The Future of Work and Income

The future of work and income is uncertain. According to some experts, automation will one day make full-time paid employment a thing of the past. In any case, our system of work and income is undergoing dramatic changes, with technology and policy reforms allowing working arrangements to become much more flexible in many sectors, often with the result of more precarious employment.

Technological changes also create skills gaps within the labour market, with effects on income distribution. These changes have political consequences. A more diffuse workforce, on more diverse working contracts, cannot politically organise along traditional lines.

The threat to withdraw labour loses its power as the more automated economy comes to depend less on human labour. This can fundamentally change the nature of industrial relations and the political economy of work.

These changes call for informed policy responses. This in turn requires a clear understanding, not only of the changes themselves, but also of the basis of the values society draws upon in responding to them. According to some, we must change the way we value work to fit a changing economic reality.

Others argue that we must hold all the more strongly to our values in a time of uncertainty. Useful policy discussion can only take place against a background of clear philosophical ideas, about the value and meaning of work, the nature of entitlement, and - more generally - what society owes to and can reasonably expect of its members. Retreating to habitual patterns of thought cannot be an option when the social environment is changing so dramatically.

Institutions designed to deal with yesterday's problems lose their applicability to today's. Even if we decide to preserve our existing values and concepts, this must be the result of philosophical reflection rather than status quo bias.

We aim to provide a forum for these fundamental philosophical questions to be debated and clarified. Since they penetrate the whole policy discussion, nobody involved in the process of making and evaluating policy can avoid them. Clarifying philosophical positions helps misunderstandings to be avoided, reconcilable differences to be reconciled, and irreconcilable differences to be recognised as such.

We wish to use our position within the academy to put some of the best philosophical minds, working with a range of disciplines, at the disposal of those involved in policymaking and analysis. As policy develops in new directions to face new challenges, those making, critiquing, and analysing it will have to answer questions such as: 'what should count as employment?', 'when is somebody entitled to an income, and why?', 'how are purely economic costs and benefits to be weighed against others?', and so on.

We wish to open a channel of communication through which policy experts can be questioned on these points by those who have studied them at the theoretical level, while academics can develop their own thinking by accessing the more concrete experience of policy experts.

Researchers throughout Scotland and globally are working on these issues, from a variety of disciplinary approaches and within various types of institution: within the academy, for national and local governments, in privately-funded think-tanks, charities, and businesses. In addition to placing an emphasis on philosophical fundamentals, we aim to create an impartial network, to support research on these topics independently of any political affiliation or policy agenda.

Much of the research currently conducted on the future of work and income is supported by organisations that pursue specific political objectives, whether to advocate for particular interest groups or to promote specific policy reforms. As important as this work is, we believe it is also important for researchers to be have a forum in which they can step back from advocacy and discuss philosophical questions from a more neutral position.