BIEN Co-founder Guy Standing, Research Professor at SOAS, University of London, will be speaking at two events at a conference aptly named “The Conference”. Organized by Media Evolution, a cluster of media companies in southern Sweden, The Conference will bring together 40 speakers to educate its 1,000 participants about a variety of topics relevant to the new digital world. This not-for-profit event will be held in Malmö from August 16-17, with various “side events” taking place nearby from August 15-19.

On Wednesday, August 17, Standing will participate in a session titled “Humans, Labour, and Technology” — concerning disruptions of work and the economy due to digital technologies. According to his conference page, Standing will speak about “why rentiers thrive and work does not pay,” “the coming precariat revolt,” and “why a basic income is essential.”

For this session, Standing will be joined by Sha Hwang, the co-founder of Nava, a team of designers and developers that initially formed as a part of efforts to fix HealthCare.gov. While Standing will talk about the growing precariat class, Sha will discuss the motivations and responsibilities of the tech industry and government.

On Thursday, August 18, Standing will take part in a side event on technology and migration. Other speakers at this side event include Dragana Kaurin, an ethnographer and human rights researcher, and entrepreneur Hampus Jakobsson.

According to the description, the Thursday event is set in the “most cozy courtyard in the world” (at Hedmanska gården), and it will begin about an hour after the skinny dipping event at the cold bathing house Ribersborgs Kallbadhus (pictured).

Other presentation topics at The Conference range from online harassment to the communication strategies of extremist groups to the future of food.

The Conference is sold out. Registration is still open to some of the side events (including, at the time of writing, the skinny dipping).


Photo CC Xuanxu 

Thanks, as always, to my supporters on Patreon!