens. The framework questions whether concepts like ‘automation’ and ‘skill’ provide sufficient analytic and conceptual clarity to critically engage these platforms and suggests that we think about what these technologies do rather than fixate on what each is.

Automated agrifood futures: robotics, labor and the distributive politics of digital agriculture