Michelle Jackson

Michelle Jackson, Associate Professor of Sociology at Stanford and author of The Division of Rationalized Labor, explores 150 years of job change. She unpacks task growth versus occupational specialization. She traces how science and prevention reshaped medicine, policing, education and manufacturing. She discusses role creep, community interventions, and how AI and place factor into the future of work.

Michelle Jackson, Associate Professor of Sociology at Stanford, studies how work has transformed over 150 years. She explores specialization vs. expanding job tasks. Short case studies cover medicine shifting to prevention, policing taking on community roles, manufacturing’s changing task patterns, and how firms and place shape workers’ lives. The conversation ends with thoughts on complexity and AI.

Michelle Jackson, Associate Professor of Sociology at Stanford and author of The Division of Rationalized Labor, studies how occupations changed over 150 years. She traces how science and probabilistic knowledge expanded tasks across medicine, policing, education, and manufacturing. She explores the paradox where task specialization and occupational boundaries diverge and reflects on complexity and possible roles for AI in work.