| | Ethics and Social Welfare | | http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/resw20 | CALL FOR FAPERS Special Issue on Technology-drivenunemployment: dilemmas for ethics and social welfare Guest editors: Antonio Marturano (University of Rome, TorVergata, Italy) Jana Vizmuller-Zocco (YorkUniversity, Canada) Rationale: InPraise for Idleness (1935), BertrandRussell claimed that “We have the technology and infrastructure to greatlyreduce the forced workload of the average human, and that should be our goal—toliberate people from excessive work so that they can freely pursue the thingsthat bring them intrinsic joy and happiness.” Russell’s optimistic visionregarding the role of technology advocates for work reduction which wouldincrease human welfare and liberate people to be able to devote their time toculture and leisure. His optimism does not seem to be justified in light ofrecent economic and technological developments which lead to seriousunemployment rather than cheerful work reduction. The loss of jobs due to technologicalinnovations is starting to reach crisis proportions as many scholars (such asDavid F. Noble, Progress Without People:New Technology, Unemployment, and the Message of Resistance, Between theLines, 1995) and popular press warn (for ex., Eduardo Porter, “Jobs Threatenedby Machines: A Once ‘Stupid’ Concern Gains Respect”, The New York Times, June 7, 2016). There are indeed many voiceswhich decry the unemployment situation exasperated by the replacement of humansby machines, and apparently no job is likely to be immune. The World TechnologyNetwork forecasts that “Accelerating technological unemployment will likely beone of the most challenging societal issues in the 21st Century”. Although thescholarly work published on the topic focuses mainly on the technical,technological, and market side, assessments which consider the ethical andsocial welfare implications of technological unemployment are still to beaddressed in detail. The submissions to the special issue will contribute tosetting the agenda for this serious and timely discussion. Topics to be explored fromtheoretical as well as practical perspectives include, but are not restrictedto, the following: Therole of governmental institutions in technological unemployment Joblessfuture: is unconditional basic/universal income the answer? Social,political, and economic approaches to welfare in a jobless future Newethical dimensions of work originating from the technological unemploymentcrisis Politicaland social inequality created by a jobless future Strategicplans for skills, education, re-deployment for the technologically jobless Thepolitical control of technological unemployment Welfare,leadership and jobless future Technologicaldisplacement vs technological innovation from the perspective of social welfare Historicalvisions on the ethical impacts of workload reduction Creatingnew values for a jobless future Politicalvalues in welfare and technological disruption in the job market Workas human value Conflictingvalues in a jobless world (for ex., the refugees crisis in the EU) Religiousvalues and technological unemployment Brief for contributors: In line with the editorial aims ofthe journal, this call for papers focuses specifically on the relationshipbetween ethics, welfare, and values implicated in the policies and politicalstrategies on the one hand and technologically-driven unemployment on theother. The editors welcome academic papers which are interdisciplinary incharacter. Contributions may combine wider ethical and theoretical questionsconcerning technology-driven unemployment with practical considerations leadingto social policies and professional practices (especially the existing andfuture policies of local/national governments and international institutions,such as EU, UN, WTO to cope with the problems of technological joblessness). Thespecial issue, as with other issues of the journal, welcomes material in avariety of formats, including high quality peer-reviewed academic papers,reflections, debates and commentaries on policy and practice, book reviews andreview articles. Academic papers should be between 4-7,000 words long, andpractice papers should be between 750-2,500 words long. Please consult thestyle rules laid-out on the journal’s website: http://www.tandfonline.com/resw. All academic papers willbe double-blind peer- reviewed in the normal way. Practice papers will be considered forpublication by the editors. Procedure and timelines1) Call for Papers andinvitations disseminated starting from the 1stof October 2016.2) You may wish to submit anabstract of no more than 500 words to marturano@btinternet.com and to jvzocco@yorku.ca by the 19thof March 2017. Author’s instructions for academic and practice papers canbe found on the journal website at: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/resw20. Submitters will be informed about the outcome as soon aspossible after this date. Abstracts should include 1. Theessential content, argument, and methodology of the submission, 2. The submission’saims and conclusions, 3. The relationship of the submission to the aims andscope of the journal.3) Completed first drafts ofpapers are due by the 23rd of July 2017 and must be submitted to https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/resw.4) Final (revised) versions mustbe submitted by the 18th ofJune 2018.5) Final confirmation ofpaper acceptance by the 30th September2018.6) Papers published in the first issue of Volume 13, 2019.