An illuminating but often overlooked site for studying the changing nature of our economic and labor systems can be found at the interface of the automation shift and the maritime sector. This project pilots a novel theoretical and methodological approach to understanding the relationship between human and automated labor in maritime industries, studying automation as a complex machine-society-nature system.

Through ethnographic studies on board on ships, on land and during simulation trainings, the project will examine the socio-cultural dynamics and changes of work relations, risk assessment and new ways of relating to the ocean.