Overview

The controversy over the effects of technology on employment, wages, and labour has far-off origins in the early Industrial Revolution. Even then opinions were divided between the anticipation of massive destruction of employment and the contrary view that machines would raise productivity and wages, providing more demand and therefore more employment.
    
The experience of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries showed, in general, that the thesis of 'compensation' for jobs destroyed by technologies by the creation of new employment was valid. Nevertheless, with the recent emergence of Robotics and Artificial Intelligence, the anticipation of massive job destruction caused by a flood of technological innovations has returned to the public space, now promoted by influential international institutions such as the World Economic Forum or the Organisation for Cooperation and Economic Development.

Today, confronted with a new wave of technological innovation, we are faced with doubts and uncertainties similar to those of the past. Will technologies destroy or create employment? How can they transform labour, labour relations and labour organisation? Are we forced to adapt to new technologies, or can we, as a society and political community, shape technologies and put them at the service of meritorious purposes and values?

Speakers
José Castro Caldas (Centre for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra)
Helena Jerónimo (Higher Institute of Economics and Management)
Pedro Duarte (President of the Strategic Council for the Digital Economy of the Confederation of Portuguese Industry)

Free admission with compulsory registration

Organisers: CRISALT | Observatory on Crisis and Alternatives

Support