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Automation and the Future of Human Work: An Everlasting Debate Renewed by the Work Activity

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Proceedings of the 21st Congress of the International Ergonomics Association (IEA 2021) (IEA 2021)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems ((LNNS,volume 219))

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Abstract

Driven by digitally enabled machines, robotics and artificial intelligence, the speed and pace at which tasks can be automated are unprecedented. The changes in the nature of the work activity caused by an “automation revolution” is the motto for the current debate on automation and the future of human work. This debate has crystalized, so far, into forecasts estimating the extent to which occupations are “automatable”. But what are the real effects of automation in the content and pace of work? What is the place of the human activity within work environments increasingly automated? Through a research approach from the “point of view of activity”, two studies were designed to investigate these questions. Study 1 was conducted in two cork processing companies, whereas study 2 followed an exploratory strategy with Portuguese experts involved in the design of future automated driving situations. The findings suggest the activity constitutes the critical “link” between the theoretical definition of work automated processes and the real work. But such link remains “hidden” compared with the complexity of the automation apparatus. Diverging from techno-deterministic interpretations, the perspective of our research is to contribute to monitoring the ongoing transformations of work evoked by automation considering the operational leeway for workers develop their experience, preserve their health, and revalue their work practices.

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Acknowledgments

This work is supported by the FCT − Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology under Grant SFRH/BD/139135/2018; by the Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian (“CORK-In” project); and by the Centre for Psychology at University of Porto (FCT UIDB/00050/2020).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Psychology at University of Porto (CPUP), Porto, Portugal

    Daniel Silva & Liliana Cunha

  2. Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences of the University of Porto, Porto, Portugal

    Liliana Cunha

Authors
  1. Daniel Silva
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  2. Liliana Cunha
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Correspondence to Daniel Silva .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Département de génie mécanique, Université de Moncton, Moncton, NB, Canada

    Nancy L. Black

  2. Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Ryerson University, Toronto, ON, Canada

    W. Patrick Neumann

  3. Toronto, ON, Canada

    Ian Noy

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Silva, D., Cunha, L. (2021). Automation and the Future of Human Work: An Everlasting Debate Renewed by the Work Activity. In: Black, N.L., Neumann, W.P., Noy, I. (eds) Proceedings of the 21st Congress of the International Ergonomics Association (IEA 2021). IEA 2021. Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems, vol 219. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-74602-5_40

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-74602-5_40

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-74601-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-74602-5

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