The Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences holds an international symposium on “The Dignity and Future of Work in the Age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution”

From 14 to 15 October, the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, whose chancellor is Bishop Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo, is holding the international symposium “The Dignity and Future of Work in the Age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution”, inspired by Pope Francis’ call to analyse every dimension of this problem based on the inescapable importance of the dignity of human work. As the Pontiff writes in his encyclical Laudato Si’: “A certain way of understanding human life and activity has gone awry, to the serious detriment of the world around us. Should we not pause and consider this? At this stage, I propose that we focus on the document technocratic paradigm and the place of human beings and of human action in the world” (Laudato si’, 101).

From this perspective, multiple scenarios coexist on the horizon. On the one hand, the emergence of new technologies, being put at the service of integral human development, can contribute to improve situations of climate change, health, education and productivity. On the other hand, the phenomena of robotization and automation could pose a serious danger to employment, deepening the problem of unemployment and inequality in our societies, where we see that the increasing revenues of technology are being concentrated in favour of capital and not workers.

The new techno-social inclusion requires the rethinking of the still prevailing model of social order, that should contribute to sustainable solutions instead of deepening, as Pope Francis says, the “throwaway culture”, through technology, particularly serious in the existential peripheries of both developed and non-developed countries.

The seminar is intended to tackle these questions from an interdisciplinary perspective, encouraging a holistic, multifaceted and inclusive approach, which incorporates the human dimension as an illuminator of all perspectives of the future of work, in pursuit of the common good and the construction of an integral and sustainable human development.