Data and Democracy at Work

How are new technological developments altering work? Are we facing a future of widespread automation and technological unemployment? In his recent book, Data and Democracy at Work, Professor Brishen Rogers studies how large service sector companies have developed and used novel information technologies to reshape hiring, management, and disciplinary practices. He argues that while automation is common and ongoing, companies have also used those technologies to erode workers’ collective power, driving down wages and working conditions. He also suggests legal reforms to protect workers amid today’s ongoing technological revolutions.

 

 

 

Brishen Rogers previously was an Associate Professor of Law at Temple University Beasley School of Law. He teaches torts, employment law, employment discrimination, and various labor law courses.

 

Professor Rogers’ current research explores the relationship among labor and employment law, technological development, and economic and social equality. He recently published a book on those questions, entitled Data and Democracy at Work: Advanced Information Technologies, Labor Law, and the New Working Class (under contract with MIT University Press). In addition to his law review publications, he has recently written for the Boston Review, the Washington Post Outlook, Onlabor.org, and ACSblog, the blog of the American Constitution Society. Professor Rogers’ scholarship has been cited in landmark decisions by the California Supreme Court and the European Court of Justice.

 

Professor Rogers received his J.D. from Harvard Law School and his B.A. rom the University of Virginia. Prior to law school, he worked as a community organizer promoting living wage policies and affordable housing, and spent several years organizing workers as part of SEIU’s “Justice for Janitors” campaign.