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The Last Human Job: The Work of Connecting in a Disconnected World (MI)

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Date and Time

Tuesday, April 22, 2025, 3:30 PM until 6:00 PM Eastern Time (US & Canada) (UTC-05:00)

Location

MSU Student Union Ballroom
49 Abbot Rd
East Lansing, MI 48824
USA

Registration Info

Registration is required

About this event

3:30 PM • Lecture
5:00 PM • Reception and Book Signing

With the rapid development of artificial intelligence and labor-saving technologies like self-checkouts and automated

factories, the future of work has never been more uncertain, and even jobs requiring high levels of human interaction are no longer safe. The Last Human Job explores the human connections that underlie our work, arguing that what people do for each other in these settings is valuable and worth preserving.

Drawing on in-depth interviews and observations with people in a broad range of professions—from physicians, teachers, and coaches to chaplains, therapists, caregivers, and hairdressers—Allison Pugh develops the concept of “connective labor,” a kind of work that relies on empathy, the spontaneity of human contact, and a mutual recognition of each other’s humanity. The threats to connective labor are not only those posed by advances in AI or apps; Pugh demonstrates how profit-driven campaigns imposing industrial logic shrink the time for workers to connect, enforce new priorities of data and metrics, and introduce standardized practices that hinder our ability to truly see each other. She concludes with profiles of organizations where connective labor thrives, offering practical steps for building a social architecture that works.

Vividly illustrating how connective labor enriches the lives of individuals and binds our communities together, The Last Human Job is a compelling argument for us to recognize, value, and protect humane work in an increasingly automated and disconnected world.

About Allison Pugh, PhD
Allison Pugh is Professor of Sociology at Johns Hopkins University. Her book The Last Human Job: The Work of Connecting in a Disconnected World (Princeton 2024) is based on a study of the standardization of work that relies on relationships. She is also the author of The Tumbleweed Society: Working and Caring in an Age of Insecurity (2015), a study of the effects of job precariousness on intimate life, and the editor of Beyond the Cubicle: Job Insecurity, Intimacy and the Flexible Self (2016). Her first book, Longing and Belonging: Parents, Children, and Consumer Culture (2009), won multiple best book awards and was widely reviewed.

"The Art and Soul of the American Labor Movement"

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The Last Human Job: The Work of Connecting in a Disconnected World (MI)

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