Automation and Workplace Democracy: Autonomy, Recognition, and Meaningful Work

Abstract

Building on the philosophical literature on the importance of workplace democracy, the article proposes a tripartite framework to conceptualise an ethically desirable course of automation. Three groups of argument are invoked: arguments from autonomy, interpersonal recognition, and meaningful work. These three groups of arguments are applied to analyse automation: whether automation extends or limits workers’ autonomy, interpersonal recognition, and meaningfulness of work. The last section of the article illustrates the tripartite framework with contemporary literature on automation and technological change.