Future Shocks: Automation Meets the Pandemic

This article surveys the effects of what can be called two confluent agents of economic and societal transformation, digitally enabled automation and the covid-19 pandemic, on the contemporary economy. Examining shifts in work, occupations, labor markets, and consumption, the article ventures some c...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe American behavioral scientist (Beverly Hills) Vol. 67; no. 14; pp. 1793 - 1800
Main Author Schulz, Jeremy
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.12.2023
SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
Subjects
Accepted
Automation
Consumption
COVID-19
Economic change
Economic development
Labor market
Occupations
Pandemics
Stress
Transformation
Ventures
Winners
Work
covid-19
automation
economy and society
technology
future of work
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Summary:This article surveys the effects of what can be called two confluent agents of economic and societal transformation, digitally enabled automation and the covid-19 pandemic, on the contemporary economy. Examining shifts in work, occupations, labor markets, and consumption, the article ventures some conjectures on the consequences of this confluence, particularly across developed economies. The article contends that, while long-term automation tends to disrupt jobs and occupations which involve screen-facing work and, to a lesser extent, object-facing work, person-facing work is most exposed to the reallocation shocks precipitated by the covid crisis. Where consumption is concerned, both automation and pandemic-driven shocks lead to mutually reinforcing shifts. Seen together, automation and the pandemic phenomena can be regarded as intertwined socioeconomic stressors which will likely lead to even more divergent trajectories between the winners and the losers in the new economy.
ISSN:0002-7642
1552-3381
DOI:10.1177/00027642221127235