As we count down the days to the start of SXSW (March 8-17 in Austin, TX), we are reminded how the festival—once known for it’s focus on music, entertainment, and media—has grown to inspire creative people from all walks of life to meet, share their ideas, and discuss new ways that impact our global future.

At this year’s SXSW, we’re proud to have several authors presenting who embody that creative spirit, inspiring meaningful change with ideas that can change the future of work and the future of governance.

Alex Rosenblat

Alex Rosenblat, author of Uberland: How Algorithms Are Rewriting the Rules of Work

March 8, 3:30pm – 4:30pm, Austin Convention Center, Room, 10AB, Session: Uberland: Algorithms and the Future of Work

Book Signing, 4:30pm-5:00pm,  Level 3 Atrium Landing

Technology ethnographer Alex Rosenblat (Data & Society) shares her award-winning research on how Uber’s algorithm technology is rewriting the rules of work. Based on Rosenblat’s first hand-experience of riding 5,000 miles with Uber drivers in the U.S. and Canada over four years, Uberland goes beyond the headlines to reveal the complicated politics of popular technologies that are manipulating both workers and consumers and explores the influence and overarching role of technology companies outside Silicon Valley in everything from debates about sexual harassment and transportation regulations to racial equality campaigns and labor rights initiatives.

 

 

Nathan Gardels
Nicolas Berggruen

Nathan Gardels and Nicolas Berggruen, authors of Renovating Democracy: Governing in the Age of Globalization and Digital Capitalism

March 12, 9:30am – 10:30 am, Austin Convention Center, Room 9ABC, Session: Renovating Democracy: A New Framework for Governance

Book Signing: 10:30am – 11:00am, Level 3 Atrium Landing

The rise of populism in the West and the rise of China in the East have stirred a rethinking of how democratic systems work—and how they fail. The impact of globalism and digital capitalism is forcing worldwide attention to the starker divide between the “haves” and the “have-nots,” challenging how we think about the social contract.

In this session, Berggruen Institute founder Nicolas Berggruen and The World Post founder Nathan Gardels, coauthors of Renovating Democracy, will discuss their alternative framework for governance. To truly renovate our global systems, the authors argue for empowering participation without populism by integrating social networks and direct democracy into the system with new mediating institutions that complement representative government. They will discuss their plan to reconfigure the social contract to protect workers instead of jobs, shifting from a “redistribution” after wealth to “pre-distribution” with the aim to enhance the skills and assets of those less well-off. Lastly, they’ll call for harnessing globalization through “positive nationalism” at home while advocating for global cooperation—specifically through a partnership with China to create a viable rules-based world order.

Preorder using 30% discount code 18W8495 at the sales cart.

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