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.

中文翻译：

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像机器一样工作：荷兰农业食品链中的技术升级和劳动力

本文讨论了农业工作技术升级的作用，这一领域在关于工作未来的辩论中通常被忽视。它以荷兰园艺业中的移民工作为前景，探讨了技术创新如何与就业范围和保障联系起来。此外，它还提出了一种启发式方法，将工人的经验与部门动态和更广泛的农业食品链联系起来。我们的分析通过全球价值链文献的视角，读取了荷兰农业食品行业不同参与者进行的小规模定性研究的数据。我们对普遍技术性失业的悲观预测进行了细致入微的分析，发现产品升级为高附加值产品，流程升级（例如通过温室气候控制）可以提供更多、更稳定的就业机会。然而，更高的工作强度以及休息和繁殖权利的取消“让人们像机器一样工作”代表了这些动态的弱点。