Contributor(s): Dr Niamh Dunne, Dr Robert Falkner, Dr Carsten Sørensen, Professor Leslie Willcocks | The Fourth Industrial Revolution has transformed the way we work and live. Digital platforms have upended traditional business models and are disrupting ever more industries in a post-COVID world. Novel technologies (AI, robotics) are replacing ever more human tasks, raising fears about increasing unemployment.

While technological innovation is a source of prosperity, its impact on business and society needs to be carefully managed. Our panel considers both the disruptive nature of technological change and the practical ways we can respond to it from a multidisciplinary perspective.

Meet our speakers

Niamh Dunne is an Associate Professor of Law at LSE, teaching in the areas of competition and EU law. She has also worked in competition enforcement for the Competition Authority of Ireland, and as a consultant in competition policy, primarily for the OECD. She is a course contributor to LSE’s online certificate course Technological Disruption: Managing the Impact on Business, Society and Politics.

Robert Falkner is an Associate Professor of International Relations at LSE and the Research Director of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment. His research centres on global environmental politics and international political economy, with a particular focus on climate policy and the role of business in international relations. Previously, he held academic positions at the universities of Oxford, Kent, and Essex, and was a visiting scholar at Harvard University. He is the Course Convenor of LSE’s online certificate course Technological Disruption: Managing the Impact on Business, Society and Politics.

Carsten Sørensen is an Associate Professor of Information Systems and Innovation at LSE. He has studied the business and consumer impact of mobile and ubiquitous information technology innovations, organisational innovation with mobile computing. His research has also focused in particular on the innovation dynamics of mobile infrastructures and platforms. He is a course contributor to LSE’s online certificate course Technological Disruption: Managing the Impact on Business, Society and Politics.

Leslie Willcocks is an Emeritus Professor of Work, Technology and Globalisation in the Department of Management. His major research interests include service automation, artificial intelligence, digital transformation and emerging technologies. He is also engaged in looking at technology in globalisation and the strategic use of IT, IT leadership and IT enabled organisational change. He is a course contributor to LSE’s online certificate course Technological Disruption: Managing the Impact on Business, Society and Politics.