Labour and Technology in Capitalism 4.0. An Interview with Ursula Huws
by Into the Black Box
pp. 164-178 Issue 15 (8,1) – January-June 2021 ISSN (online): 2539/2239 ISSN (print): 2389-8232 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.14718/SoftPower.2021.8.1.9
Abstract
From the rise of telehomwork of the Seventies to the burst of platform labour occurred after Pandemic: in this interview with Ursula Huws we cover a fifty-year path of the impact of technologies on labour and social life. Considered one of the most important Labour Sociologist in Europe (and beyond), since the early Eighties Huws tackled the topic of the “social isolation” intrinsic to telehomework, the atomization of society and the risks of encroachment of work on family and social life due to application of new technologies on labour. In the article we travel from the very beginning through to the rise of “cybertariat”. We conclude by trying to answer the last crucial question: what next?