Futuring the Liberal Script #4 Automation and the Future of Work

SCRIPTS conversation

Aaron Benanav in conversation with Philipp Staab
moderated by Rebecca Ritters

In the age of digital transformation, many experts predict the destruction of jobs due to artificial intelligence. The risk of job destruction may pose a problem for liberal societies. After all, it is not least the workplace that enables individual self-determination — the core promise of liberal societies. An income enables people to realise their life plans and participate in social and political life. Dr. Aaron Benanav, Academic Coordinator of the SCRIPTS Research Unit (Re-)Allocation, disputes this automation thesis. He argues that the real causes of the problems at the labour market are not to be found in automation, but in weak economic growth as well as low productivity growth. But what are the consequences of the economy's weak engine for the future of work and individual self-determination?

with

Aaron Benanav, Academic Coordinator of the Reseach Unit (Re-)Allocation at SCRIPTS
Philipp Staab, Professor of Sociology of the Future of Work at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Rebecca Ritters, News Anchor and Reporter at Deutsche Welle News, Berlin

Language: English

An event organised by the Cluster of Excellence “Contestations of the Liberal Script – SCRIPTS” in cooperation with Suhrkamp Verlag and silent green

ABOUT THE SERIES - Futuring the Liberal Script 

Futuring the Liberal Script is a conversation series live from the silent green. Researchers of the Cluster of Excellence Contestations of the Liberal Script – SCRIPTS discuss and analyze current crisis of liberal societies and democracies and reflect on future political imaginaries from diverse perspectives. As a “script in trouble” the liberal script needs manifold analytical and discursive registers for keeping track of open antagonisms but also of its inherent contradictions and tensions. As such, “futuring” is not necessarily a variant of optimizing, but rather relates to developing a critical and creative stance in response to current erosions and contestations of liberal values. The liberal script has to compete increasingly with alternative scripts and agendas for organizing societies, be they run by authoritarian, populist, Islamic fundamentalists, terrorist or technocratic autocracies. Whether liberal democracies are confident, flexible and agile enough to respond to the challenges posed by contrary political systems and alternative ideas is a central matter of acute political and social concern. The SCRIPTS conversations assemble a variety of views, concerns and actors by putting research topics and timely diagnosis up to public and ongoing debate.

Monday, October 18 
Doors: From 6.15 pm
Start: 7 pm
Kuppelhalle
Free entrance
Pre-registration is requested