European research project WORKS started [02.11.2005]

ITAS is partner of the EU-project WORKS -Work Organisation and Restructuring in the Knowledge Society - dealing with organisational changes of labour in the knowledge-based society, which is scheduled for four years.

WORKS consists of 18 partners from 13 European countries and will last until May 2009. HIVA-Institute in Leuven, Belgium, is co-ordinator of the project. WORKS aims at improving the understanding of changes in work in the knowledge-based society. To achieve this, the project activities encompass theoretical, qualitative and quantitative research. The ITAS project group will mainly participate in the development of the theoretical foundations and the qualitative research pillar. Within ITAS, WORKS is part of the research area "knowledge society, knowledge system and knowledge policy".

The overall objective of WORKS is to improve the understanding of changes in work in the knowledge-based society, their driving forces and their implications for the use of knowledge and skills, for flexibility and for the quality of life. In particular, new forms of work organisations will be analysed taking account of global value chain restructurings and regional institutional contexts. Taking account of the global forces and regional diversity within Europe, the project will investigate the evolving division of labour within and between organisations and the related changes at the workplace. The implications for the use of skills and knowledge, for flexibility and for the quality of work as well as the impact on occupational identities, time use and learning of individuals will be investigated in a comparative perspective. The role of the social dialogue and of the varieties of institutional shaping in Europe will receive particular attention. WORKS will result in important improvements in relation to the state-of-the-art in combining the analysis of restructuring and changes of work organisation with investigations in individual biographies and household dynamics and the institutional contexts of welfare systems.

This overall objective encompasses four key thematical issues:

  • Changes in work organisations from the perspective of global restructuring of value chains
  • Changes in the use of knowledge and skills and different ways of achieving flexibility
  • Changes in the use of time and occupational identities and implications for the quality of life of individuals
  • Social dialogue and the regional institutional context

Project Team at ITAS:
Bettina-Johanna Krings, M.A. (project leader at ITAS),
Dipl.-Umweltwiss. Linda Nierling,
Dipl.-Soz. Martin Bechmann

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