The University of Bristol's Global Political Economy and Persectives on Work research groups are pleased to invite you to a research seminar with Professor of Management and the Futures of Work Phoebe V Moore from the University of Essex.
Seminar overview: Today’s political economy is rapidly being shaped by new AI systems and big data, all too-often at the cost of workers. Government regulation, civil society and company-led governance, and related development activities surrounding their advancements, have specific implications for the world of work. In this research seminar, Professor Phoebe V Moore draws on her recent work to look at advancements in technology for monitoring and tracking work, whether working conditions are adequately protected by European Union regulation, and the risks that workers face as these transformations advance. Making contributions to global political economy, media, philosophy, and policy studies, Moore argues that workers’ ‘right to the subject’ is at stake. By including new technologies in workplace decision-making processes (e.g. people analytics, human resource software systems, sensory tracking robots, etc.), alongside worker control mechanisms, worker autonomy is restricted. Moore argues that many data regulations meant to protect workers (e.g. GDPR, AI Act) prove inadequate. This is because these technologies and regulations occur in structurally and objectively unequal conditions within subjective and unequal social relations; that is, the very structures and systems that capitalism is built upon. The first part of this event will be a presentation, followed by a period for questions and discussion.
When: 12.30 – 2pm, Thursday 2nd May 2024.
Where: Room 1.11: The Old Council Chamber, Wills Memorial Building, University of Bristol
Who: This event is open to all University of Bristol staff and students.
Phoebe V Moore bio: As Professor of Management and the Futures of Work at the University of Essex, Moore is a globally recognised academic expert in digitalisation and work, policy advisor and commissioned author. Moore writes and speaks about the integration of big data, artificial intelligence systems, and old and new technologies into workplaces and spaces, and the risks and benefits these pose for working people. Her most recent article was 'Workers’ right to the subject: The social relations of data production', arguing that the ‘right to the subject’ is at stake, and her third single-authored book, entitled The Quantified Self in Precarity: Work, Technology and What Counts, analyses the use of wearable tracking technologies in workplaces and the implications for human resources and working conditions.
Event organisers: This event is co-sponsored by the Global Political Economy (GPE) Faculty Research Group and the Perspectives on Work Research Group. Each group brings together academics from different disciplines from across the University of Bristol, running a range of activities and events throughout the academic year. If you’d like to find out more or join either group, please get in touch with the group’s co-leads.
