Work

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.

Paulos, Margarida, and António Brandão Moniz. "Os trabalhadores do conhecimento num setor tradicional: O caso dos designers do vestuário." Sociologia Problemas e Práticas 2013 (2013): 103-122.
Moniz, António Brandão, and Bettina Krings. "Special issue on robots and the work environment." Societies 4 (2016): 31.Website

Research on Work and Technology at ITAS-KIT

June 22, 2016

Current works on work and technology focus on the functional character of technology from at least three analytical perspectives: (a) technology as a substitution for work, (b) technology as an objectification of work, and (c) technology as a socialization of work. Singular aspects of technologies in the work process which bring about new developments (e.g. to new technologies in health care) can be examined in the framework of technology assessment.

Nuno Boavida

PhD on TA / CICS.NOVA, FCSH Nova

Bio (in English) cont.

Was an executive elected member of the  RC30 Research Committee on Sociology of Work (1998-2002) and is now of the RC23 Research Committee on Sociology of Science and Technology (2014-2018) of ISA-International Sociological Association, and Portuguese representative in the Steering Committee of "European Social Survey" organized by European Science Foundation (Strasbourg, França), from

Moniz, António. "Human-Robot Interaction in Industrial Working Environments: Results from a Start-up Project." EconStor Open Access Articles (2013). AbstractWebsite

The social dimension of worker-robot interaction in industry is becoming a decisive aspect of robotics development. Many problems and difficulties of robotics research are not only related to technical issues but framed by social aspects. Human-robot interaction (HRI) as a specific research field of robotics tackles this issue. The debate on social involvement in HRI design of a few decades ago must be re-opened. A start-up project was initiated in 2012 at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) to define a new research field and establish a conceptual framework on HRI. It was related to recent developments in the manufacturing industry and professional service robotics. The aim was to cooperate with other research teams to establish an expert network in this field. Special focus was placed on the design of work organisation models and issues of robotics technology design for worker (or operator) and robot interaction. In the current paper we present the most important conclusions from these research activities. –