Ken Cai Kowalski
Biographic Data
| ID | 245010 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Ken Cai Kowalski |
| GIVEN NAMES | Ken Cai |
| FAMILY NAME | Kowalski |
| SIGNATURE | KOWALSKI K C |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-4502-8838 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 8 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 36 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 8 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2021 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
AI is Taking Over the World… so I may as Well Just go Along with it: ” Fractured Perceptions among Creative Workers
Whereas many experts believe that fears about AI are wildly overblown, catastrophic predictions are commonplace. Concerns may be particularly prevalent in US creative industries following high-profile labor negotiations around AI-related issues. Although many experts believe AI is most likely to augment rather than eliminate jobs in these fields, this is not true (or equally true) for all kinds of creative work. At the same time, perceptions of i…
The Double Disconnect: Skepticism about Public Economic Data and Distrust in Media Discourse about the Economy
This study examines two questions: whether members of the public perceive discrepancies between economic data and their own assessments of economic conditions and how they explain discrepancies they recognize. Drawing on 78 interviews and 12 focus groups conducted with residents of three U.S. cities, the author finds an overwhelmingly common pattern of interpretation following a logic of double disconnect. People saw economic data as disconnected…
Science-Fictional Expectations: Public Beliefs About AI and Change in the Moral Economy
Drawing on 78 interviews and 12 focus groups, this study shows that science-fiction shapes the US public's understandings about economic consequences from AI, informing widespread concerns that sentient machines might fully replace human workers. Though popular beliefs are frequently dismissed as unimportant or merely ignorant, I find that these "science-fictional expectations" about AI's potential to out-compete humans also enable creative depar…
“I have to pick a percentage now”: Indeterminate meanings of moderate survey responses
It's Not Like Chasing Chanel: Spending Time, Investing in the Self, and Pandemic Epiphanies
The Covid-19 pandemic has greatly impacted the labor market and given rise to the Great Resignation. Drawing on a mixed methods panel study of 199 precarious and gig-based workers, we analyze how a changing conception of free time during the Covid-19 pandemic led low-wage service workers to seek more fulfilling careers. Whereas most workers initially perceived free time in terms of opportunity costs, they later reconceived this time as enabling a…
Good jobs, scam jobs: Detecting, normalizing, and internalizing online job scams during the Covid-19 pandemic
Good jobs that allow remote work have enabled white-collar professionals to stay home during COVID-19, but for precarious workers, online advertisements for work-from-home employment are often scams. In this article, based on in-depth interviews conducted between April and July 2020 with nearly 200 precarious workers, we find that precarious workers regularly encountered fraudulent job advertisements via digital media. Drawing on Swidler’s concep…
The Looming, Crazy Stalker Coronavirus: Fear Mongering, Fake News, and the Diffusion of Distrust
The authors explore media distrust among a sample of precarious and gig workers interviewed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although these left-leaning respondents initially increased their media consumption at the outset of the pandemic, they soon complained of media sensationalism and repurposed a readily available cultural tool: claims of 'fake news.' As a result, these unsettled times have resulted in a 'diffusion of distrust,' in which an elit…
The Side Hustle Safety Net: Precarious Workers and Gig Work during Covid-19
While social distancing measures are essential in limiting the impact of a pandemic, such measures are often less feasible for low-income groups such as precarious workers who continue to travel on public transit and are less able to practice social distancing measures. In this paper, based on in-depth remote interviews conducted from April 2020 through June 2020, with more than 130 gig and precarious workers in New York City, we find that precar…
The Side Hustle Safety Net: Precarious Workers and Gig Work during Covid-19
While social distancing measures are essential in limiting the impact of a pandemic, such measures are often less feasible for low-income groups such as precarious workers who continue to travel on public transit and are less able to practice social distancing measures. In this paper, based on in-depth remote interviews conducted from April 2020 through June 2020, with more than 130 gig and precarious workers in New York City, we find that precar…
It's Not Like Chasing Chanel: Spending Time, Investing in the Self, and Pandemic Epiphanies
The Covid-19 pandemic has greatly impacted the labor market and given rise to the Great Resignation. Drawing on a mixed methods panel study of 199 precarious and gig-based workers, we analyze how a changing conception of free time during the Covid-19 pandemic led low-wage service workers to seek more fulfilling careers. Whereas most workers initially perceived free time in terms of opportunity costs, they later reconceived this time as enabling a…
The Looming, Crazy Stalker Coronavirus: Fear Mongering, Fake News, and the Diffusion of Distrust
The authors explore media distrust among a sample of precarious and gig workers interviewed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although these left-leaning respondents initially increased their media consumption at the outset of the pandemic, they soon complained of media sensationalism and repurposed a readily available cultural tool: claims of 'fake news.' As a result, these unsettled times have resulted in a 'diffusion of distrust,' in which an elit…
Good jobs, scam jobs: Detecting, normalizing, and internalizing online job scams during the Covid-19 pandemic
Good jobs that allow remote work have enabled white-collar professionals to stay home during COVID-19, but for precarious workers, online advertisements for work-from-home employment are often scams. In this article, based on in-depth interviews conducted between April and July 2020 with nearly 200 precarious workers, we find that precarious workers regularly encountered fraudulent job advertisements via digital media. Drawing on Swidler’s concep…
The Looming, Crazy Stalker Coronavirus: Fear Mongering, Fake News, and the Diffusion of Distrust
The authors explore media distrust among a sample of precarious and gig workers interviewed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although these left-leaning respondents initially increased their media consumption at the outset of the pandemic, they soon complained of media sensationalism and repurposed a readily available cultural tool: claims of 'fake news.' As a result, these unsettled times have resulted in a 'diffusion of distrust,' in which an elit…
The Side Hustle Safety Net: Precarious Workers and Gig Work during Covid-19
While social distancing measures are essential in limiting the impact of a pandemic, such measures are often less feasible for low-income groups such as precarious workers who continue to travel on public transit and are less able to practice social distancing measures. In this paper, based on in-depth remote interviews conducted from April 2020 through June 2020, with more than 130 gig and precarious workers in New York City, we find that precar…
Good jobs, scam jobs: Detecting, normalizing, and internalizing online job scams during the Covid-19 pandemic
Good jobs that allow remote work have enabled white-collar professionals to stay home during COVID-19, but for precarious workers, online advertisements for work-from-home employment are often scams. In this article, based on in-depth interviews conducted between April and July 2020 with nearly 200 precarious workers, we find that precarious workers regularly encountered fraudulent job advertisements via digital media. Drawing on Swidler’s concep…
It's Not Like Chasing Chanel: Spending Time, Investing in the Self, and Pandemic Epiphanies
The Covid-19 pandemic has greatly impacted the labor market and given rise to the Great Resignation. Drawing on a mixed methods panel study of 199 precarious and gig-based workers, we analyze how a changing conception of free time during the Covid-19 pandemic led low-wage service workers to seek more fulfilling careers. Whereas most workers initially perceived free time in terms of opportunity costs, they later reconceived this time as enabling a…
“I have to pick a percentage now”: Indeterminate meanings of moderate survey responses
The Double Disconnect: Skepticism about Public Economic Data and Distrust in Media Discourse about the Economy
This study examines two questions: whether members of the public perceive discrepancies between economic data and their own assessments of economic conditions and how they explain discrepancies they recognize. Drawing on 78 interviews and 12 focus groups conducted with residents of three U.S. cities, the author finds an overwhelmingly common pattern of interpretation following a logic of double disconnect. People saw economic data as disconnected…
Science-Fictional Expectations: Public Beliefs About AI and Change in the Moral Economy
Drawing on 78 interviews and 12 focus groups, this study shows that science-fiction shapes the US public's understandings about economic consequences from AI, informing widespread concerns that sentient machines might fully replace human workers. Though popular beliefs are frequently dismissed as unimportant or merely ignorant, I find that these "science-fictional expectations" about AI's potential to out-compete humans also enable creative depar…
AI is Taking Over the World… so I may as Well Just go Along with it: ” Fractured Perceptions among Creative Workers
Whereas many experts believe that fears about AI are wildly overblown, catastrophic predictions are commonplace. Concerns may be particularly prevalent in US creative industries following high-profile labor negotiations around AI-related issues. Although many experts believe AI is most likely to augment rather than eliminate jobs in these fields, this is not true (or equally true) for all kinds of creative work. At the same time, perceptions of i…
Digital Economy and Work Transformation (5 works) · Political science (5 works) · Employment and Welfare Studies (4 works) · Law (4 works) · Psychology (4 works) · Sociology (4 works) · Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19 (3 works) · Economics (3 works) · Law (3 works) · Medicine (3 works)