Skip to main content

Back to the Future of Work: Old Questions for New Technologies

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Innovations for Community Services (I4CS 2022)

Part of the book series: Communications in Computer and Information Science ((CCIS,volume 1585))

Included in the following conference series:

  • 553 Accesses

Abstract

In the past decade or so the Future of Work question has emerged as a major policy concern at national and international level. This is in large part due to opportunities and challenges created by the development of data and AI driven automation technologies, and in the past two years by the Covid pandemic, which has led many employees and employers to rethink the ways in which they work, as individuals and organisations. In the USA, there is now talk of a great resignation, as many employees reconsider the value and quality of their working lives. If there is one lesson that we have already learned it is that the future of work question resists easy formulations and answers, nor is it primarily a matter of jobs being replaced by automation. As work touches nearly every aspect of our lives the future of work is bound to be a complex question in need to careful investigation. In this talk I won't offer predictions, but try to unpack the problem, asking not so much what is the future of work, but rather how should we ask good question(s) about it in the first place.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 69.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 89.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Susskind, R.E., Susskind, D.: The Future of the Professions: How Technology will Transform The Work of Human Experts. Oxford University Press, USA (2021)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Avent, R.: The Wealth of Humans: Work, Power, and Status In The Twenty-First Century. St Martins Press, New York (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  3. Dejours, C.: The Return of Work in Critical Theory : Self, Society. Columbia University Press, Politics (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  4. Graeber, D.: Bullshit Jobs: A Theory. Penguin, London (2019)

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  5. Geuss, R.: A philosopher looks at work. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (2021)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  6. Arregui, P.: The changing nature of work and skills in the digital age. In: Gonzalez Vazquez, I., et al. (eds) EUR 29823 EN, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, ISBN 978–92–76–09207–0, JRC117505 (2019). https://doi.org/10.2760/373892

  7. https://www2.deloitte.com/global/en/pages/human-capital/articles/future-of-work.html

  8. Eurofound Employee Monitoring and Surveillance: The Challenges of Digitalisation. Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg (2020)

    Google Scholar 

  9. Freeman, R.: Who owns the robots rules the world. IZA World Labor. 5 (2015). https://doi.org/10.15185/izawol.5

  10. Gorz, A.: Critique of Economic Reason. Verso, London (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Keynes, J.M.: Economic possibilities for our grandchildren. In: Essays in Persuasion. Palgrave Macmillan.London (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-59072-8_25

  12. Gellner, E., Breuilly, J.: Nations and Nationalism. Blackwell Publishing, Malden (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  13. International KES Conference on Human Centered Intelligent Systems. In: Zimmermann, A., Howlett, R.J., Jain, L.C., Schmidt, R. (eds.) Human centred intelligent systems. In: Proceedings of KES-HCIS 2021 Conference https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-5784-2

  14. European Commission. High-level expert group on artificial intelligence. Ethics Guidelines for Trustworthy AI. Publications office of the European Union (2019)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Darian Meacham .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this paper

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this paper

Meacham, D. (2022). Back to the Future of Work: Old Questions for New Technologies. In: Phillipson, F., Eichler, G., Erfurth, C., Fahrnberger, G. (eds) Innovations for Community Services. I4CS 2022. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 1585. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-06668-9_3

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-06668-9_3

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-031-06667-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-06668-9

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics