39. Collective Organizing in the Face of Automation: Invisible work, Artificial Intelligence, and the gig economy.

Stephen Slota, The University of Texas at Austin

Posted: January 27, 2021

The nature of ‘going to work’ is changing in fundamental ways. First, AI-driven automation has the potential to displace increasingly-broad sets of roles, including an expansion into and beyond service roles traditionally performed by humans. Further, issues raised among research into the growing gig economy have brought to the fore the potential for unfair treatment and unjust employment dynamics among those undertaking short-term, self-directed work. Finally, workers possess, to an increasing degree, the necessary skills and expertise to automate significant portions of their own work, threatening their job stability and leading to what might be thought of as ‘self-obsolescence’. These workers may be newly or imminently displaced by novel implementations of AI, may find the circumstances of their work life to be substantially changed, or may have to operate under the often under-negotiated and under-secure conditions of the gig economy. Today, during what is perhaps the most dramatic period of growth in remote work, there is a growing need to closely examine collective organizing as job roles, daily practice, and even demographics shift alongside mediating technologies. With an eye toward the future of work, it is of pressing importance to consider whether the basic practices and roles of collective organizing still apply, or if they might need significant readjustment. In this panel, we invite papers that consider how workers can, do, and should advocate for themselves and act collectively.



Published: 01/01/2021