PUBLICATIONS & COMMENTARY
Cybernetics and The Future of Work
Ganapathy, Ashitha & Bennett, Michael Timothy .
Accepted for publication in IEEE SSIT21CW 2021.
The disruption caused by the pandemic has called into question industrial norms and created an opportunity to reimagine the future of work. We discuss how this period of opportunity may be leveraged to bring about a future in which the workforce thrives rather than survives. Any coherent plan of such breadth must address the interaction of multiple technological, social, economic, and environmental systems. A shared language that facilitates communication across disciplinary boundaries can bring together stakeholders and facilitate a considered response. The origin story of cybernetics and the ideas posed therein serve to illustrate how we may better understand present complex challenges, to create a future of work that places human values at its core.
PUBLICATIONS
Digital platforms: the need to embed decent work and social protections
Ashitha Ganapathy
Global Dev
The adoption of emerging technologies and associated new business models has had a big impact on the world’s workforce. This column examines two challenges facing governments in the Global South: first, how to find a middle path in which regulation affords rights and protections to workers without causing the flight of digital platforms; and second, how to make workers ‘future-ready’ so that they are able to demand decent work.
COMMENTARY