Introduction: Technological Unemployment and the Future of Work

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael A. Peters ◽  
Petar Jandrić ◽  
Alexander J. Means
Keyword(s):  
Future Of Work ◽  
Technological Unemployment ◽  
The Future

Stepping back to move forward: Centering capital in discussions of technology and the future of work

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 129-133
Author(s):  
Benjamin Shestakofsky
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Technological Development ◽  
Structural Features ◽  
Robotic Systems ◽  
Future Of Work ◽  
Technological Unemployment ◽  
The Future ◽  
Constructivist Approaches ◽  
The Relationship

Some researchers have warned that advances in artificial intelligence will increasingly allow employers to substitute human workers with software and robotic systems, heralding an impending wave of technological unemployment. By attending to the particular contexts in which new technologies are developed and implemented, others have revealed that there is nothing inevitable about the future of work, and that there is instead the potential for a diversity of models for organizing the relationship between work and artificial intelligence. Although these social constructivist approaches allow researchers to identify sources of contingency in technological outcomes, they are less useful in explaining how aims and outcomes can converge across diverse settings. In this essay, I make the case that researchers of work and technology should endeavor to link the outcomes of artificial intelligence systems not only to their immediate environments but also to less visible—but nevertheless deeply influential—structural features of societies. I demonstrate the utility of this approach by elaborating on how finance capital structures technology choices in the workplace. I argue that investigating how the structure of ownership influences a firm’s technology choices can open our eyes to alternative models and politics of technological development, improving our understanding of how to make innovation work for everyone instead of allowing the benefits generated by technological change to be hoarded by a select few.

scholarly journals “This time may be a little different” – exploring the Finnish view on the future of work

2019 ◽  
Vol 39 (1/2) ◽  
pp. 22-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ville-Veikko Pulkka
Keyword(s):  
Labor Market ◽  
Digital Economy ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Public ◽  
Future Of Work ◽  
Work Sharing ◽  
Technological Unemployment ◽  
Policy Responses ◽  
The Future ◽  
Nationally Representative

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore Finns’ labor market development predictions for the next ten years and shed light on preferred policy responses to the digital economy. Design/methodology/approach Nationally representative survey data employed in this paper were collected in autumn 2017. The data collection utilized a multiphase sampling, and the interviews (n=1004) were carried out on telephone to minimize selection-bias and produce demographically balanced data. Findings Over two-thirds (71 percent) of Finns do not expect technological unemployment to constitute a permanent problem in the digital economy. Nevertheless, 74 percent assume that technological unemployment will increase at least temporarily. A considerable majority (85 percent) also believe that future jobs will be more precarious. Younger generations, despite their currently weak position in the labor market, are surprisingly more optimistic in their predictions. Analysis of preferred policy responses support this paper’s main thesis that the Finnish view on the future of work is rather optimistic: education reforms and streamlining the current social security gather dedicated support, whereas more unconventional ideas such as basic income or work-sharing remain contested. Originality/value To predict possible barriers to labor mobility stemming from digital economy discourses and to anticipate possible political fluctuations, studies on the public view are needed. This research aims to provide a solid framework for further comparative explorations of the public view.

Self-Making and Game Making in the Future of Work

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aleena Chia
Keyword(s):  
Video Game ◽  
Industrial Capitalism ◽  
Paid Work ◽  
Cultural Industry ◽  
Game Development ◽  
Future Of Work ◽  
Technological Unemployment ◽  
The Future ◽  
Video Game Development ◽  
Conceptual Shift

Paid work has been a keystone of morality, normativity, sociality, and identity in capitalist societies. However, as the future of work is ushered in by technological unemployment, flexibilization, and precarity, researchers have to contend with what has been called the post-work society. The cultural industry of video game development provides a vantage into this future of work because it has been dominated since its inception by a vast field of informal creators and intermediaries, some of whom are paid for their activities while the vast majority are not. This chapter argues that gaming hobbies are exemplars of a conceptual shift in productive leisure not just as a mediating category in industrial capitalism but a mediating stage towards post-work.

Artificial Intelligence, Jobs and the Future of Work: Racing with the Machines

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Edvard P.G. Bruun ◽  
Alban Duka
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Basic Income ◽  
Daily Lives ◽  
Future Of Work ◽  
Technological Unemployment ◽  
Current Trends ◽  
Driverless Cars ◽  
The Future ◽  
School Curricula

Abstract Artificial intelligence is rapidly entering our daily lives in the form of driverless cars, automated online assistants and virtual reality experiences. In so doing, AI has already substituted human employment in areas that were previously thought to be uncomputerizable. Based on current trends, the technological displacement of labor is predicted to be significant in the future – if left unchecked this will lead to catastrophic societal unemployment levels. This paper presents a means to mitigate future technological unemployment through the introduction of a Basic Income scheme, accompanied by reforms in school curricula and retraining programs. Our proposal argues that such a scheme can be funded by a special tax on those industries that make use of robotic labour; it includes a practical roadmap that would see a government take this proposal from the conceptual phase and implement it nationwide in the span of one decade.

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