systems? Taking a step back, the question we will consider is how these processes of digging become algorithmic and what this will mean. We also seek to understand the very processes behind the automation of the excavation and targeting of memory. Walter Benjamin’s comments give us only a starting point. We use them here as an impression of how memory might be understood. Much has changed since he wrote that fragment. We do not wish to capture all of those changes to memory making in this book, although these varied technological shifts clearly include the emergence
The elementary task of the administration, taking care of people’s basic and human rights, will be significantly enhanced when it is possible to meet people’s personal needs without committing to time and place, mechanically. MoE, 2017: 34 (Era of AI) In line with the goal of Finnish policies on AI to harness the potential of algorithms in business and everyday life ( MoE, 2019 ), several Finnish public authorities have, in recent years, adopted automation to enhance the quality of public services ( Chiusi et al, 2020 ). A key objective of these
Introduction Automation is a persistent feature of the capitalist mode of production, yet societies have only reflected on it in recurring waves ( Benanav, 2020 ). The current wave focuses on how advanced robotics and machine learning will overhaul the labour market and might lead to mass unemployment and a devaluation of job qualifications. The scholarly proponents of the automation discourse are labour economists of the routine-biased technological change (RBTC) approach, arguing that manual and cognitive routine tasks are prone to be technically replaced
In recent years, the United Kingdom's Home Office has started using automated systems to make immigration decisions. These systems promise faster, more accurate, and cheaper decision-making, but in practice they have exposed people to distress, disruption, and even deportation.
This book identifies a pattern of risky experimentation with automated systems in the Home Office. It analyses three recent case studies including: a voice recognition system used to detect fraud in English-language testing; an algorithm for identifying ‘risky’ visa applications; and automated decision-making in the EU Settlement Scheme.
The book argues that a precautionary approach is essential to ensure that society benefits from government automation without exposing individuals to unacceptable risks.
Who steals jobs? Who owns jobs?
Focusing on the competitive labour market, this book scrutinizes the narratives created around immigration and automation. The authors explore how the advances in AI and demands for constant flow of immigrant workers eradicate political and working rights, fuelling fears over job theft and ownership.
Shedding light on the multiple ways in which employment is used as an instrument of neoliberal governance, this revealing book sparks new debate on the role of automation and migration policies. It is an invaluable resource for academics and practitioners working in the areas of immigration and labour, capitalism and social exclusion, and economic models and political governance.
‘algorithmic management’. This term goes back to the work of Aneesh (2009) who describes it as a form of labour control that functions ‘by shaping an environment […] in which there are only programmed alternatives for the execution’ of the work tasks (p 71). As research discussions during the recent years have shown, however, the term ‘algorithmic management’ is often used in a variety of different ways. One group of researchers has highlighted the automation of task assignment and surveillance. Möhlmann and Zalmanson (2017) provided one of the first definitions of
Social media platforms hold vast amounts of biographical data about our lives. They repackage our past content as ‘memories’ and deliver them back to us. But how does that change the way we remember?
Drawing on original qualitative research as well as industry documents and reports, this book critically explores the process behind this new form of memory making. In asking how social media are beginning to change the way we remember, it will be essential reading for scholars and students who are interested in understanding the algorithmically defined spaces of our lives.
We are living in algorithmic times.
From machine learning and artificial intelligence to blockchain or simpler news-feed filtering, automated systems can transform the social world in ways that are just starting to be imagined.
Redefining these emergent technologies as the new systems of knowing, pioneering scholar David Beer examines the acute tensions they create and how they are changing what is known and what is knowable. Drawing on cases ranging from the art market and the smart home through to financial tech, AI patents and neural networks, he develops key concepts for understanding the framing, envisioning and implementation of algorithms.
This book will be of interest to anyone who is concerned with the rise of algorithmic thinking and the way it permeates society.
A uniquely hybrid approach to welfare state policy, ecological sustainability and social transformation, this book explores transformative models of welfare change.
Using Ireland as a case study, it addresses the institutional adaptations needed to move towards a sustainable welfare state, and the policy of making such transformation happen.
It takes a theoretical and practical approach to implementing an alternative paradigm for welfare in the context of globalisation, climate change, social cohesion, automation, economic and power inequalities, intersectionality and environmental sustainability, as well as perpetual crisis, including the pandemic.
Today’s economics offers us a far too narrow perspective on the role that paid work plays in our lives, as individuals and as a society.
This book examines the urgent workplace challenges we’re facing today, from automation to AI and climate change, with an interdisciplinary and historical analysis that challenges and broadens the scope of existing economic literature. Exploring the current economic proposals to address these issues, it advocates for a more egalitarian and sustainable future that builds workers’ protections into the very fabric of our economic systems.
This is a resounding call for greater economic social justice and equality at work and a valuable resource for social scientists from fields like heterodox economics, business and sociology.
