About the Event

In the age of digital transformation, many experts predict the destruction of jobs due to artificial intelligence. This may pose a problem for liberal societies, since it is not least the workplace and income that enables individual self-determination, the core promise of liberal societies. Dr. Aaron Benanav, Academic Coordinator of the SCRIPTS research unit "(Re-)Allocation", disputes the ‘automation thesis’ in his book "Automation and the Future of Work". 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 in low productivity growth. But what are the consequences of the economy's weak engine for the future of work and individual self-determination?

About the book

In “Automation and the Future of Work”, SCRIPTS PostDoc Aaron Benanav uncovers the structural economic trends that will shape our working lives far into the future and disputes the often-cited ‘automation thesis’. Based on this, he asks, what social movements are required to propel us into post-scarcity, if technological innovation alone can’t deliver it? In response to calls for a universal basic income that would maintain a growing army of redundant workers, he offers a counter-proposal: To transform the economy democratically to avoid competition between man and machine. The German edition “Automatisierung und die Zukunft der Arbeit” will be published on October 10, 2021 at Suhrkamp Verlag.

About the speakers

Aaron Benanav is Postdoctoral Researcher and Academic Coordinator of the Reseach Unit "(Re-)Allocation" at SCRIPTS. As a historian of 19th- and 20th-century global history, he has been working on issues of international economic development, economic statistics-making, global governance, and labor-market policy. Next to his academic research and teaching, he has written for the Guardian and New Left Review. “Automation and the Future of Work” is his first book.

Rebecca Ritters is a moderator and broadcast journalist at Deutsche Welle. Rebecca has worked in Australia, the USA, the UK, Lebanon and Belgium before joining DW in Berlin, where she anchors international and breaking news.

About the event series "Futuring the Liberal Script"

“Futuring the Liberal Script” is a conversation series live from the silent green in Berlin that connects research topics and contemporary diagnoses and puts them up for debate. Researchers of the Cluster of Excellence “Contestations of the Liberal Script – SCRIPTS” and invited guests discuss and analyze current crises of liberal societies and democracies and reflect on future political imaginaries from diverse perspectives. The "futuring" series thus seeks to develop a critical and creative stance in response to current erosions and contestations of liberal values. Previous discussions have featured Christoph Möllers, Jan-Werner Müller, Michael Zürn, Claus Offe, Steffen Mau and Nora Bossong.