Phillip Brown

I was brought up in a small town near Oxford, England. I left school with little to show for twelve years of education before starting working life as a craft apprentice at the British Leyland car factory in Cowley, Oxford. The experience of factory life drove me to take-up evening classes where I was first introduced to Sociology. This sparked a lifelong interest in the changing relationship between education, economy and society which I've been lucky enough to study in a number of countries for over thirty years. Why is it that the promise of education, jobs and rewards has not materialised for many people? How are we going to create free, fair and fulfilling livelihoods for all rather than a few in a context of egregious inequalities, combined with the prospect of AI and smart machines? Arguably, The Global Auction: The Broken Promises of Education, Jobs and Incomes (2011), was the first book to truly grasp the implication of economic globalisation for the jobs of middle class Americans and Europeans. The Death of Human Capital? Its Failed Promise And How To Renew It In An Age of Disruption (2020), takes the argument a step forward in explaining why we need a new human capital based on a different view of education, work and rewards.

I'm a Distinguished Research Professor in the School of Social Sciences at Cardiff University where I've worked since 1997. Before that I worked at the University of Cambridge and University of Kent at Canterbury. I've been a Visiting Professor at UBC in Vancouver and Science Po in Paris and a Distinguished Visiting Professor at Zhengzhou University, China. I've been fortunate enough to give presentations in over twenty countries and to Chair an Independent Review for the Welsh Government examining the impact of digital innovation for the economy and the future of work in Wales, UK (2019). I'm also a Trustee of the National Institute for Economic and Social Research (NIESR), Westminster, London. My current research involves heading up a seven-country research program examining the digital futures of work, education and skills, in collaboration with the Research and Innovation Division, Institute of Adult Learning, Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS).