Allison Pugh

Worth noting that one reason you’re benefitting so fully from the Star-Tribune’s timely, extensive coverage of unfolding events is that it’s a metro newspaper that hasn’t been systematically starved to further enrich shareholders and executives.

Stop tracking employee engagement. Try this instead Companies have never had more tools to measure engagement, yet employees are feeling more disconnected than ever.

So glad to see @fastcompany.com focusing on connection! "Pugh’s research underscores this point: These relational dimensions are the very aspects of work that machines cannot automate. “The irreplaceable human contribution,” she writes, “is connection itself.”
www.fastcompany.com/91475008/sto...

With #TheLastHumanJob coming out in paperback January 27, I'm excited to share some upcoming appearances - it's going to be a busy spring! Come join the conversation about the value of human connection. For more info see allisonpugh.com or press.princeton.edu/books/paperb...

A terrific piece about a vital issue. "Children need our human attention — especially in this age of social isolation and political trauma.". And not just children! #TheLastHumanJob

Revisiting this now that I have a moment to reflect, and I'm so pleased with how this article turned out, esp the ways we were able to connect w/ work by @allisonpugh.bsky.social @jessicacalarco.com @dmgreene.bsky.social & so many other scholars who've had such a profound influence on my research.

Opinion | The Starving Artist vs. A.I.: Guess Who Is Winning? What A.I. imperils is not human creativity itself but the ability to make a living from creative endeavor.

Saving the best for last! "The A.I. industry claims it wants to democratize creativity, but the real goal is dominance. It can seem inevitable that A.I. will rewrite the future of the arts...But the impacts of technological change are always shaped by human action." www.nytimes.com/2025/12/16/o...

"Seven News reported the bystander was a 43-year-old fruit shop owner from the Sutherland Shire named Ahmed. ... the father of two had been admitted after being shot twice."

"Remember that an AI girlfriend responding to your loneliness might just be a man in a Nairobi slum, wondering if he'll ever feel real love again"

An important report here

data-workers.org/wp-content/u...

I agree, we are in a Sad Age, as technologists fend off alienation by producing our own

So many connective labor-related (from
@allisonpugh.bsky.social) use cases for AI make me so sad, and for so many reasons. This one makes me think of Enobarbus describing Cleopatra -- "she makes hungry / Where most she satisfies" -- which is the most hungry ghost description of desire I know.

Important thread worth reading

Our crisis is not loneliness but human beings becoming invisible | Aeon Essays Our crisis of work and technology is one in which too many people feel that nobody sees them as a fellow human being

Are human beings becoming invisible?

The Unseen
(Allison J Pugh • Aeon)

Our crisis of work and technology is one in which too many people feel that nobody sees them as a fellow human being.

aeon.co/essays/our-c...

Our crisis is not loneliness but human beings becoming invisible | Aeon Essays Our crisis of work and technology is one in which too many people feel that nobody sees them as a fellow human being

Fantastic piece by Allison Pugh. aeon.co/essays/our-c...

Best of all, she gets it: "We need to protect humane work in an increasingly automated and disconnected world." Yes please! and thank you!

screenshot of title page for recent review essay on The Last Human Job

So grateful for Judy Wajcman's review essay on #TheLastHumanJob. "It is hard to convey how rich and evocative...this book is. It is beautifully written & so immersive that reading it I felt I got to know several of the interviewees personally...The book could not be more welcome"

Furthermore, they're fields where human beings do connective labor, the primary contribution humans make in an AI world.

This is very short sighted. Did AI suggest this policy move?

#TheLastHumanJob

Watching @kenburns.bsky.social The American Revolution, but why once again is The Battle of Alamance missing? In 1771 in North Carolina, British troops attacked 2000 farmers armed with hoes and shovels, shooting at them with artillery. The first site of the revolution was not Boston

ASA joined w/ 59 scientific orgs to sign a letter urging Congress to fund the National Science Foundation at the highest level in FY 2026 appropriations & accede to Senate report language for sustained funding for the Social, Behavioral, & Economic (SBE) Sciences Directorate.

How to Cheat at Conversation A new AI tool promises to improve social interactions but instead makes them worse.

At this point, I started laughing out loud...

"The only problem with the date ad, he said, was that the girl wasn’t also using Cluely."

www.theatlantic.com/family/2025/...

“Better than nothing” systems are no substitute for actual healthcare.

@allisonpugh.bsky.social described this slippery slope to dystopia in her excellent book, “The Last Human Job; The Work of Connecting in a Disconnected World.”
(2024, Princeton university press)

My takeaway from every new Epstein revelation is that some powerful people victimized many powerless young women, many more knew, some actively enabled it--and we're still being told that MeToo and accountability for sexual violence have gone too far

How Chicago’s MMA gyms, cyclists and pet shelters are uniting to resist ICE Teachers, clergy and MMA students are finding ways to counter immigration authorities’ attempts to detain undocumented neighbors.

A very powerful story

www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2025/...

Human connection in health care is under threat Sociologist Allison Pugh, PhD, sees efficiency pressures and tech reducing MDs’ “connective labor” with patients. She wants a movement to build relationships.

I look forward to listening to @allisonpugh.bsky.social talk about the value of these vital human moments at #AAMC25 and how we can better connect in a disconnected world. www.aamc.org/news/human-c...

Giant copy of the Constitution being carried down Pennsylvania Avenue.

The Last Human Job: The Work of Connecting in a Disconnected World by Allison Pugh

Allison Pugh

Tomorrow (October 14th) at 9:00 and 10:45 am EDT, see keynote speaker @allisonpugh.bsky.social, author of The Last Human Job, at Planetree's Person-Centered Care Global Forum!

Learn more about this ticketed event here: buff.ly/w4nuUaz

Our crisis is not loneliness but human beings becoming invisible | Aeon Essays Our crisis of work and technology is one in which too many people feel that nobody sees them as a fellow human being

In Defense of Being Human aeon.co/essays/our-c... with @allisonpugh.bsky.social #LastHumanJob #digitalwthics

Allison J. Pugh @allisonpugh.bsky.social @jhu.edu received the 2025 Distinguished Scholarly Book Award during the ASA 2025 Annual Meeting for her book The Last Human Job: The Work of Connecting in a Disconnected World. @princetonupress.bsky.social 

#ASA #sociology #ASA2025

The Last Human Job: The Work of Connecting in a Disconnected World by Allison Pugh

Allison Pugh

Next week, attend Planetree's Person-Centered Care Global Forum to see keynote speaker @allisonpugh.bsky.social, author of The Last Human Job. The Forum will run October 12th-15th, with Pugh speaking on the 14th at 9:00 am and 10:45 am EDT.

Learn more about this ticketed event here: buff.ly/w4nuUaz

Putting ChatGPT on the Couch When I played doctor with the chatbot, the simulated patient confessed problems that are real—and that should worry all of us.

Sounds like an epitaph for our times: "longing for communion without the cost of mutuality"

Putting ChatGPT on the Couch www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...