Elisabeth Kelan: Q&A on Open Access Publication

Congratulations to Professor Elisabeth Kelan (Essex Business School) who has published her book Patterns of Inclusion: How Gender Matters for Automation, Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Work (Routledge, 2025) with the support of Essex’s Open Access fund.

Patterns of Inclusion is now freely available to download.

We spoke to Professor Kelan about her work and about why she chose to publish Open Access.

SA: Congratulations! Are you happy with the result?

EK: Thanks. It is always special to have a new book published and Patterns of Inclusion is no exception. After years of research for the book, I am delighted that people can finally read it. 

SA: You chose to make use of the University’s Open Access fund. Why is Open Access important to you and how do you think it will benefit your work? 

EK: Open Access is important to me because it ensures that my research is accessible to a broader audience. 

Since the topic of the book is inclusion, making sure that as many people as possible can access it is paramount. The book is also interdisciplinary, and I would hope that academics from many disciplines will read it. The book also speaks to practitioners and policy makers and those audiences will also appreciate the fact that the book is open access. 

By making my work openly accessible, I hope to foster wider engagement.

SA: How did you find the open access process? 

EK: Unlike with journal articles where open access is routine, the open access process for a book was more hands on: it required aligning the different stakeholders for the duration of the publication process. However, with the excellent guidance from the Open Access team, it is certainly manageable, and it is definitely worthwhile in the long run.

SA: What advice about OA would you offer to colleagues?

EK: First, I would strongly encourage colleagues to consider publishing books open access to enhance accessibility and visibility. It is also important to get support from the Open Access team early on. 

SA: Now, about the book itself, would you please give us a quick overview?

EK: Patterns of Inclusion reports on the findings of my Leverhulme Trust Major Fellowship [MRF-2019-069]. The book is unique because it shows how the dynamic between gender and digitalisation plays out in different settings. 

In the book I analyse how gender is discussed in the popular literature on the future of work, how it is presumed that algorithmic bias in hiring can be fixed, and I show how gender is constructed in and through artificial intelligence. 

Drawing evidence from such different settings allowed me to provide a comprehensive analysis of how digitalisation repeats some patterns leading to exclusion while it can also be used to create inclusion. 

SA: How did you go about researching how “gender and digitalisation intertwine” in the workplace of the future?

EK: The research draws on over 70 interviews, document analysis as well as auto-ethnographic observations. Particularly through interviewing a wide range of individuals I was able to document and analyse how digitalisation takes shape in different fields. 

I looked for instance at how professional services work changes with digitalisation or how hiring processes change with digitalisation. 

By bringing these different settings together, the book is unique in showcasing the patters of exclusion and inclusion that emerge. 

SA: What are the forces driving what work will be done by machine and what will be done by humans? And where does gender fit into that?

EK: Most experts agreed that ‘drudge work’ can be automated. These are the repetitive and boring tasks. 

I also show that it is white collar work, the professional work of lawyers and accountants, that most experts construct as endangered by digitalisation. Even though women made inroads into those jobs, these jobs are largely presumed to be held by men in the material I analysed. 

Experts also presumed that socio-emotional skills are safe from automation. These skills are constructed as something that is uniquely human. This suggests that jobs that require empathy are for instance safe from automation. Since women are often in those jobs, these jobs were often seen as future proof. However, I show in the research that socio-emotional skills can be and are already automated. This shows some of the complexities when we consider gender and the future of work.

SA: Who do you think will most benefit from your book?

EK: Academics and students interested in work, digitalisation and diversity will find the book useful. The book will also speak to practitioners such as those working in human resources and in policy making.  

SA: What’s next for you? Do you have plans for any new projects?

EK: My next project is a direct follow up to the book. I plan to look at how gender and race are constructed in and through AI. 

Patterns of Inclusion: How Gender Matters for Automation, Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Work can be downloaded free of charge now. 

The Open Access Fund

The University of Essex’s institutional Open Access Fund enables Essex authors to publish as much research as possible Open Access. If you want to explore Open Access options please start with one of our forms: for books and chapters and for journal articles.