Everyday Automation

This insightful exploration in Everyday Automation examines how automation shapes daily life and its societal implications through various scholarly perspectives.

In Everyday Automation, an international team of leading scholars collaborates to explore the intricate relationship between automation and daily life. This Open Access book delves into how automated technologies have become embedded in our everyday experiences, prompting critical questions about their emergence across various global regions. The authors examine the contexts in which these technologies operate, seeking to understand their current and future societal impacts. By focusing on the lived experiences of individuals engaging with automation, the book sheds light on the complexities of technology in our lives.

The text further investigates how engineers, policymakers, industry stakeholders, and designers perceive artificial intelligence (AI) and automated decision-making (ADM) as potential solutions to societal challenges. Through this lens, Everyday Automation contrasts the optimistic visions of the future with the realities of power dynamics and social inequalities that shape the experience of AI and ADM. The authors emphasize the importance of re-humanizing automation, allowing for a deeper comprehension of its societal implications.

By bringing together research from anthropology, sociology, media and communication studies, and ethnology, this work encourages readers to reflect on their own encounters with automation. It poses vital questions about what individuals know and how they engage with the technologies that increasingly govern their lives. The Open Access nature of this book promotes widespread accessibility, inviting a diverse audience to engage with these critical conversations.