We cordially invite you to our next hybrid Method Talk:

September 22, 2022, Thursday, 6.30pm (JST)/11.30am (CEST)
Using Delphi Survey to Predict how Technology May Transform Unpaid Domestic Work (link: https://dij.tokyo/delphi)

Lulu Shi, Oxford University and Nobuko Nagase, Ochanomizu University

The future of work has emerged as a prominent topic for research and policy debate. In our study we expand the future of work debate from paid to unpaid domestic work. One objective is the supply side. We conducted a forecasting exercise (Delphi survey) in which 65 AI experts from the UK and Japan estimated how automatable are 17 housework and care work tasks, paying attention to how experts' backgrounds may shape their estimates. On average experts predicted that 39 percent of the time spent on a domestic task will be automatable within ten years. Japanese male experts were notably pessimistic about the potentials of domestic automation, pointing to gender disparities in the Japanese household. Our contributions are to provide the first quantitative estimates concerning the future of unpaid work and to demonstrate how such predictions are socially contingent, with implications to forecasting methodology. Another objective is the demand side, asking consumers in Japan and UK about their willingness to use smart technologies. We investigate how willingness to use smart technologies varies across gender, household income, time pressure, type of domestic work, and its price. This presentation is part of the project The Future of Unpaid Work: AI's potential to transform unpaid domestic work in the UK and Japan, led by Nobuko Nagase (Ochanomizu University) and Ekaterina Hertog (Oxford University).

Lulu Shi, sociologist, researches technology, education, and work. She works on the project DomesticAI as a postdoctoral fellow. Lulu also leads a project investigating how educational technology (EdTech) transforms education, specifically the role of EdTech firms in shaping education by considering the socio-political contexts they are embedded in.

Nobuko Nagase, professor of Labor Economics and Social Policy at Ochanomizu University, Tokyo, has written about work and family in the Asian perspective, comparing Japan with other East Asian and Western economies. Interests include wage structure and work choice, labor market regulations and social security, institutional effects on work and gender, marital behavior and child-birth timing.

About

The DIJ Method Talks are part of the DIJ Social Science Study Group, a forum for scholars conducting research on contemporary Japan. Meetings are open to speakers from all disciplines of the social sciences focusing on methods and methodological questions. The event is open to all.

Hybrid Event

On-site participation: Registration is required via email to kottmann@dijtokyo.org until September 21, 2022. Due to safety reasons the number of participants is limited to 20; masks are obligatory.

Online participation: Please register via the webpage. Log in data will be provided after registration.