Publication launch – The Future of Work: Robots Cooking Free Lunches?

The rapid technological progress in automation, robotisation and artificial intelligence is raising fears, but also hopes, that in the future the nature of work will change significantly. Some on the European left want technological changes to lead to a new socialism that allows central redistribution. The European centre-right is looking for different kinds of answers. It assumes that there will be changes in what we do, how we form workplace relations and how we find work.

In the past, technological change always led to the destruction of some jobs and the creation of new jobs. But is the present time different? Will work disappear and with it the societal relations and inequalities that result from differing success in work? If this is going to happen, what policy options do we have to address the issue? And why does the possible disappearance of work make us so uneasy? Is work valuable in itself and not only as something that provides for survival and comfort? And is there a danger of robots taking over?