Futuring the Liberal Script #3 – Automation and the Future of Work | 18 October 2021

Dr. Aaron Benanav (Postdoctoral Researcher and Academic Coordinator of the SCRIPTS Research Unit "(Re-)Allocation") in conversation on the future of work, moderated by Rebecca Ritters (News Anchor and Reporter at Deutsche Welle). Introduction by Prof. Andreas Eckert (Principal Investigator at SCRIPTS). In the age of digital transformation, many experts predict the destruction of jobs due to artificial intelligence. The risk of job destruction may pose a problem for liberal societies. After all, it is not least the workplace that enables individual self-determination — the core promise of liberal societies. An income enables people to realise their life plans and participate in social and political life. Dr. Aaron Benanav disputes this automation thesis. He argues that the real causes of the problems in the labour market are not to be found in automation, but in weak economic growth as well as low productivity growth. But what are the consequences of the economy's weak engine for the future of work and individual self-determination? Based on the findings of his book "Automation and the Future of Work", in German "Automatisierung und die Zukunft der Arbeit" (Suhrkamp Verlag 2021), Dr. Aaron Benanav discusses these questions. The third event of the SCRIPTS discussion series "Futuring the Liberal Script" live on 18 Oct 2021 at the silent green Berlin, in cooperation with Suhrkamp Publishers. “Futuring the Liberal Script” is a conversation series live from the silent green. Researchers of the Cluster of Excellence “Contestations of the Liberal Script (SCRIPTS)” discuss and analyze with guests current crisis of liberal societies and democracies and reflect on future political imaginaries from diverse perspectives. As a script “in trouble” the liberal script needs manifold analytical and discursive registers for keeping track of open antagonisms but also of its inherent contradictions and tensions.