Maxwell School News and Commentary

Surveys indicate that Swedish citizens display less anxiety about robots taking their jobs, in part because when companies introduce new technologies, they often pay to upgrade their workers’ skills. “If you upskill workers, you pay them more,” says Aaron Benanav, assistant professor of sociology. “That's a more durable and sustainable process.”

“There needs to be greater regulation of the staffing industry,” says Gretchen Purser, associate professor of sociology. “And we need to make it a lot easier for workers to unionize. All of the research has shown that in unionized workplaces, workers are far less likely to experience injury or fatalities.”

"Even if the vast majority of jobs are unlikely to disappear, and if many new jobs are likely to be created, the nature of work will change due to the implementation of technologies like ChatGPT. We need to shift our thinking about how that change occurs," writes Aaron Benanav, assistant professor of sociology.

“They capture the attention of management in a much more dramatic way than other forms of action and negotiation,” says Gretchen Purser, associate professor of sociology. “They’re showing the capacity for the workers to take collective action.”

"The Lifeworld of Elizabeth Symons: Family Biography and Atlantic Geographies in the Eighteenth Century," authored by Karl Offen, professor of geography and the environment, was published in the Journal of Historical Geography.

“When interest rates were very low, companies basically had endless money—and investors were telling them to focus on growth, not profitability,” says Aaron Benanav, assistant professor of sociology. “But because interest rates are rising, there’s a shift from big investors to say, ‘No, now you really have to focus on profitability.’ And the big way to do that is through cuts.”

"Because what we have been experiencing in recent years has been really historic levels of in terms of increase of the cost of living," says Gretchen Purser, associate professor of sociology. "And so this increased minimum wage doesn't reflect what we have all been experiencing, which is the rising cost of living."

"Nurses are really bargaining for the collective good. They are putting, first and foremost, patients' safety above all else and that was the breaking point—they've been working under less-than-ideal conditions that jeopardized the safety of patients," says Gretchen Purser, associate professor of sociology. 

Published by Cultural Dynamics, Christopher DeCorse, professor and chair of anthropology, reviews "Reconstructing the Landscapes of Slavery: A Visual History of the Plantation in the Nineteenth-Century Atlantic World," where the authors examine the economic and political restructuring of 19th century slavery through contemporary paintings, plans and images.

“Beyond the “Old Boys’ Network”: Social Networks and Job Finding at Community Colleges,” authored by Assistant Professor of Economics Maria Zhu, was published in the Journal of Human Resources.