About the Masterclass

AI is transforming the world and, with it, its underlying power dynamics. The world of work is no exception. Rather than the often-hyped prospect of large-scale job destruction, one of the most pervasive transformations unfolds through the deployment of algorithmic management tools, that is, AI-powered digital systems that mediate, monitor, and evaluate labour. In this Masterclass, Tiago Vieira will draw on his own empirical research to illuminate the complex and sometimes contradictory ways in which algorithmic management is reshaping managerial control and the lived experience of workers. Spanning contexts from food delivery platforms to conventional organisational settings, Vieira examines how algorithmic systems reconfigure the practices of surveillance, discipline, and evaluation, often deepening asymmetries of power between employers and workers. Yet this process is not merely coercive. By embedding control within data-driven metrics, gamified interfaces, and performance feedback loops, algorithmic management fosters new forms of normative control, self-discipline and intensification, and even self-exploitation. Workers increasingly internalise the imperatives of efficiency and optimisation, aligning their conduct with opaque algorithmic logics that both constrain and enable agency. By analysing these dynamics, the Masterclass invites participants to reconsider long-standing debates about control, resistance, and consent in the increasingly algorithmic workplace. It argues that algorithmic management represents not only a technological innovation but also a profound reconfiguration of managerial power and the moral economy of work in the age of AI, one that even the most pro-worker laws have been unable to deter.

Requirements 

Proposed no. of ECTS: 1 ECTS (responsible teacher, Prof. Dr. S. Milan). Based on completion of readings, attendance, participation, and a clear CIB (pass/fail) demonstrating engagement with Masterclass themes.

1. Readings (available upon registration)

•⁠ Vieira, Tiago (2023). Platform couriers' self-exploitation: The case study of Glovo. New Technology, Work and Employment, 38(3): 493-512. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/ntwe.12272

•⁠ ⁠Vieira, Tiago and Junte, Sander (forthcoming, 2025). Lost in automation? Algorithmic management and the evolving role of middle managers - insights from the Spanish dark stores sector. Work and Occupations.

•⁠ ⁠Vieira, Tiago (2025). The algorithm chose you»: Algorithmic dismissals’ implications for the future of the employment relationship. PhD dissertation, European University Institute. 

2. Participation: attendance, small-group discussions.

3. Critical Inquiry Brief (CIB, min 250 words, max. 500 words). The CIB should contain 1) post-event reflection based on your disciplinary perspective, and 2) research question. The CIB should be sent to gdc@uva.nl by 11 December 2025, 5pm.

For more information and to register contact: Noelle Richardson at gdc@uva.nl (please also cc n.n.richardson@uva.nl). 
Deadline for registrations is 3 December 17:00.