AI must be addressed as a labor issue, and workers should be part of decision-making in AI policy. Moving beyond common AI tropes and assumptions of mass job displacement, we seek a deeper understanding of how AI is reshaping the value of work, workplace conditions, underlying business models and ultimately, power relations.
Labor Futures
We interrogate how technology is disrupting, destabilizing, and transforming many aspects of work and employment.
Team Members
About
Public debates about “the future of work” are often shaped by hype cycles and industry-driven narratives about the inevitability of tech innovation. Yet these narratives can obscure — or outright dismiss — how technologies impact workers, sidelining and disempowering them and further entrenching racial, gender, and economic oppression.
Our work challenges the assumption that workers are merely passive recipients of technology, and that automation is the solution to a wide range of complex social and economic problems. Through rigorous empirical research and targeted engagement with stakeholders and decision-makers, we aim to create opportunities and levers for workers to shape the technologies that impact their everyday lives. We investigate critical labor topics to shift narratives, expand debate, and inform policy and practice.
Over the years, our work has explored the role of digital worker surveillance and algorithmic inequality, how the tech industry and corporate power are reshaping the economic and political landscapes of labor, and how precarious gig platform models erode labor rights and workplace standards. Today, we focus our attention on applied research, and are pursuing new research on rapid developments in AI and its impact on labor. We are also introducing research that complicates conversations about the future of work by examining issues at the intersection of labor, race, and technology.
Recent Work
Mentions and Press
All Work
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event
video
Data & SocietyJune 2019 -
video
re:publicaMay 2019 -
Primer
Data & SocietyTechnology enables employers to increasingly monitor their employees. This explainer by Alexandra Mateescu and Aiha Nguyen identifies four current trends in workplace monitoring and surveillance: prediction and flagging tools; biometrics and health data; remote monitoring and time-tracking; and gamification and algorithmic management. Read moreFebruary 2019 -
Primer
Data & SocietyThis explainer by Alexandra Mateescu and Aiha Nguyen defines algorithmic management and reviews how this concept challenges workers’ rights in sectors, including retail, the service industry, and delivery and logistics. The authors outline existing research on the ways that algorithmic management is manifesting across various labor industries, shifting workplace power dynamics, and putting workers at a disadvantage. It can enable increased surveillance and control while removing transparency. Read moreFebruary 2019 -
op-ed
The Globe and MailHow do we think about regulatory frameworks for ridehail services? Researcher Alex Rosenblat shares insights from her book Uberland. Read on The Globe and MailNovember 2018 -
report
Data & SocietyDrawn from the experiences of U.S. ridehail, care, and cleaning platform workers, new Data & Society report demonstrates how technology reshapes the future of labor. Read moreJune 2018 -
video
VoxNovember 2017 -
Academic Article
Columbia Law ReviewRyan Calo and D&S researcher Alex Rosenblat write this analysis of the newly termed 'taking economy' of Uber. Sharing economy firms such as Uber and Airbnb facilitate trusted transactions between strangers on digital platf... Read on Columbia Law ReviewMarch 2017 -
op-ed
Harvard Business ReviewD&S researcher Alex Rosenblat writes about the motivations of gig economy workers. In sum, the effects of the gig economy on the workforce are mixed. These platforms seem to benefit people earning supplementary income or t... Read on Harvard Business ReviewNovember 2016 -
blog post
TheRideShareGuy.comD&S researcher Alex Rosenblat wrote a blog post discussing how Uber can implement wage withholding policies without driver input or negotiation. This set up essentially provides negative disincentives to drivers to retriev... Read on TheRideShareGuy.comAugust 2016