September 7: Automation and the Future of Work. Talk by Aaron Benanav

In the first lecture of Radical Futures talks series, Aaron Benanav critically discussed new economic theories of the "rise of the robots," which claim that rapidly unfolding processes of computerization and robotization are the main causes of growing problems of unemployment and underemployment worldwide. The lecture discusses the real reasons behind the rise of a global precarious workforce and explores the consequences of these global developments for workers' struggles today.

Aaron Benanav is a collegiate assistant professor at the University of Chicago and an editor of the British journal Endnotes. His first book, A Global History of Unemployment, since 1949, is under advance contract with Verso Books and is expected in 2019.