Technology and Work in Services: Vulnerable Workers under Automation and Digitalisation

By: Maria Enrica Virgillito and Valeria Cirillo and Matteo Rinaldini

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Synopsis: Automation in industrial sectors is already a well-developed topic in management, economics, and sociology literature. By contrast, this short contributed volume sheds new lights on the process of automation in the service sector, by means of a workplace case-study approach. It investigates three essential sectors largely populated by a vulnerable workforce composition, namely logistics, cleaning and healthcare, and assesses the extent to which processes of automation introduced by managerial decisions entail labour expulsion and human substitution. The result of the research shows that the most low-valued workers are among the least automatable, because of the inherent complexity their activities. Leveraging on this, the book argues the need to reconsider the essentiality of labour as determinant of its value. It will be of great interest to scholars and students of management, economics and sociology with an interest in labour, industrial relations, innovation and decent work and employment.