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In the framework of our topic of the term "Change, Progress and Complexity"...

Stefan Leins (Anthropology / University of Konstanz) spoke about: "Complexity in economic practice: A case for ethnography" 

Abstract:
Modern economic market structures and practices are usually said to be complex and thus hard to understand. Indeed, they are many times transnational, multi-layered, and often based on highly specialized expertise. In my talk, I will argue that ethnography – anthropology's method of studying and describing cultural settings – is destined to deconstruct such complex fields and reveal the cultural rationales behind modern economic structures and practices. I will do so by referring to the expert practice of stock market forecasting, which heavily builds upon cultural and social techniques and cannot to be understood without consideration of the "human" that always stands at the center of economic action.
 

and Sebastian Findeisen (Economics / University of Konstanz) reported on: "The Future of Work and Labor Market Institutions" 

Abstract:
In today’s conversation, there are many reports and news articles predicting dramatic impacts on the number of jobs which will disappear because of novel technologies and advances in AI and robotics. I first discuss what lies behind these numbers and how we should interpret them. Then I discuss how industrial robots have affected employment and wages in Germany and the US. Esp. given the German experience, I will argue how labor market institutions like strong unions and employment protections laws, which were once considered out of fashion because they decrease dynamism on the labor market, might be among the best and most effective ways to guarantee that the gains from automation and AI are distributed widely in the population.