Topical journal collection and network on Automated labour
A topical collection of journal articles on Automated labour is just published in Digital Society. The articles are an outcome of the AIAS 2023 interdisciplinary conference Cyborg Workers: The Past, Present and Future of Automated Labour co-organised by fellows Magdalena Małecka and Philipp Reick.
In June 2023, an interdisciplinary, international group of scholars met at the Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies (AIAS), Aarhus University to jointly scrutinize the assumptions of contemporary debates about automated work at the conference Cyborg Workers: The Past, Present and Future of Automated Labour, co-organised by AIAS fellows Magdalena Małecka and Philipp Reick.
This conference brought together historians, philosophers and social scientists to provide a forum for debate across disciplinary divides about automation and mechanization of labour. Around thirty scholars, artists, professionals and activists from several continents and working in diverse fields, such as political economy, philosophy, history, sociology, anthropology, aesthetics, gender studies and management studies, contributed to two-day intense discussions.
A selection of scientific papers presented at this 2023 conference have now appeared in a Topical Collection in the scientific journal Digital Society, shedding light on and adddressing the topic of automated labour from diverse research perspectives. In their joint paper ‘Introduction to the Topical Collection Automated Labour: Past, Present and Future. Challenging Dominant Narratives,’ Magdalena Małecka and Philipp Reick provide an overview of the topical issue. Access their ‘Introduction’ here:
- Małecka, M., Reick, P. Introduction to the Topical Collection Automated Labour: Past, Present and Future. Challenging Dominant Narratives. in: Digit. Soc. 4, 56 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s44206-025-00213-7
Establishing a long-lasting international topical network
To continue the discussions on automated labour initiated at AIAS in 2023 and carried on in the series of journal articles in Digital Society, a second conference, Cyborg Worker 2.0: the social and environmental costs of Big Tech, was held at ETUI, the European Trade Union Institute in Brussels in February 2025 to share most recent interdisciplinary research perspectives within the topic.
The Cyborg Worker 2.0 conference focused on the social and environmental costs of Big Tech. Find more information about the second conference and the papers delivered here:
A third conference, a 3.0, is expected to be held in Oslo in 2026.
Access the full Topical Collection in Digital Society here
Contact
Magdalena Małecka
E-mail: magdalena.malecka@ind.ku.dk
Faculty of Science, Department of Science Education,
University of Copenhagen, København,
Denmark