JS Tan is a PhD student at MIT in the international development group at the Department of Urban Studies and Planning (DUSP), and he’s part of the Political Economy Lab. He previously worked as a software engineer.

Tan’s research examines the political economy of innovation, with a comparative focus on the US and China. His dissertation focuses on the industrial structure of the cloud and AI economy, and traces its divergent development trajectories across the two countries. A second strand of his work addresses labor activism and industrial relations in the tech industry.

His book (coauthored with Clarissa Redwine), Against Tech Oligarchy, has been recently published from Haymarket Books; it documents the rise of the tech worker movement and the changing labor politics of the US tech industry. Tan also writes a Substack called Value Added.