TECHNO: How Technological Change Reshapes Politics: Technology, Elections, and Policies

Technological change and automation are disrupting labor markets in advanced democracies and
rekindling fears about technological unemployment and how the future of work will be. While there is
little doubt that rapid technological progress has far-reaching economic effects, its political consequences
remain largely unexplored. The goal of this project is to study how technological change in the workplace
contributes to ongoing deep political transformations (including the surge of populist movements), the
adoption of policies to address change, and the political consequences of such policies.
The project is organized in four complementary work packages (WP). WP1 examines how workers’
individual economic trajectories and political behavior change when their industries digitalize. WP2
studies how the introduction of technology affects local-level political and electoral outcomes using rich
administrative data. WP3 assesses how technological vulnerability affects citizen preferences for a wide
range of policies to respond to technological change. WP4 analyses the successes, failures, and political
consequences of existing social policies to reduce individual and regional disparities due to technological
change.
The project will contribute to understanding how the grievances generated by profound technological
change manifest themselves politically. It will result in recommendations of politically viable and effective
policies to help workers and communities adapt to a fast-changing economic landscape and increased
insecurity about what the future of jobs will be, which ensures a high potential for impact. The project
helps understand “The evolving politics of threat” (theme 2 of the call) and the underlying causes of
“Shifting identities and representation” (theme 4).