Short Abstract

This session explores shifting aspirations in a world shaped by AI and digital change, focusing on how people re-skill to meet new demands. We invite papers on how gender, race, and caste shape opportunities, constrain skill development, and perpetuate inequalities in the face of new technologies.

Description

This session examines how aspirations and opportunities shift in a world reshaped by AI, automation, and digital technologies. Labour markets in developing countries are undergoing profound change, but as Acemoglu (2025) notes, the ability to adapt depends not only on technology but also on institutions, market structures, norms, and ideologies.

We invite papers exploring how aspirations, reskilling, and skill upgrading are constrained by social structures such as gender, race, and caste, which shape access to opportunities and reinforce inequalities.

Key questions include:

Work in the digital era – Are jobs disappearing before they even emerge in developing economies? Are capital constraints a problem and do they reinforce existing social divides in responses to new technology?

Norms and aspirations – How do societal expectations restrict goals? For example, do patriarchal norms prevent women from adjusting aspirations while fulfilling roles as “good” wives or mothers? Do caste, religion, race, or ethnicity curtail aspirations and limit adjustment to technological change by reinforcing expectations of discrimination?

Education, training, and policy – Will historical exclusions from education hinder upgrading? Are women and marginalised groups disproportionately disadvantaged in reskilling and adapting to new technologies?

Institutions and governance – How will labour market discrimination and weak governance shape mismatches between aspirations, skills, and opportunities?

We welcome perspectives from different regions, industries, and social groups. By connecting research on aspirations, skills, and inequality, this session seeks to deepen understanding of how technological change reshapes opportunity—and who is left behind.

This Panel has 3 pending paper proposals.
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