Volume 41, Issue 3, Fall 2022
Special Issue: The Future of Work
Kristin Gottron
Pages 411-430
Dignity beyond Measure
Designing Big Data Systems with the Worker in Mind
The technological developments of the Fourth Industrial Age have set the stage for myriad breakthroughs in the field of data and analytics. However, these innovations have also brought with them new threats to the autonomy and dignity of the human worker. This paper aims to identify some of these new challenges to the integral human development of the worker and to propose principles from the Catholic Social Tradition on the worker that can be practically implemented to address them. By doing so, an ethical framework may be established to preserve the realm of work from dehumanization brought on by an increased focus on algorithmic computation.