Digital Work Futures: Preserving Human Distinctiveness and Value?

A new and controversial topic in the IS discipline is how to envision our role, as human beings, in emergent digital work futures. This calls for debate on human distinctiveness and value in the increasing digitalization of the workplace, specifically whether and how they can be preserved in light of shifting digital/human configurations. To explore these questions, the panelists will focus on the role of embodiment in enacting human distinctiveness in digital/human work configurations, and explore whether the field of IS has adequate conceptual and methodological tools to gain insights into issues of human dignity in digital futures. The panel chair will outline the contours of the debate and present questions for the panelists to address. In their opening statement, the panelists will provide critical perspectives on how human distinctiveness and value are produced in digital/human work configurations. ECIS attendees are invited to engage the panelists in discussing how we can design and develop digital work futures that afford the (re)production of human distinctiveness and value.