What can social science tell us about the future of work?
The rise in automation and our digital economy are changing the way we work. In recent years, there’s been a rising sense of anxiety around how new technologies will impact our working lives: Will robots steal our jobs? Will we need to learn new skills to be employable?
In this changing landscape, social science has a critical role to play in understanding the impact of this digital takeover and examine where we go next.
Next week, SAGE will host an informal panel discussion alongside the Campaign for Social Science, exploring how big tech will shape our economies in the coming years, how social science can inform the nature of these changes, and ultimately bring some clarity to these complex issues.
If you’re not already registered, follow the link to join us on 7th November.
Our panel
Sanna Ojanpera - Researching the future of work and the digital economy at the Alan Turing Institute.
Melanie Simms - Professor of Work and Employment at the University of Glasgow and author of What Do We Know and What Should We Do About the Future of Work?
Karen Gregory - Program Director, MSc Digital Sociology at the University of Edinburgh
Alex Wood - Lecturer in the Sociology of Work at the University of Birmingham
The event will be a chance to ask questions to our expert panel, and share your own ideas, concerns, or things to be excited about relating to the future of work. To kick off the conversation, we’ve collected a bunch of resources from our panel to get some ideas flowing:
Alan Turing Report: The future of work will soon be the present: Why we need research to shape it
The Trades Union Congress 150 years on: a review of the organizing challenges and responses to the changing nature of work
Video collection from Alex Wood: including explorations of the gig economy.
Karen Gregory on what to do if your boss is an algorithm
Article by Alex Wood: Good gig, bad gig: Autonomy and algorithmic control in the global gig economy
An explanation of how platform companies like Uber and Deliveroo work, and how they’ve changed the nature of work.
Nesta report on The Future of Skills: Employment in 2030
An article on the passion economy and the future of work
EU Commission report: The future of work? Work of the future!