Date and time: Wednesday 15 October 2025, 14:00 – 15:30 CEST, followed by mingle
Where: Digital Futures hub, Osquars Backe 5, floor 2 at KTH main campus
Directions: https://www.digitalfutures.kth.se/contact/how-to-get-here/
Digital Futures for Education: The Future of Automation of Work is in the Past
As there has recently been much debate about the increasing automation of work, this event invites researchers, entrepreneurs, civil servants, or anyone interested in automation, algorithmic governance, and artificial intelligence to discuss the following question:
- How can we make sense of the automation of work?
To engage with this question, we will turn our attention to the past to make explicit historical political ideas of automation that presently shape the future of work in Sweden.
We are particularly interested in discussing automation, not as “merely a technological inevitability but a complex, politically charged arena where different, if often latent, visions of the future contend” (Eriksson, 2024). Taking the example of surveillance practices at work, this conversation is interested in discussing “how practices once considered unacceptable are increasingly portrayed as neutral, or even positive” (Padden, 2023).
Come and join us in this conversation to reflect on historical loops and dead ends with automation of work throughout time while discussing imaginaries of modernity and progress, power, and politics (Rahm, 2023).
Speakers:
- Kalle Eriksson, Postdoc Fellow, Department of Sociology / DIGSUM, Umeå University.
- Michaela Padden, Lecturer, Department of Political Science, Karlstad University.
- Erik Gandini, Professor of Documentary Film at Stockholm University of the Arts. Director of the film AFTER WORK.
Moderator: Teresa Cerratto Pargman, Professor of Human-computer interaction at the Dept. of Computer and Systems Sciences, Stockholm University.
The event is in collaboration with:
- Lina Rahm, Associate Professor, History of Media and Environment at KTH – member of the Digital Future working group Rich and Healthy Life.
- Jörgen Behrendtz, Professor, Department of Media Studies at Stockholm University
The event is part of the cross-projects funded by the WASP-HS programme.
Of interest:
- Eriksson (2024). Politicising automation: ideas on work, technology, and agency in the Swedish political debate (Doctoral dissertation, Umeå University).
- Padden (2023).The transformation of surveillance in the digitalisation discourse of the OECD: A brief genealogy. Internet Policy Review, 12(3), 1-39.
- Rahm, L. (2023). Educational imaginaries: Governance at the intersection of technology and education. Journal of Education Policy,38(1), 46-68.
- The film AFTER WORK is one of the outputs of THE FUTURE THROUGH THE PRESENT.
- AFTER WORK – available https://vimeo.com/905086192?share=copy
PW: AW_SKH24_RW
Questions? Please contact Teresa Cerratto Pargman, Associate Director Outreach, Digital Futures: tessy@dsv.su.se.
We invite you to be part of the conversation on digital transformation in education by suggesting topics and potential speakers to Teresa Cerratto Pargman, Associate Director Outreach, Digital Futures. Please send your suggestion to tessy@dsv.su.se. Write “Digital Futures Outreach” in the subject of your email.
Digital Futures for Education consists of conversations and events that bring together key actors from academia, civil society, and the private and public sectors. Its mission is to provide a colloquial space for discussion and reflection on the digital transformation in education and the role of universities in today’s complex societies. The goal is also to build a community with key national and international educational actors.
