Work

Krings, Bettina-Johanna, António B. Moniz, and Philipp Frey. "Technology as enabler of the automation of work? Current societal challenges for a future perspective of work." Revista Brasileira de Sociologia 9 (2021): 206-229. Abstract806-1705-1-pb_revbrassociologia.pdfWebsite

Due to the innovative possibilities of digital technologies, the issue of increasing automation is once again on the agenda – and not only in the industry, but also in other branches and sectors of contemporary societies. Although public and scientific discussions about automation seem to raise relevant questions of the “old” debate, such as the replacement of human labor by introducing new technologies, the authors focus here on the new contextual quality of these questions. The debate should rethink the relationship between technology and work with regard to quantitative and qualitative changes in work. In this article, our example will be the introduction of automation in industry, which has been reflected in the widely recognized study by Frey and Osborne in 2013. They estimated the expected impacts of future computerization on US labor market outcomes as very high, specifically regarding the number of jobs at risk. Surprisingly, this study was the starting point of an intensive international debate on the impact of technologies on the future of work and the role of technological change in working environments. Thus, according to the authors, “old” questions remain important, but they should be reinterpreted for “new” societal demands and expectations of future models of work.

Boavida, Nuno, and António Brandão Moniz. "Virtual work in Portugal: a literature review." International Journal on Working Conditions (2020): 1-15.Website

DEEP VIEW Decent and Productive Virtual Work

January 31, 2019

DEEP VIEW aims at favouring a deeper understanding on how social dialogue and collective bargaining at national, sectoral and company level is addressing the challenges of work transformation due to New ICTs with the view of promoting decent and productive virtual work.

EC - DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion

https://www.deepview-eu.org/

• Impacts of fluctuating energy supply on production processes and thus on the companies’ work organization

January 31, 2019
  • Synergie project – Kopernikus programme (BMBF)

Set 2016 – Dezembro 2019

BMBF (Ministério da Ciência e Investigação, Alemanha)

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, University of Stuttgart, University of Augsburg

http://www.itas.kit.edu/english/wuw_current_krin16_kopsynerg.php

Moniz, António B. "Cenários sobre o futuro do trabalho: avaliação das implicações tecnológicas [Scenarios on the Future of Work: Assessment of technological implications]." In Prospetiva Estratégica – Teoria, Métodos e Casos Reais [Strategic Foresight – Theory, Methods and Real cases], edited by José Saragoça, Carlos A. Silva and Joaquim Fialho, 173-197. Lisboa: Ed. Silabo, 2018.
Moniz, António B. Robótica e Trabalho: o futuro hoje (Robotics and Work: The future today). Lisbon: Glaciar Ed., 2018. AbstractWebsite

Approaching the topic of robotics-work relation in a general and international context enables the possibility to know more about the impacts in different sectors. In this book the main discussion themes are followed in order to understand which the main dimensions are included in such debate. In that way, it becomes possible to understand the possible answers and available alternatives.
The book follows the themes of relation between employment and technology, the automation as rationalization process and robotics as a technology reference. The other topics are the emergence of ethical, legal and social aspects of this technology, the development that can be perceived in the case of Portugal, and the conclusions about the limits and perspectives of new robotic developments.
This edition has empirical information on the Portuguese case and also includes data from the main resources of the global debate on this issue: the new developments of automation and its relation with the work content and employment.
The author underlined the importance of the contribute that he got from the discussions at the ITAS Working Group on Robotics Technology Assessment, and at the ITAS Research Group on Technology and Work, in Germany, and at the Observatory of Technology Assessment at CICS.NOVA in Portugal. The book is include in a series supported by the Portuguese-American Foundation for Development (FLAD) and was published by Glaciar.

Social implications of robotics in manufacturing industry (IR@MI), KIT

January 5, 2018

The traditional idea that automation is a technological milestone with evident economic and unquestionable benefits is still an approach that ignores research on the relation of automation to work organization. Integrative tasks as well as control tasks can be taken over by human workers. Humans are also better at dealing with unexpected events to keep production lines running. But this perspective has been continuously threatened through technocentric approaches that aim to avoid the involvement of humans in the automated production systems.

Dynamics of Virtual Work (COST action, EC)

January 5, 2018

The changing geography of virtual work and the emergence of new value-generating virtual activities have major implications for economic development, skills and innovation policies. However these are poorly understood because they have been studied in a highly fragmentary way by isolated researchers.

Work and technology (KIT)

January 5, 2018

Since industrialization, the relationship between technical change and labor structures has been highly complex, and is still being discussed and interpreted today. The works of Karl Marx and other economists who have studied the conditions of industrial labor under the influence of mechanical engineering still have a great influence on the debate about the effects of technology on work structures.