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SUMMARY:Technological Displacement of White-collar Employment: Political a
 nd Social Implications - Robert Madelin\, Daniel Susskind\, Willy Brown\, 
 Gerrard de Vis
DTSTART:20160119T130000Z
DTEND:20160119T170000Z
UID:TALK63722@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Judith Weik
DESCRIPTION:If you wish to attend\, please register via Eventbrite\n \nIn 
 recent years\, the debate about automation and unemployment has taken a ne
 w turn. What has re-ignited the debate is the realisation that the process
  of 'combinatorial innovation' in digital technology - the combination of 
 massive increases in processing power\, bit data analytics\, sensor techno
 logy\, digital mapping and machine learning -  has opened up the possibili
 ty that large numbers of non-repetitive jobs which require some cognitive 
 skills may become amenable to automation in the foreseeable future. This k
 ind of work - classically defined as 'white collar' jobs in the UK ('middl
 e-class' in the US) represents a significant proportion of current industr
 ial and commercial employment\, and significant displacement of it by tech
 nology would be a major development for societies. Estimates of the potent
 ial disruption vary\, but the best-known study (by Frey and Osborne) estim
 ates that fully 47 per cent of the 702 job categories identified by the US
  Bureau of Labor could now be vulnerable.\nAt this stage\, there is no way
  of determining whether the sceptics or the predictions are correct. This 
 uncertainty\, however\, should not be the end of the discussion\, but the 
 beginning. The possibility that a significant proportion of middle-class w
 ork could be mechanised at the pace we have seen in other areas affected b
 y digital technology is an eventuality that needs to be taken seriously\, 
 event if the probability of it happening is lower than evangelists believe
 . The existence of a stable middle class is a prerequisite for a viable de
 mocracy\, and the prospect of it being destabilised is therefore of great 
 interest to our Technology and Democracy project.\n\nTo discuss it we have
  brought together four speakers\, each of whom brings a different perspect
 ive to the issue:\n•	Robert Madelin is senior Adviser for Innovation in 
 the European Commission\n•	Daniel Susskind is a Fellow of Balliol Colleg
 e\, Oxford and co-author of The Future of the Professions (OUP)\n•	Willy
  Brown is Emeritus Professor of Industrial Relations\, University of Cambr
 idge and former Master of Darwin College\n•	Gerard de Vries is Emeritus 
 Professor of the Philosophy of Science at the University of Amsterdam and 
 a former member of the Netherlands Scientific Council for Government Polic
 y\, the think tank of the Dutch government for long-term policy issues\n
LOCATION:Wolfson Hall\, Churchill College
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