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, Academic Coordinator of the SCRIPTS Research Unit "(Re-)Allocation", 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" (Suhrkamp Verlag, 2021), Dr. Aaron Benanav discusses these questions with Prof. Dr. Philipp Staab.

Aaron Benanav, Academic Coordinator of the Reseach Unit "(Re-)Allocation" at SCRIPTS
Philipp Staab, Professor of Sociology of the Future of Work at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Moderation: Rebecca Ritters, News Anchor and Reporter at Deutsche Welle News

Livestream: SCRIPTS YouTube channel
In cooperation with Suhrkamp Verlag and silent green
Language: English

About the Series - Futuring the Liberal Script

“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 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. 

As such, “futuring” is not necessarily a variant of optimizing, but rather relates to developing a critical and creative stance in response to current erosions and contestations of liberal values. The liberal script has to compete increasingly with alternative scripts and agendas for organizing societies, be they run by authoritarian, populist, Islamic fundamentalist, terrorist or technocratic autocracies. Whether liberal democracies are confident, flexible and agile enough to respond to the challenges posed by contrary political systems and alternative ideas is a central matter of acute political and social concern. The SCRIPTS conversations assemble a variety of views, concerns and actors by putting research topics and timely diagnosis up to public and ongoing debate.