Technology and Labour In the New Digital Era

We invite papers about the deployment of new/emerging technologies at work and consequences for labour (i.e., workers, workplaces, power relations, regulations, labour movements, etc). From AI to robotics to algorithms and digital platforms, new technology is reshaping work, with far-reaching social and political consequences. Yet there is much more to learn from studies of technology and labour. This session welcomes papers on topics including (but not limited to):

• AI, including AI ‘agents’, AI trainers, machine learning, etc;
• Robotics, including humanoid, mobile, social and other robots, remote robotics, etc;
• Platform design and implementation in gig work and/or ‘traditional’ workplaces;
• Algorithms and algorithmic management, e.g., automated recruitment, performance management, surveillance, control, regulation, worker rights, etc;
• The political economy of automation and work/labour;
• Tech intermediaries, professionals, experts, etc and their relations with workers, managers, organisations;
• Occupations, skills, training and digital divides;
• Technology and precarious/informal/meaningful work

We welcome papers from any sector, e.g., manufacturing, logistics/warehousing, transport, ride sharing, delivery driving, care economy (healthcare, aged care, etc), education, the professions, etc. Papers are welcome from a range of disciplines, e.g., sociology, as well as political economy, geography, STS, organisation studies, etc, as well as cross-disciplinary approaches, e.g., labour process theory, labour/workplace regimes, class analysis, feminist analysis, social constructions of technology, socio-materiality, actor-network theory, assemblage theory, sociotechnical systems, etc.

We are primarily interested in papers that:

• offer new insights (conceptual and/or empirical) about technology and labour, e.g., augmentation, displacement, changing power dynamics, how technologies are adopted/translated/interpreted/exploited/resisted, etc.
• focus on technology itself and/or its relations with labour.