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SUMMARY:Symposium: "Technological displacement of middle-class employment:
  political and social implications" - Robert Madelin\, Daniel Susskind\,Wi
 lly Brown\, Gerard de Vries
DTSTART:20160119T130000Z
DTEND:20160119T173000Z
UID:TALK63483@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Professor John Naughton
DESCRIPTION:In recent years\, the debate about automation and employment h
 as taken a new turn.  What has re-ignited the debate is the realisation th
 at the process of 'combinatorial innovation' in digital technology -- the 
 combination of massive increases in processing power\, big data analytics\
 , sensor technology\, digital mapping and machine learning -- has opened u
 p the possibility that large numbers of non-repetitive jobs which require 
 some cognitive skills may become amenable to automation in the foreseeable
  future. This kind of work -- classically defined as 'white collar’ jobs
  in the UK (‘middle-class’ in the US) -- represents a significant prop
 ortion of current industrial and commercial employment\, and significant d
 isplacement of it by technology would be a major development for societies
 . Estimates of the potential disruption vary\, but the "best-known study":
 http://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/downloads/academic/The_Future_of_Employme
 nt.pdf (by Frey and Osborne) estimates that fully 47 per cent of the 702 j
 ob categories identified by the US Bureau of Labor could now be vulnerable
 .\n\nAt this stage\, there is no way of determining whether the sceptics o
 r the predictions are correct. This uncertainty\, however\, should not be 
 the end of the discussion\, but the beginning. The possibility that a sign
 ificant proportion of middle-class work could be mechanised at the pace we
  have seen in other areas affected by digital technology is an eventuality
  that needs to be taken seriously\, even if the probabliity of it happenin
 g is lower than evangelists believe. The existence of a stable middle clas
 s is a prerequisite for a viable democracy\, and the prospect of it being 
 destabilised is therefore of great interest to our _Technology and Democra
 cy_ project.\n\nTo discuss it we have brought together four speakers\, eac
 h of whom brings a different perspective to the issue.\n\n* **Robert Madel
 in** is Senior Adviser for Innovation in the European Commission\n* **Dani
 el Susskind** is a Lecturer at Balliol College\, Oxford and co-author of _
 The Future of the Professions_ (OUP)\n* **Willy Brown** is  Emeritus Profe
 ssor of Industrial Relations\, University of Cambridge and former Master o
 f Darwin College\n* **Gerard de Vries** is Emeritus Professor of the Philo
 sophy of Science at the University of Amsterdam and a former member of the
  Netherlands Scientific Council for Government Policy\, the think tank of 
 the Dutch government for long term policy issues.\n\nPlease click "here":h
 ttps://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/technological-displacement-of-white-collar-e
 mployment-political-and-social-implications-tickets-19839131376 to book a 
 place.  If you know of colleagues who might be interested\, please pass "t
 his link":http://www.talks.cam.ac.uk/talk/index/63483 to them.
LOCATION:Wolfson Hall\, Churchill College\, Cambridge
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