Work in the digital and robotic transition: the dimensions of capability to choice and capability to voice for the worker's realizational freedom and freedom of choice

Abstract

In the society of intelligent machines, there is a growing concern about how the new digital and robotic ecosystem can enable workers to build an authentic life based on responsibility (Pinto Minerva, 2021) towards themselves, others, and the world they inhabit (Alessandrini, 2018; Dato, 2017; Butera, 2018). This essay, starting from these insights, will address the shift in the freedom of post-pandemic work (Miller, 2022) linked to individual processes of capability to choice and capability to voice. The first dimension, capability to choice, refers to the workers' capacity to make autonomous decisions and conscious choices regarding their work, responsibilities, and professional development (OECD, 2023). The second dimension, capability to voice, expresses the worker's ability to provide their opinion or contribution to the decision-making process and pertains to the right and possibility of having one's opinions, suggestions, or criticisms recognized within the work environment (Galimberti & Muschitiello, 2022). The meaning of work freedom (Mari, 2019) emerging from these two dimensions of empowering agency (Sen, 2004) will contribute to anthropologically qualifying the priorities of action within digital and robotic ecosystems, reshaping the sense of work in relation to decision-making and participation processes (Costa, 2023).