%0 Journal Article
%T Technology, innovation, employment and power: Does robotics and artificial intelligence really mean social transformation?
%A Robert J. Holton
%A Ross Boyd
%J Journal of Sociology
%@ 1741-2978
%D 2018
%R 10.1177/1440783317726591
%X How far do recent innovations in robotics and artificial intelligence herald an unprecedented economic and social transformation? This article provides a critical evaluation of this question, challenging the relentless technological determinism of much debate, and reframing the issues involved within a political-economic and sociological approach. This focuses on the economic, political and historical dynamics of technological innovation, and its consequences for employment and economic re-structuring, mediated through sovereign and discursive power. A range of epistemological and empirical problems with the transformationist position are identified, and an alternative perspective proposed emphasizing complexity and uncertainty around contemporary and future trends
%K artificial intelligence
%K employment
%K robotics
%K social transformation
%K sociology
%K technological innovation
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1440783317726591