Renowned scholars seminar with M. Lynne Markus from Bentley University

The seminar is in english.

Professor M. Lynne Markus, Bentley University

Since the start of the first industrial revolution, concerns have been raised about the societal challenges of technological development. Time after time, those concerns subsided, as fears failed to materialize and people accepted unintended consequences as the inevitable side effects of “progress”. Against this backdrop, new predictions about possible negative effects of “big data” and robots (including automated question-answering and decision-making systems) on jobs, skills, and societal welfare sound like false alarms. And past experience does not seem to support the need for change in research programs or policy actions now. This presentation, to the contrary, will explore some reasons why this time really may be different. Implications for the research community will be discussed.

BIO

M. Lynne Markus is the John W. Poduska, Sr. Professor of Information and Process Management at Bentley University. Professor Markus’s current research focuses on the societal consequences of “big data” analytics, with a particular focus on financial information systems and automated securities trading. Dr. Markus has received numerous research grants and contracts from the National Science Foundation and industry sources. Her most recent book is Methods for Policy Research: Taking Socially Responsible Action (2013, Sage Publications, second edition, with Ann Majchrzak). Dr. Markus was named Fellow of the Association for Information Systems in 2004 and was awarded the Association’s award for exceptional lifetime achievement, the LEO Award, in 2008.