Introduction to the Special Issue: Technological Change, Power and Work

ABSTRACT

Not for the first time, new technologies threaten to transform our working and non‐working lives. As in the past, some jobs will be lost, but new jobs will also be created. That said, the speed and scale of today's new technologies suggest that much more than the balance of employment is at stake. We need more and better jobs. This implies the design, implementation and utilisation of technologies that augment and not simply automate workers’ jobs. Technological change is neither neutral nor inevitable. As the contributions to this Special Issue attest, in order to harness the potential benefits of new technologies, we need to hear and heed the (collective) voice of labour.