In Confronting Dystopia, a distinguished group of scholars analyze the implications of the ongoing technological revolution for jobs, working conditions, and income. Focusing on the economic and political implications of AI, digital connectivity, and robotics for both the Global North and the Global South, they move beyond diagnostics to seek solutions that offer better lives for all. Their analyses of the challenges of technology are placed against the backdrop of three decades of rapid economic globalization. The two in tandem are producing the daunting challenges that analysts and policymakers must now confront. The conjuncture of recent advances in AI, machine learning, and robotization portends a vast displacement of human labor, argues the editor, Eva Paus. As Confronting Dystopia shows, we are on the eve of—indeed we are already amid—a technological revolution that will impact profoundly the livelihoods of people everywhere in the world. Across a broad and deep set of topics, the contributors explore whether the need for labor will inexorably shrink in the coming decades, how pressure on employment will impact human well-being, and what new institutional arrangements—a new social contract, for example, will be needed to sustain livelihoods. They evaluate such proposals as a basic income, universal social services, and investments that address key global challenges and create new jobs.

Front Matter (pp. i-iv) Table of Contents (pp. v-vi) Acknowledgments (pp. vii-x) 1 The Future Isn’t What It Used to Be (pp. 1-24) Part I. Trends:: Job Destruction and Job Creation 2 The Rise of the Robots: Impact on Unemployment and Inequality (pp. 27-45) 3 New Technologies, Innovation, and the Future of Jobs (pp. 46-75) 4 Expanding Job Opportunities through Global Green Growth (pp. 76-93) 5 Building Sustainable Jobs and Supporting Human Potential in the Care Sector (pp. 94-112) 6 Taskers in the Precariat: Confronting an Emerging Dystopia (pp. 115-133) 7 Automated but Compensated? Technological Change and Redistribution in Advanced Democracies (pp. 134-155) 8 The Crisis of the Liberal International Order: Technological Change and the Rise of the Right (pp. 156-178) 9 Advanced Manufacturing and China’s Future for Jobs (pp. 181-206) 10 Light Manufacturing Can Create Good Jobs in Sub-Saharan Africa (pp. 207-229) 11 Why and How to Build Universal Social Policy in the South (pp. 230-250) Notes (pp. 251-256) References (pp. 257-280) List of Contributors (pp. 281-282) Index (pp. 283-296)