Verso Specials: Cyberboss, with Craig Gent
Craig Gent talks algorithmic management, the gig economy, and lost mid-century dreams of a technological utopia.
This week we’ve got something a little different for you. Whilst we’re still technically between seasons - and working hard to bring you more roundtable discussions with our wonderful Verso authors in our upcoming fourth series of The Verso Podcast - we wanted to share a great episode we’ve been collaborating on with our friends over at Macrodose. Macrodose is a podcast from Planet B Productions that brings you a weekly briefing on the economy, and takes a look behind the media headlines to work out what’s really going on.
In this episode you’ll be hearing from Craig Gent, author of Cyberboss: The Rise of Algorithmic Management and the New Struggle for Control at Work - published recently by Verso Books. As well as being a writer Craig is also a researcher and the North of England Editor at Novara Media.
In this bonus show, Craig will be exploring the role of algorithms in the workplace. He’ll be covering the big questions - such as, what’s at stake as algorithms are slowly, quietly integrated into our everyday lives? Is it just an inevitable fact of the long march toward progress? Or does it open a new frontier of class struggle that we need to take seriously and think about strategically? In other words what happens when your boss is a robot, and what do we do about it?
Tune in to learn more about cybernetics, and how they relate to union organising, the gig economy, as well as mid-century dreams of a technological utopia.
If you are able to, do go ahead and support Macrodose over at their Patreon. And of course don’t forget to pick up your own copy of Cyberboss: The Rise of Algorithmic Management and the New Struggle for Control at Work.
Be sure to subscribe to the show so you can be the first to know when season four drops - and so that you don’t miss any of the bonus content coming your way between now and then.
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See all Verso Podcast episodes here. Listen via your preferred podcast platform.
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