The Quantified Worker Book Talk

In collaboration with The Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School (HLS), the Berkman Klein Center would like to invite you to an exciting launch of Ifeoma Ajunwa‘s new book The Quantified Worker. Ajunwa will be joined in conversation by Yochai Benkler (Jack N. and Lillian R. Berkman Professor of Entrepreneurial Studies, HLS; Director, BKC). This event will be moderated by Sharon Block (Professor of Practice and Executive Director, Center for Labor and a Just Economy at HLS). For questions please contact BKC’s Events Manager Xia Rondeau.

The information revolution has ushered in a data-driven reorganization of the workplace. Big data and AI are used to surveil workers and shift risk. Workplace wellness programs appraise our health. Personality job tests calibrate our mental state. The monitoring of social media and surveillance of the workplace measure our social behavior. With rich historical sources and contemporary examples, The Quantified Worker explores how the workforce science of today goes far beyond increasing efficiency and threatens to erase individual personhood. With exhaustive detail, Ifeoma Ajunwa shows how different forms of worker quantification are enabled, facilitated, and driven by technological advances. Timely and eye-opening, The Quantified Worker advocates for changes in the law that will mitigate the ill effects of the modern workplace.