Key Dialogue 1: Reimagining the Futures of Work

AARON BENANAV. Aaron is researcher at Humboldt University of Berlin and is the academic coordinator for the research unit “Re-Allocation” in the Cluster of Excellence "SCRIPTS: Contestations of the Liberal Script”. He is the author of the book “Automation and the Future of Work” (Verso 2020) on the relations between capitalism and automation. His current research interests are unemployment and underemployment in the global economy. . Before joining Humboldt, Aaron was a Harper-Schmidt Fellow in the Social Sciences at the University of Chicago. He holds a PhD in History from the University of California, Los Angeles.  

SIGNE JAUHIAINEN. Signe is working as senior researcher at the Social Insurance Institution of Finland (Kela). Her research interests are in policy relevant empirical research on social policy, labor market, public finance and immigration. This research focuses on the question how economic policy and social security can tackle the challenges of changing labour market. Signe has been a member of the evaluation team of the Finnish basic income experiment and she participates actively in public debate on economic policy in Finland, and is one of the authors of the report ‘Wellbeing effects of the basic income experiment’. She has a doctoral degree in economics from University of Jyväskylä. 

MAIJA MATTILA. Maija is a researcher at Kalevi Sorsa Foundation, a social democratic think tank based in Helsinki. Her research is focused on worker rights in the platform economy, societal inequalities, and democratic theory of political representation. She has published three reports on platform work, including the latest "Work and workers' rights in the platform economy – From problems to solutions" (Kalevi Sorsa Foundation 2019), and the editor of the volume “The State of Inequality in Finland 2020” (Kalevi Sorsa Foundation).  She holds a doctoral degree in political science from the University of Tampere. Maija was a Fulbright scholar at the New School for Social Research in New York in 2014–2015.

MIKKO VESA, moderator. Mikko (PhD) is an associate professor of management and organization at Hanken School of Economics. His research focuses on technological and organizational change, covering topics such as gamification, strategy as practice and artificial intelligence. His research has been published e.g. in the Academy of Management Review, Organization Studies, Organization and the Journal of Business Ethics. His new edited volume “Organizational Gamification – Theories and Practices of Ludic Work in Late Modernity” was published by Routledge in February 2021. When free to play, you can find him long-distance trekking, playing Football Manager or enjoying a full afternoon of Sauna (after which he plays Dungeons & Dragons).