1st Edition
The Future of Work and Technology Global Trends, Challenges and Policies with an Australian Perspective
This book examines how global technological advances shape the way we work and allocate work today, and how we might do so in the future, exploring advances in robotics, artificial intelligence, green technology and implications for workforce skills and future welfare. It uses Australia as a case study, contrasting the country’s experience to those elsewhere.
The book is a cross-disciplinary collaboration that brings together the expertise of engineers, data scientists, economists and sociologists. The reader is offered an overview of the current uses of advanced digital technologies and what it means for today’s workforce, society and economy. The book also looks to the future. Current uses of advanced technologies lag its already existing capability. The contributions note potential future applications of technology and the economic, social and workplace implications of technological change.
This book should be of interest to anyone studying and wishing to better understand what work might look like in the future and how we might prepare for likely changes.
1. Introduction: Perspectives of Technology-Driven Economic and Social Change
Andreas Cebulla
2. Robotics in Australia: Uses, Opportunities, and Challenges
Navinda Kottege
3. The Promise of Digitalisation and Automation
Hugh S. Bradlow
4. Charging Ahead: Electric Vehicles as Advanced Industrial Opportunity
Mark Dean
5. Economic Complexity: Rebuilding Industry through Innovation
Hamish Gamble
6. Just Transitions: Just for Whom? Lessons from Australia’s Automotive Closure
Gemma Beale
7. Being Safe from and with Robots: Work Health and Safety in the Age of the Intelligent Machine
Valerie O’Keeffe and Sara Howard
8. Workplace Relations with AI in Mind: What Is Likely to Change?
Andreas Cebulla and Zygmunt Szpak
9. More than Programming? The Impact of AI on Work and Skills
Toby Walsh
10. Reaching for Utopia: Opportunities for Redistributing Work and Leisure, Strengthening Dignity and Social Justice
John Quiggin
11. The Mission Ahead: How to Prepare for the Right Type of Change
Andreas Cebulla
Biography
Andreas Cebulla is Associate Professor in the Future of Work in the Digital Age at the Australian Industrial Transformation Institute, Flinders University, and Research Associate of the South Australian Centre for Economic Studies, University of Adelaide.
"The Future of Work is a refreshingly clear-eyed take on the challenges and opportunities for Australia from new technologies. Any policy maker grappling with questions of the social and economic changes wrought from technological change would do well to keep a copy handy."
—Danielle Wood, CEO, Grattan Institute
"This book delivers clear opinion pieces on how our world, and in particular our work is changing and will continue to change as AI matures and penetrates all aspect of human activity. The book is highly recommended for anyone who wants to understand better how technology and society are, or should be co-evolving."
—Iven Mareels, Executive Dean, Institute of Innovation, Science and Sustainability, Federation University Australia
