Mike Cooley

Michael Joseph Edward Cooley (23 March 1934 – 4 September 2020) was an Irish-born engineer, writer and trade union leader, best known for his work on the social effects of technology, "Socially Useful Production" and "Human Centred Systems". He was involved in workplace activism at the British company Lucas Aerospace in the late 1970s. In 1981, he was a recipient of the Right Livelihood Award for "designing and promoting the theory and practice of human-centred, socially useful production."Cooley held several leadership positions in the field of computer-aided design (CAD) and was an advisor on numerous public and private sector projects. He was the founding president of the International Research Institute in Human Centred Systems (IRIHCS) and the international Journal AI & Society, and founding director of the Greater London Enterprise Board. He published over 100 scientific papers and fifteen books, and was a guest lecturer at universities in Europe, Australia, the US and Japan. His book Architect or Bee? has been translated into six languages.