IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ehl/lserod/69811.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Automation: is it really different this time?

Author

Listed:
  • Wajcman, Judy

Abstract

This review examines several recent books that deal with the impact of automation and robotics on the future of jobs. Most books in this genre predict that the current phase of digital technology will create massive job loss in an unprecedented way, that is, that this wave of automation is different from previous waves. Uniquely digital technology is said to automate professional occupations for the first time. This review critically examines these claims, puncturing some of the hyperbole about automation, robotics and Artificial Intelligence. The review argues for a more nuanced analysis of the politics of technology and provides some critical distance on Silicon Valley's futurist discourse. Only by insisting that futures are always social can public bodies, rather than autonomous markets and endogenous technologies, become central to disentangling, debating and delivering those futures.

Suggested Citation

  • Wajcman, Judy, 2017. "Automation: is it really different this time?," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 69811, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:69811
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/69811/
    File Function: Open access version.
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Filippi, Emilia & Bannò, Mariasole & Trento, Sandro, 2023. "Automation technologies and the risk of substitution of women: Can gender equality in the institutional context reduce the risk?," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 191(C).
    2. Ossewaarde, Marinus, 2019. "Digital transformation and the renewal of social theory: Unpacking the new fraudulent myths and misplaced metaphors," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 24-30.
    3. Crowley, Frank & Doran, Justin, 2019. "Automation and Irish Towns: Who's Most at Risk?," SRERC Working Paper Series SRERCWP2019-1, University College Cork (UCC), Spatial and Regional Economic Research Centre (SRERC).
    4. Prem Borle & Kathrin Reichel & Susanne Voelter-Mahlknecht, 2021. "Is There a Sampling Bias in Research on Work-Related Technostress? A Systematic Review of Occupational Exposure to Technostress and the Role of Socioeconomic Position," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(4), pages 1-22, February.
    5. Búi K Petersen & James Chowhan & Gordon B Cooke & Ray Gosine & Peter J Warrian, 2023. "Automation and the future of work: An intersectional study of the role of human capital, income, gender and visible minority status," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 44(3), pages 703-727, August.
    6. CELI, Giuseppe & VITI, Domenico, 2018. "Land Use, Internal Mobility And External Immigration In Italy," Annals of Spiru Haret University, Economic Series, Universitatea Spiru Haret, vol. 18(3), pages 23-43.
    7. Filippi, Emilia & Bannò, Mariasole & Trento, Sandro, 2023. "Automation technologies and their impact on employment: A review, synthesis and future research agenda," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 191(C).
    8. Damian Kedziora & Hanna-Maija Kiviranta, 2018. "Digital Business Value Creation with Robotic Process Automation (rpa) in Northern and Central Europe," Management, University of Primorska, Faculty of Management Koper, vol. 13(2), pages 161-174.
    9. Jean-Philippe Deranty & Thomas Corbin, 2022. "Artificial Intelligence and work: a critical review of recent research from the social sciences," Papers 2204.00419, arXiv.org.
    10. Turja, Tuuli & Särkikoski, Tuomo & Koistinen, Pertti & Melin, Harri, 2022. "Basic human needs and robotization: How to make deployment of robots worthwhile for everyone?," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    11. Butollo, Florian, 2021. "Digitalization and the geographies of production: Towards reshoring or global fragmentation?," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 25(2), pages 259-278.
    12. Chris Warhurst & Wil Hunt, 2019. "The Digitalisation of Future Work and Employment. Possible impact and policy responses," JRC Working Papers on Labour, Education and Technology 2019-05, Joint Research Centre.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Technology; work; automation; robots;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • R14 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Land Use Patterns
    • J01 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General - - - Labor Economics: General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:69811. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: LSERO Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/lsepsuk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.