Prof. Chris Tilly

As part of his Marie Jahoda Visiting Fellowship (2021), Prof. Chris Tilly investigated ‘The reorganization of store-based retail work in the context of technological change and Covid-19’. Labor in US retail stores is being rapidly transformed via the application of digital technologies, a process that the pandemic has accelerated. In joint research with Françoise Carré of the University of Massachusetts-Boston, he seeks to assess how the nature of jobs and specific tasks has changed in store-based retail (especially grocery and general merchandise), and whether these changes are experienced as improvement or degradation by workers. He is drawing on interviews of retail executives, technology providers, consultants, and retail workers, as well as closely following trade media and attending conferences and webinars.