Automation and Worker (Dis)Empowerment: Mobilization, Bargaining, and Political Competition in Times of Technological Change

Objective

The ongoing wave of work automation amplifies the fundamental question in the study of politics: who gets what, when, and how? Driven by computer and information technology, including pathbreaking advances in robotization and artificial intelligence (AI), it brings a combustive mix of productivity gains, machines displacing some jobs and enhancing others. The unfolding process of technological change has the potential to dramatically alter what ordinary people get at the workplace for their labor, and to spur polarizing political conflict over the basic rules of democratic capitalism. Several scholars emphasize that the consequences of technological change are not written in stone. However, our theoretical tools to analyze the interplay between automation and worker power are underdeveloped. Therefore, the overarching aim of (DIS)EMPOWER is to develop a much-needed theoretical framework of how automation shapes the power of workers in the workplace and in democratic politics, helping us to better understand the functioning of democratic capitalism in the face of transformative technological change. It argues that automation can empower as well as disempower workers. Anchored in political science, the project integrates theoretical elements from different fields into an ambitious unified framework. It pays particular attention to mobilization and collective bargaining, belief formation, and the role of organized labor in political competition under automation. It enables a multi-method and comparative data collection that unravels when and how automation (dis)empowers workers, at work and in the political arena. The investigation combines game theory, in-depth interviews, surveys with cutting-edge experiments, and case studies of the political reform of workers’ fundamental rights such as the right to unionize, bargain collectively, or strike. Altogether, (DIS)EMPOWER explores mechanisms that may help balance technological progress with equality and liberty.