ABSTRACT
Emerging technologies are, often invisibly, becoming part of diverse workplaces. In this chapter, I argue that we need new, plausible visions of ethical work futures and processes of creating them, which are attentive to the realities of the everyday. I examine existing predictions and arguments about the present and future of the automation and robotisation of work. I propose we need to go beyond both the predictive futures promoted by industry and engineering narratives that see emerging technologies as solutions to efficiency, safety and productivity at work, and the narratives created by critical scholars who see the present and future of digital and automated work as dystopian. I develop two examples – automated and robotic technologies in the construction industry and digital technologies in UK social work during the pandemic. These show how human creativity and improvisation with emerging technologies can drive ethical modes of change.
