António Moniz

Political and economic crises and issues such as global warming, decreased fossil fuel reserves, environmental pollutions and acid rains are just some of the problems caused by improper energy consumption. Energy efficiency optimization with the right policy and definition of accurate scientific methods proven in energy consumption includes planning, enforcement, organizing permanent control, and continuously reviewing technology upgrades. Additionally, developing legal solutions to implement these programs prevents the destruction and waste of energy resources and reduces the side effects of improper energy consumption. The shape of the city and its components can affect the city’s quality and its spaces, as well as the air quality change, creating a particular climate in their area, causing phenomena such as heat islands, dust, rain, albedo, atmospheric inversion, and some others. By making changes in the shape of the city, both on a large scale and a micro-scale, atmospheric currents and, consequently, air quality in cities can be improved. Urban morphological indicators, including building height, building type, occupancy level, segmentation, block size, block shape, density, and urban green, can affect the weather and climate conditions outside and inside the building and, thus, the energy demand in the areas. By creating effective reforms in the model of configuration of the urban regions, including the pattern of land fragmentation, the physical characteristics of buildings, the network of passages and open spaces, it is possible to increase the energy efficiency of buildings in the long term in the regional(synoptic) climatic conditions of the city and the neighbourhood.

Em Portugal, existe uma ausência de formalização da ciência para assuntos políticos em que a procura de aconselhamento é, em grande medida, informal.

"This book reflects the diversity of platform workers and their strategies to improve their work and organize collectively. It offers an insight on the cultural and institutional frameworks of the gig economy and the varieties of platform work in different sectors, locals, skills and complexity level. At the same time, it provides a range of policy options to ensure labour rights and social protections for these workers. Although a common European policy is still missing, critical debates have been raised to foster socially acceptable platform work. It presents new pathways for exploiting the potential positive effects of platform economy and platform-based work." (from the Introduction)

“It is therefore not surprising that new initiatives are arising both among traditional trade unions and in new types of organisation and, in the process, innovative new demands are being raised and placed on the negotiating agenda. These are documented in this timely publication, which adds indispensably to our knowledge about labour responses to platformisation in Europe.” (from the Preface by Ursula Huws)

Este capítulo pretende contribuir para a análise das principais fontes de ansiedade social causada pela crescente automação em Portugal. O capítulo foi baseado na revisão de literatura internacional e nacional, bem como na análise secundária de dados. Para além disso, durante o projeto DEEP VIEW foram realizadas duas entrevistas não estruturadas a especialistas em relações laborais e 13 entrevistas semiestruturadas a representantes do mundo sindical e de entidades patronais (federações e confederações), em setores particularmente relevantes para as questões associadas ao risco tecnológico.

Recent developments in automation and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are leading to a wave of innovation in organizational design and changes in the workplace. Techno-optimists even named it the ‘second machine age’, arguing that it now involves the substitution of the human brain. Other authors see this as just a continuation of previous ICT developments. Potentially, automation and AI can have significant technical, economic, and social implications in firms. The paper will answer the question: what are the implications on industrial productivity and employment in the automotive sector with the recent automation trends, including AI, in Portugal? Our approach used mixed methods to conduct statistical analyses of relevant databases and interviews with experts on R&D projects related to automation and AI implementation. Results suggest that automation can have widespread adoption in the short term in the automotive sector, but AI technologies will take more time to be adopted. Findings show that adoption of automation and AI increases productivity in firms and is dephased in time with employment implications. Investments in automation are not substituting operators but rather changing work organization. Thus, negative effects about technology and unemployment were not substantiated by our results

https://ideas.repec.org/p/mde/wpaper/0165.html

New technologies, sustainability policies, protectionism and consumers preferences are pushing for the reorganisation of the automotive cluster. The emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to create disruptive effects in the employment systems across the world. The future deployment of broad-spectrum algorithms capable of being used in wide areas of application (e.g., industrial robotics, software and data communication) can lead to considerable changes in current work patterns, swiftly render many unemployed across the globe and profoundly destabilise labour relations. In this paper, we identify the probable penetration of AI in the automotive sector and to study its effects on work organisation, employment, and industrial relations systems, in Portugal. These changes are put in place to enhance the product quality, control costs, and improve productivity. We study these implications on productivity and industrial relations collecting new data and obtain results based on secondary statistical analyses and case studies in the automotive industry. Finally, changes in the productivity and labour market will be discussed considering the employment and skills changes in the automotive sector when investment on automation becomes a clear trend in the automotive sector.

The new book edited by Rodríguez and colleagues focuses on the topic of forecasting and responsible innovation. The original title is “Anticipación e Innovación Responsible: La construcción de futuros alternativos para la ciencia y la tecnologia” (Forecasting and Responsible Innovation: The construction of alternative futures for science and technology), and was published by Biblioteca Nueva, Madrid. Throughout this text, the reviewer is using the term forecasting instead of anticipation to convey the Spanish concept of “anticipación.” Both concepts are usually applied to “the act of looking forward” (Merriam-Webster dictionary1) or “the act of expecting or foreseeing something; expectation or presentiment” (Farlex free dictionary2) The concept of forecasting is usually used in scientific debate to mean “to estimate or predict in advance” (American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 2016) or “the process of making predictions based on past and present data and most commonly by analysis of trends” (Wikipedia3) (Glenn, 1994, p. 4) expressed this definition well by saying that “studying the future is not simply economic projections or sociological analysis or technological forecasting, but a multi-disciplinary examination of change in all major areas of life to find the interacting dynamics that are creating the next age.” The concept has been developed mainly by Armstrong (2001) and followed by Farrukh and Holgado (2020), Schnaars (2009), and Marinakis (2012), among others. The editors are professors and researchers from the University of Basque Country (EHU) and from the University of Mondragon (MU). The book involves a whole set of experts on the topic, including the editors themselves (Hannot Rodríguez, Sergio Urueña, Andoni Eizagirre, and Oier Imaz), and Armin Grunwald, René von Schomberg, Javier Garcia Fronti, Domingo García Marzá, Andoni Ibarra, and others. Although still published just in Spanish, it is an important contribution to the social sciences and philosophy of sciences regarding the analysis of alternative sociotechnical futures with strong ethical principles, which delineates an innovative approach in an era when the formation of public opinion largely suffers from systematic distortions based on vested interests.

O trabalho em plataformas digitais é uma nova forma de trabalho que, em Portugal, não tem ainda definido um modelo regulado de relações de trabalho. Este artigo analisa os perfis de trabalhadores de várias plataformas digitais de trabalho e a sua representação coletiva em Portugal. A diversidade encontrada nos estudos de caso dos perfis dos trabalhadores de cada plataforma explica, em parte, a falta de interesse de movimentos laborais em os representar. O tipo de tarefas e o local de trabalho contribuem para o desinteresse na procura de representantes coletivos, e demonstra os (des)alinhamentos que ocorreram entre trabalhadores e possíveis representantes. Observa-se ainda potencial para outros alinhamentos entre os interesses de diferentes trabalhadores, movimentos sindicais e associações de representação alternativa.

The research report presents the key findings from the INVOLVE project (VS/2020/0145). It contributes to the debates on the participation of social partners in dual VET governance under countries generally classified as state-centred, skills-formation regimes (Spain, Greece, Portugal and Poland). The research report analysed the actual role played by social partners in the dual VET systems in the selected countries at different governance levels and the extent to which trade unions and employer organisations are involved on an equal footing. It also formulates policy recommendations supporting collective responses to dual VET systems in the selected countries. Findings are based on desk research, fieldwork consisting of semi-structured interviews and mini-case studies and national scenarios developed by INVOLVE partners, on the basis of a scenario workshop methodology