Labor Economics

The dark side of the gig economy (Uber, Airbnb, etc.) and how to make it equitable for the users and workers most exploited.

Jamie Merisotis, author of the award-winning 2016 book America Needs Talent, argues that people will coexist with smart machines by learning, earning, and serving others over their lifetimes. But Merisotis asserts large-scale change is necessary to develop and hone the knowledge, skills, and abilities that render us uniquely human. These qualities include compassion, critical thinking, ethical reasoning, and interpersonal communication.

A generation of Americans came of age boycotting grapes, swept up in a movement that vanquished California's most powerful industry and accomplished the unthinkable: dignity and contracts for farm workers. Four decades later, Cesar Chavez's likeness graces postage stamps, and dozens of schools and streets have been renamed in his honor. But the real story of Chavez's farm workers' movement - both its historic triumphs and its tragic disintegration - has remained buried beneath the hagiography.

Are taxi drivers in today's era of the ride-hail app performing care work akin to domestic and household labor? Drawing on interviews with drivers, labor organizers, and members of licensing commissions, as well as case law and other published resources, Spent Behind the Wheel is a must for listeners interested in critical studies of technological change and the gig economy, showing how drivers' capacities are drained for the benefit of riders, corporations, and the maintenance of the racial state.

A historically conscious manifesto calling for worker organizing in tech, led by Black and Latinx technologists What We Build with Power is an urgent call for organizing shared strategies in order to disrupt the tech industry and move toward a more economically inclusive and equitable workforce...