About Our Lab
The Labour Process and Technology Lab (Labour Lab) explores the intersection of work, automation, and social change. We examine the impact of emerging technologies on labour dynamics, the redistribution of power within workplaces, and the potential of these technologies to drive shifts across both workplace structures and collective movements. Through collaborative research and design, we engage workers, their unions, labour advocacy organizations, and communities affected by workplace change to understand the challenges and opportunities these shifts present.
Labour lab is part of the Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto.
Research
Technology and Worker Agency
We examine how technical change shapes workplace practices and worker outcomes, with a focus on the historical development of technologies and their integration into the labour process.
Engineers and Worker-Centered Design
Our work investigates the role, leverage, and tactics of engineers and technology designers in shaping worker-centered design, considering both constraints and opportunities in technical decision-making.
Data and Labour Movements
We explore the role of data and technical expertise in labour unions, worker movements, and civil society organizations, analyzing the opportunities and challenges of data collection, visibility, and strategic use of digital tools.
Recent Publications
Cheon, E., & Khovanskaya, V. (2024). Amazon Z to A: Speculative Design to Understand the Future of Labor-Intensive Workplaces. Designing Interactive Systems Conference, 314–327. Link.
Khovanskaya, V. (2023). The Cyberunion 20 Years Later. Interactions, 30(2), 48–51. Link.
Monroy-Hernández, A., Khovanskaya, V., Munson, S. A., Zachry, M., & Ghoshal, S. (2023). Back to “ Back to Labor”: Revisiting Political Economies of Computer-Supported Cooperative Work. Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing, 522–526. Link.
Tandon, U., Khovanskaya, V., Arcilla, E., Hussein, M. H., Zschiesche, P., & Irani, L. (2022). Hostile Ecologies: Navigating the Barriers to Community-Led Innovation. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 6(CSCW2), 1–26. Link.
Tandon, U., Khovanskaya, V., & Irani, L. (2022). Barriers to Community-Led Real Utopias: A Case Study of Taxis in San Diego. 34th Annual Meeting. SASE. Link.
Khovanskaya, V. D. (2021). The Tools of Management: Data Practices for Worker Advocacy. Cornell University. Link.Sengers, P., Williams, K., & Khovanskaya, V. (2021). Speculation and the Design of Development. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 5(CSCW1), 1–27. Link.
Irani, L., Hussein, M., Zschiesche, P., Tandon, U., Arcilla, E., Hickman, L., Goldsmith, M., Khovanskaya, V., & Singh, S. (2021). Transportation for Smart and Equitable Cities: Integrating Taxis and Mass Transit for Access, Emissions Reduction, and Planning. Link.
Fox, S. E., Khovanskaya, V., Crivellaro, C., Salehi, N., Dombrowski, L., Kulkarni, C., Irani, L., & Forlizzi, J. (2020). Worker-Centered Design: Expanding HCI Methods for Supporting Labor. Extended Abstracts of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 1–8. Link.
Khovanskaya, V., Sengers, P., & Dombrowski, L. (2020). Bottom-Up Organizing with Tools from On High: Understanding the Data Practices of Labor Organizers. Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 1–13. Link.
Team
Vera Khovanskaya
Lab Director, Faculty of Information, University of Toronto
Ruben Tjhie
PhD Student, Faculty of Information, University of Toronto
Jiayi Wu
Collaborator, Brown University
Shawn Meikle
Collaborator, Centre for Industrial Relations & Human Resources, University of Toronto
Contact
Applications for PhD Positions
If you are interested in pursuing a PhD under the supervision of Vera Khovanskaya, please send your CV and a brief statement of interest to v.khovanskaya [at] utoronto.ca. Important: please include “Labour Lab: Application PhD” in the subject line.
Masters Students @ FOI
If you are a Masters student at the Faculty of Information interested in thesis supervision or contributing to any of our research projects, email v.khovanskaya [at] utoronto.ca. Important: please include “Labour Lab: Application Masters” in the subject line.