iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

ESRC Centre for Digital Futures at Work (Digit) @digitcentre.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

🚨 New funded PhD scholarship alert! Digit is offering a studentship to research how to build good work & digital skills in regional digital ecosystems. Explore digital skills, AI adoption, and inclusive employment. Apply by 31 Oct, 17:00 UK time. Learn more: digit-research.org/news/new-phd...

digit-research.org

New PhD studentship available - Digital Futures at Work Research Centre (Digit)

Digit is offering a funded PhD scholarship opportunity for research on ‘Building good work and digital skills within a regional digital ecosystem’.

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ESRC Centre for Digital Futures at Work (Digit) @digitcentre.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

AI is transforming work, but too often it’s happening to workers, not with them. From surveillance to work intensification, hear why unions and Digit researchers at #TUC2026 are calling for worker voice to come first in workplace AI decisions. Learn more: digit-research.org/news/negotia...

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ESRC Centre for Digital Futures at Work (Digit) @digitcentre.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

How can workers and unions shape AI before it is introduced at work? At #TUC2026, Digit discussed why AI is a collective bargaining issue that affects workloads, job quality, staffing, safety, and professional autonomy. Learn more: digit-research.org/news/negotia...

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ESRC Centre for Digital Futures at Work (Digit) @digitcentre.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

New Digit blog! AI can enhance workers' agency, but only if employees control how they use it, creating a new aspect of the workplace: AI-supported autonomy. Learn more: digit-research.org/blog/ai-at-w...

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ESRC Centre for Digital Futures at Work (Digit) @digitcentre.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Will you be at TUC Congress 2026? Join Digit’s TUC Congress 2026 session for practical insights and real-world strategies from union leaders and researchers. More info: www.tuc.org.uk/Congress2026...

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ESRC Centre for Digital Futures at Work (Digit) @digitcentre.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

ICYMI: overflowing inboxes, endless notifications, work bleeding into personal time... these are health & safety risks. New Digit blog by Deepali D'mello on how workers cope, and why it's not enough. 🔗 digit-research.org/blog/is-indi...

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ESRC Centre for Digital Futures at Work (Digit) @digitcentre.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

📢 Call for Papers – ISA World Congress 2027 RC19: Digitalisation, welfare & work • Datafication of Welfare Governance • Digital Sovereignty & Work Ecosystems Submit by 14 Oct 2026. Learn more: digit-research.org/events/isa-w...

digit-research.org

ISA World Congress 2027 - Digital Futures at Work Research Centre (Digit)

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ESRC Centre for Digital Futures at Work (Digit) @digitcentre.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

🎉 Meet Prof Simon Deakin supported by the Marie Jahoda Innovation Fund 2026! His project maps how digital tools, platforms, geolocation, algorithmic management, shape the recruitment and monitoring of migrant workers under the UK's Seasonal Workers Visa scheme

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ESRC Centre for Digital Futures at Work (Digit) @digitcentre.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

New Digit blog by Research Associate Xanthe Whittaker looks at what happened when the printing deadline vanished in a newsroom: fragmented time, rolling deadlines, journalists rebuilding order. 🔗 digit-research.org/blog/new-rhy...

Image with a blue background and the title of the blog: New rhythms, new rules: time and work in the digital newsroom by Xanthe Whittaker

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ESRC Centre for Digital Futures at Work (Digit) @digitcentre.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

🎉 Meet Prof Damian Grimshaw supported by the Marie Jahoda Innovation Fund 2026! His project examines platform-based data labelling in India, Kenya, the UK & USA, revealing how caste, class, gender & race shape microwork at the heart of AI value chains.

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ESRC Centre for Digital Futures at Work (Digit) @digitcentre.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

Part two of our Student Series. Phreesha Udani, Keya Chag & Jamie Trentham on always-on culture, performative wellbeing, and AI-driven employee grievances landing on HR's desk. 🔗 digit-research.org/blog/why-can...

$Image card with the title: Student Series: The future of work. The image depicts a series of stone-like hands, fractured and cracked, reaching out in various directions from a chaotic mass of tangled wires. Some hands display broken fingers, while archival tags on others suggest anonymity and erasure. The juxtaposition of human forms and technological wires evokes themes of labor, exploitation, and the often unseen physical work behind the tech industry.$

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ESRC Centre for Digital Futures at Work (Digit) @digitcentre.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

🎉 Meet Dr Zahira Jaser, supported by the Marie Jahoda Innovation Fund 2026! Her project asks: who gets excluded by AI-powered hiring? It examines how Automated Video Interview platforms are designed, and what that means for fairness in recruitment. digit-research.org/projects/whe...

Graphic quote with picture of Dr Zahira Jaser. The quote says: Receiving this prestigious grant confirms the importance and timeliness of our research on Automated Video Interviews (AVIs), and the use of AI in selection processes, where ultimately the machine chooses humans. Our research will look at the heart of the assumptions behind these selection processes, analysing the politics of exclusion and inclusion. At the core of our research is a commitment to social justice in the use of these technologies. We build on our previous pioneering research on AVIs and their impact on young applicants from underprivileged backgrounds, which generated several publications, and two Harvard Business Review articles on 'where AVI fall short', and what young people can do to prepare for them.

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ESRC Centre for Digital Futures at Work (Digit) @digitcentre.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

New Digit blog: Is AI at work a "resource" or a demand in disguise? Our new blog argues that AI isn't reducing workload, it's shifting and stacking it, and the heaviest adopters may be burning out fastest. 🔗https://digit-research.org/blog/is-ai-at-work-a-demand-disguised-as-a-resource/

Illustrative image with a blue background and the title of the blog: Is AI at work a demand disguised as a resource?

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ESRC Centre for Digital Futures at Work (Digit) @digitcentre.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

🎉 Meet @t-a-gillespie.bsky.social supported by the Marie Jahoda Innovation Fund 2026! His project compares "green" data centre development in China, South Africa & the UK, testing whether promises of jobs and growth for peripheral regions hold up in reality. 🔗 digit-research.org/marie-jahoda...

Image with Tom Gillespie's quote. The quote says: Addressing climate change is more urgent than ever and data centres are at the top of economic, social and political agendas across the world right now. We are delighted to receive the Digit Marie Jahoda funding for our project on the promise of 'green' data centres. Our interdisciplinary team is excited to get started with examining the impact of green data centre investments on jobs, work quality and occupational structures in China, South Africa and the UK.

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ESRC Centre for Digital Futures at Work (Digit) @digitcentre.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

📌 ICYMI: inside one of the world's most digitally advanced factories, the managers who made transformation actually work weren't chasing speed, they were practising patience. Learn more: digit-research.org/blog/practic...

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ESRC Centre for Digital Futures at Work (Digit) @digitcentre.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

👏 Meet one of our Marie Jahoda Innovation Fund supported projects ‘From Ghost Work to Expert Work’, led by Wei Wei, from the University of Sussex Business School! Her research explores data workers in China's AI value chain! Learn more: digit-research.org/marie-jahoda...

Image illustration with a quote from Dr Wei Wei

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ESRC Centre for Digital Futures at Work (Digit) @digitcentre.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

Wage theft is a structural feature of capitalism, and it's accelerating in the digital age. A new Digit blog argues we need to rethink wage theft as a question of justice: What is the right or just amount to pay workers for the work that they do? Learn more: digit-research.org/blog/wage-th...

Image illustration with the title of the blog 'Wage theft and the digital worker'

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ESRC Centre for Digital Futures at Work (Digit) @digitcentre.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

The challenges of the digital transformation in the food manufacturing sector are about a management skills gap. Managers face unique challenges: Careful technology selection, production and skills redesign, and the development of new capabilities. 🔗 digit-research.org/blog/managem...

An image with the title of the blog over a blue frame

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ESRC Centre for Digital Futures at Work (Digit) @digitcentre.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

Today's workplace hazards aren't physical, they're digital. A new Digit blog argues that we need legislated digital health and safety standards fit for the hyper-connected workplace: digit-research.org/blog/is-indi...

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ESRC Centre for Digital Futures at Work (Digit) @digitcentre.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

🏥 How is the NHS approaching flexible working? Flexible working thrives when work design is agile and digital, and when it meets both people’s and organisational needs. Success hinges on managers who embrace customisation and learning as they go. 🔗 digit-research.org/blog/lets-th...

Image with the title of the blog 'Let's think about flex in the NHS'

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ESRC Centre for Digital Futures at Work (Digit) @digitcentre.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

Digit-funded research features in a new report on disability at work, showing remote/hybrid working can be essential for disabled & neurodivergent employees to enter and stay in work. Learn more: digit-research.org/news/digit-r...

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ESRC Centre for Digital Futures at Work (Digit) @digitcentre.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

ICYM New Digit research maps the financial exposure of semiconductor firms, charting how ownership structures, debt, and foreign-currency liabilities shape vulnerability across the ecosystem. 🔗 digit-research.org/insights/sem...

Image with title for Digit Data Commentary 'Semiconductor supply chain and financial network analysis'

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ESRC Centre for Digital Futures at Work (Digit) @digitcentre.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

AI and algorithmic management are reshaping work across Europe, and workers are bearing the cost. A Digit blog argues that the EU's Quality Jobs Act must be backed by binding AI legislation, stronger union rights, and a serious industrial policy. 🔗 Learn more: digit-research.org/blog/how-big...

Image promoting Digit latest blog on big tech threatening European capitalism

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ESRC Centre for Digital Futures at Work (Digit) @digitcentre.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

Digit is offering a fully funded PhD studentship at Leeds University Business School. This studentship will explore how employee voice can be developed in workplace digital transformation, with a focus on AI. Deadline: Friday 3 July 2026. Apply now: digit-research.org/news/new-ful...

Image promoting fully funded PhD opportunity at Digit

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ESRC Centre for Digital Futures at Work (Digit) @digitcentre.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

What does it really take to guide people through digital transformation in manufacturing? Our research at one of the world’s most advanced factories found its organisational patience. When leaders practise active patience, efficiency improves. Learn more: digit-research.org/blog/practic...

Illustration with blog title 'Practices of patience: Digital transformation in advanced manufacturing

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ESRC Centre for Digital Futures at Work (Digit) @digitcentre.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

🚀 New Digit research introduces a new way to measure financial vulnerability in supply chains. By combining financial and corporate data, researchers developed a risk score, offering a clear metric for reliance on foreign capital. 🔗 digit-research.org/insights/sem...

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ESRC Centre for Digital Futures at Work (Digit) @digitcentre.bsky.social · 13/03/2026

Can local government do more to address the quality of local jobs in the face of rapid technological change? At our next Digit Debates event we'll be discussing evidence from research into the Yorkshire warehousing industry. 📆Tues 31 March ⏰12-13.30 Register: digit-research.org/events/how-c...

digit-research.org

How can local government shape the future of work in deindustrialised regions?

This event presents findings from a study exploring work in the Yorkshire warehousing industry.

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ESRC Centre for Digital Futures at Work (Digit) @digitcentre.bsky.social · 03/03/2026

Image credit: Hanna Barakat & Cambridge Diversity Fund / betterimagesofai.org / creativecommons.org/licenses/by/... Thanks to the Better Images of AI library!

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ESRC Centre for Digital Futures at Work (Digit) @digitcentre.bsky.social · 03/03/2026

What does the digital transformation of work look like from your perspective? In our first Digit CoLab Insights briefing, we report on the key insights from our first CoLab, bringing together voices from business, policy, trade unions and civil society. digit-research.org/insights/eme...

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Reposted by ESRC Centre for Digital Futures at Work (Digit)

CERIC @ceric-lubs.bsky.social · 27/02/2026

Last day today of our Early Bird Registration for the International Labour Process Conference here in Leeds (22-24 April). Standard tickets will continue to be available until 15 March. store.leeds.ac.uk/conferences-...

store.leeds.ac.uk

CERIC | University of Leeds

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ESRC Centre for Digital Futures at Work (Digit) @digitcentre.bsky.social · 11/02/2026

@ukri.org @sussexunibusiness.bsky.social @ceric-lubs.bsky.social Image: Jamillah Knowles & Digit / betterimagesofai.org / creativecommons.org/licenses/by/...

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ESRC Centre for Digital Futures at Work (Digit) @digitcentre.bsky.social · 11/02/2026

Our Marie Jahoda Innovation Fund is open to applications! We are looking for 🔎innovative research projects, up to a year in length 👩‍💻aligned with our research programme on the digitalisation of work 🤝keen to see applications including stakeholder engagement Apply: digit-research.org/marie-jahoda...

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ESRC Centre for Digital Futures at Work (Digit) @digitcentre.bsky.social · 09/02/2026

Image from the @betterimagesofai.bsky.social library: Leo Lau & Digit / betterimagesofai.org / creativecommons.org/licenses/by/...

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ESRC Centre for Digital Futures at Work (Digit) @digitcentre.bsky.social · 09/02/2026

Don't miss our next Digit Debates event. 🧐Will the Employment Rights Act make work pay? 📆25 Feb ⏰12.30-2pm GMT 🎙️Prof Simon Deakin, @christinecarter900.bsky.social, Kamelia Pourkermani, @timsharp.bsky.social ➡️Register: digit-research.org/events/will-...

A row of knowledge workers operate sewing machines producing piles of spreadsheets and reports. Underneath text reads: Will the employment rights act make work pay? 12.30-2pm GMT. Wednesday 25 February. Speakers: Prof Simon Deakin, Christine Carter, Kamelia Pourkermani, Tim Sharp (TUC).

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ESRC Centre for Digital Futures at Work (Digit) @digitcentre.bsky.social · 07/01/2026

@jbs.cam.ac.uk | Leeds University Business School | ESRC: Economic and Social Research Council | @sussexunibusiness.bsky.social

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ESRC Centre for Digital Futures at Work (Digit) @digitcentre.bsky.social · 07/01/2026

Read the full report, co-authored by @christinecarter900.bsky.social, Professor Simon Deakin, Conor McCormack, and Kamelia Pourkermani: www.gov.uk/government/p...

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ESRC Centre for Digital Futures at Work (Digit) @digitcentre.bsky.social · 07/01/2026

In those areas where the Act breaks new ground for UK law, including zero hours contract laws, analysis indicates that the adoption of similar laws in other OECD countries in the recent past has led to productivity and employment improvements.

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ESRC Centre for Digital Futures at Work (Digit) @digitcentre.bsky.social · 07/01/2026

They also conduct econometric analysis of the relationship between labour law and the economy over the past 50 years in the UK. This indicates that the new Employment Rights Act is likely to have a small positive effect on employment, representing an increase of around 0.1% in the employment level.

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ESRC Centre for Digital Futures at Work (Digit) @digitcentre.bsky.social · 07/01/2026

📈 However, the UK will match or exceed average OECD protection in relation to zero hours contracts, leave rights, and the specific trade union rights addressed in the Act.

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ESRC Centre for Digital Futures at Work (Digit) @digitcentre.bsky.social · 07/01/2026

Their analysis finds: 🌐 UK labour law protections, as whole, would move closer to the OECD average but remain less protective than the OECD average overall.

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ESRC Centre for Digital Futures at Work (Digit) @digitcentre.bsky.social · 07/01/2026

The report uses the Cambridge Centre for Business Research Labour Regulation Index, led by Professor Simon Deakin, which tracks the strength of worker protection in law in 117 countries around the world since the 1970s.

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ESRC Centre for Digital Futures at Work (Digit) @digitcentre.bsky.social · 07/01/2026

A new report, commissioned by the Department for Business and Trade, and co-authored by a team of Digit researchers, benchmarks the protection afforded by new UK rights against those across the OECD. www.gov.uk/government/p...

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ESRC Centre for Digital Futures at Work (Digit) @digitcentre.bsky.social · 11/12/2025

📖 🎉 Congratulations to Digit Research Fellow Steve Rolf who has co-authored a new book with Seth Schindler, ‘State Platform Capitalism: The United States, China, and the Global Battle for Digital Supremacy’. It is available open access and is free to read: www.cambridge.org/core/element...

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ESRC Centre for Digital Futures at Work (Digit) @digitcentre.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

Read the paper in the British Journal of Industrial Relations: doi.org/10.1111/bjir... Read the blog: digit-research.org/blog/can-ai-...

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ESRC Centre for Digital Futures at Work (Digit) @digitcentre.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

They found: 💳 AI adoption and use are positively associated with pay ⚙️ Lower-skilled workers benefit disproportionally – but only when AI is deeply integrated into their work ⚖️ In workplaces where employees are consulted, or negotiate, distribution of AI pay gains is more equitable

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ESRC Centre for Digital Futures at Work (Digit) @digitcentre.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

Professor Valizade highlighted new research with Felix Schulz, Mark Stuart, Magdalena Soffia, and Jolene Skordis looking at how AI use at work influences pay.

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ESRC Centre for Digital Futures at Work (Digit) @digitcentre.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

They discussed how to build regional innovation ecosystems that support local economic development and sustain good work, to deliver for people across the UK.

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ESRC Centre for Digital Futures at Work (Digit) @digitcentre.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

The panel was chaired by Lord Jim Knight and included Georgina Maratheftis, Josie Crescent-Moo, Eve Navias, Prof. Chris Warhurst, and Prof. Valizade.

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