Jason Resnikoff

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Total Citations

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About

Jason Resnikoff is a historian of labor, technology, and political economy, whose work critically reexamines the contested history of automation and the future of work. His most influential contribution, "Where Have All the Robots Gone?" (2021, 88 citations), challenges conventional narratives by revealing that in the early 1970s, workers demanded the "humanization" of labor rather than its abolition. Resnikoff traces the decline of the automation movement to a confluence of labor unrest, economic instability, and the rise of environmentalism, reframing technological change as a deeply political struggle. In his more recent work, "The Myth of Black Obsolescence" (2022, 6 citations), he dissects modern consulting reports from firms like McKinsey, arguing that their predictions of AI-driven job displacement perpetuate a racialized myth of obsolescence. By exposing how these forecasts ignore the historical agency of Black workers, Resnikoff offers a powerful corrective to techno-determinism. His research is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand why the robots we were promised never arrived—and what that tells us about power, resistance, and the contested politics of the future.