Life and code : logistics, culture and economy

Although there is wide recognition that contemporary relations of culture and economy are patterned by the workings of an information or network society, understanding the cultural specificity of computer code remains difficult. This chapter establishes a critical analytical viewpoint on code by examining the cultural and social implications of its applications in the logistics industries-one of the pre-eminent sectors of the global economy. Focusing on how code interacts with other aspects of economic life in the coordination of supply chains at Sydney's Port Botany, the aim is to show how logistical practices support and link different spheres of cultural and social activity. This involves attention to material and socio-technical systems that facilitate the movement of people, goods and ideas across time and space. It also means studying 'boring things' like supply chain operations and software protocols that provide the infrastructural background to contemporary forms of economic organisation.1 Probing the importance of logistical processes for changing patterns of work and urban mobility, I ask how code merges into circulatory practices of transport and communication. This allows a wider investigation of the changing relations between code and life.