Future of work between discourses, shop-floor realities and the fear of regression

Abstract

According to our initial diagnosis, the discourse around digitization has become disconnected from the tangible reality (not only) in the world of work. Cloudy promises on the one hand and threatening scenarios of the mass substitution of human labor on the other dominate. This, as we explain with recourse to thoughts of Critical Theory and especially of Erich Fromm, bears the dangers of a regression in the sense of a turning to 'old' authority figures or a fatalistic solutionism. As an alternative to this, we propose an experience-based examination of digital support possibilities for human work activities.