Worlds of Work: Implications of Urbanisation, Technology and Sustainability

Abstract

There has been considerable debate about the impact of urbanisation and technology on social relations, spatial inequalities, and individual wellbeing in the context of work, particularly in the Global South. While ‘smart’ cities exemplify utopian ideals of technology-driven efficiency and innovation, the role of technology in the world of work is dynamic and contested. In September 2019, the Cities 2050: Urbanisation, Sustainability, and Mobility cluster in the HKU Faculty of Social Sciences organised a three-day international symposium supported by the British Sociological Association’s Work, Employment and Society journal. The event brought together an array of UK, Asia and Australia-based world-class social science scholars, to dialogue and critically reflect on the rapidly changing dynamics and multi-faceted effects of urbanisation, climate change, technological change and mass migration in the context of work, offering new insights into the social relations and problems derived from the emerging worlds of work, the changing nature of the urban, and the intensifying complexity of cities across the global North and South divide.