Anthropology
Manufacturing: An Uncertain Future
Document Type
Oral Presentation
Location
Indianapolis, IN
Subject Area
Anthropology
Start Date
13-4-2018 9:45 AM
End Date
13-4-2018 10:15 AM
Sponsor
Susan Hyatt (Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis)
Description
During the 2016 presidential campaign, two factories on Indianapolis’ Westside, Carrier and Rexnord, announced plans to cease production in Indianapolis and relocate these jobs to Monterrey, Mexico. Then-Candidate Trump, campaigning on his platform of “America First,” visited Indianapolis and announced his intention to keep these jobs in the US. Despite this pledge, and a $7 million incentive from the state of Indiana, the lay-offs have continued apace and the Rexnord faculty is now completely shuttered. In partnership with the United Steelworkers Union Local 1999, which represents these workers, students in the Fall 2017 Urban Anthropology class conducted interviews with Carrier and Rexnord employees, and created digital stories that portray the hopes and anxieties of workers’ lives in flux, as they negotiate how these changes are affecting their communities, their families and their union. In this session, several students from the class will share the insights they gained from hearing and representing these steelworkers’ stories and will screen four of the digital stories they created.
Manufacturing: An Uncertain Future
Indianapolis, IN
During the 2016 presidential campaign, two factories on Indianapolis’ Westside, Carrier and Rexnord, announced plans to cease production in Indianapolis and relocate these jobs to Monterrey, Mexico. Then-Candidate Trump, campaigning on his platform of “America First,” visited Indianapolis and announced his intention to keep these jobs in the US. Despite this pledge, and a $7 million incentive from the state of Indiana, the lay-offs have continued apace and the Rexnord faculty is now completely shuttered. In partnership with the United Steelworkers Union Local 1999, which represents these workers, students in the Fall 2017 Urban Anthropology class conducted interviews with Carrier and Rexnord employees, and created digital stories that portray the hopes and anxieties of workers’ lives in flux, as they negotiate how these changes are affecting their communities, their families and their union. In this session, several students from the class will share the insights they gained from hearing and representing these steelworkers’ stories and will screen four of the digital stories they created.