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.
Professor Ifeoma Ajunwa, J.D., Ph.D. is the Ai.Humanity Professor of Law and Ethics at Emory Law and Founding Director of the Ai and the Future of Work program. For 2023-2024, she is a Resident Fellow at Yale Law School's Internet and Society Project (ISP). She has been a Faculty Associate at the Berkman Klein Center at Harvard Law School since 2017. Professor Ajunwa is an elected member of the American Law Institute and Life Fellow of the American Bar Foundation. She is a recipient of the National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Grant and a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation pioneer grant. Her articles have been published or are forthcoming from the California Law Review, the Georgetown Law Journal, The Northwestern Law Review, Fordham Law Review, The Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review, and The Harvard Journal of Law and Technology, among others.
She has also been published in major media such as the NYTimes, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, The Harvard Business Review, Wired, Slate, etc. Professor Ajunwa has been called as an expert witness to testify before the Congressional Committee on Labor and Education and the EEOC (twice) and is a regular keynote speaker at corporate events and international conferences.
With: Yochai Benkler
Yochai Benkler, Berkman Professor of Entrepreneurial Legal Studies at Harvard Law School and the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, is renowned for his influential work on information commons and decentralized collaboration in the digital era. Notable books include "Network Propaganda" (2018) and "The Wealth of Networks" (2006), earning multiple academic awards. Recognized with a lifetime achievement award from Oxford University in 2012, his socially engaged work has garnered awards like the Ford Foundation Visionaries Award and the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Pioneer Award. Benkler's expertise in innovation policy and telecommunications has also guided government and international organizations, while he contributes to several nonprofit boards working for an open society.
Moderated by: Sharon Block
Sharon Block is a Professor of Practice and Executive Director of the Center for Labor and a Just Economy at Harvard Law School. Prior to returning to Harvard in 2022, she served as the Acting Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in President Joe Biden’s White House. Block has held key labor policy positions across the legislative and executive branches of the federal government. In the Obama Administration, she led the Department of Labor’s regulatory office, served as senior counselor to Secretary of Labor Tom Perez and was a member of the National Labor Relations Board. She previously served as senior labor and employment counsel for Massachusetts Senator Edward M. Kennedy when he chaired the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. She writes and speaks frequently on labor, employment and administrative law topics.
The Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School is a leading research program dedicated to the unbiased legal and ethical analysis of pressing questions facing health policymakers, medical professionals, patients, families, and others who influence and are influenced by health care and the health care system.