Algorithmic Alienation: Work and Employment in the Era of Artificial Intelligence

Aim of the project

The main objective of the project is to study the workplace changes provoked by the implementation of algorithms and verify the thesis that states that algorithms serve a dual function: Not only do they allow for greater efficiency, ensuring optimal control of the workforce; they also shape the subjectivity of the workforce and foster new types of workplace involvement mediated by the digital environment. In other words, this project explores how algorithmic management contributes to the changes in how the workforce engages with work, a topic that so far has not received the same sustained attention as the optimisation thesis. This project researches algorithmic implementations, workplace dynamics, and the context of algorithmic work to delineate this new form of organisational change.

Project impact

The goal of this project is to put forward an alienation theory that will demonstrate that to view algorithmic technology in the light of the subjectivity model means, in effect, to see it increasingly in terms of a new type of workplace engagement, as reflected on the labour market and in the new patterns of business growth and regulation.