Shifts in the production of national and global territories have coincided with new forms of biopolitical governance and surveillance, producing a simultaneous expansion and contraction of spatial and temporal mobility. In the logistics industries the mainstreaming of Radio Frequency Identification, the extended monitoring networks of GPS telematics, and the implementation of voice picking in warehouses have all had significant impacts on the mobilities of labour. Given the increasing scholarly interest in logistical geographies, this paper investigates these three advancements put to use for the regulation of bodies in the market environments of global capital from a techno- historical perspective, to provide a frame for further discourse on global supply chains, labour struggles, and security cultures.
Keywords: RFID, voice picking, GPS, surveillance, bodies, logistics
Kanngieser A 2013 Tracking and tracing: Geographies of logistical governance and labouring bodies. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 31(4). 594-610 [pdf]