Introduction

Robert Skidelsky

Nan Craig

pp. 1-7

in: Robert Skidelsky, Nan Craig (eds), Work in the future, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2020

Abstract

When we planned a symposium in February 2018 on the future of work, we divided the subject into eight areas. We hoped to cover more ground than is usual, and to look at how work has changed in the past as well as how it is changing now and in the future. Most of the contributions to this book came out of that symposium, and reflect their original beginnings as oral presentations. Other pieces were commissioned later in order to extend the thematic reach of the book even further. When we talk about the future of work, too often the discussion is narrowly focused on automation, and the social or economic problems that are assumed to arise from it. What this collection of essays aims to do is to broaden that discussion. How has the character of work changed in the past, and what can that tell us about how it will change in the future?