CLJE Fellow Ava Liu will be speaking on the panel Reframing Critique Under Big Tech – Challenging Techno-Solutionism as part of this two-day event on big tech industry and its impacts on labor, climate, society, the economy, and more.
In recent years, the Big Tech industry has garnered increasing attention as a panacea for societal challenges. Various technological fixes and automation solutions promise to solve the ecological crisis, democratize education and access to information, enhance global connectivity and provide resources and platforms for job creation, economic growth and the development of new industries. Nevertheless, while emphasis has often been placed on the creation of value through innovation in the tech industry, it is equally crucial to address the phenomenon of value extraction–i.e., the exploitation of various labor activities and scarce material resources–to grasp the social, political, economic and environmental implications of automation and technological advances.
Ava Liu is a joint fellow at the Berkman Klein Center, the Program on Law and Political Economy at Harvard Law School, and the Center for Labor and a Just Economy at Harvard Law School. She is working on projects examining the relations between technological development, legal institutions, and labor relations in international and domestic markets. Before returning to Harvard Law School, she lived and practiced law in Asia for three years and was a research associate at Oxford University’s China, Law and Development Project.
