The digitalisation of the economy and its social impacts: From research to action plans (Event)

Vasilis Niaros — Sun, 15 Jan 2017 10:48:13 +0000

“The ETUI Foresight Unit has decided to organise an annual meeting on the social impacts of digitalisation, with the objective of reinforcing the link between scientific analysis and strategic action.

The aim of these meetings will be to organise a structured dialogue between researchers involved in forward-looking studies on the future of labour and trade union leaders faced with the challenges of digitalisation. This dialogue will make it possible to both outline research agendas that can respond to the concerns of the world of work and to identify the issues on which trade unions can mobilise and intervene.

The chosen theme for this first meeting in June 2017 is the deconstruction of the employment relationship in the digital economy. How important are the new forms of work and employment and how can we evaluate their prospects for development? How do these new forms of employment relate to the transformation of existing jobs? Which workers are most exposed to these changes? How can we influence the direction in which these current trends are heading and what scenarios should be avoided?

The planned format for these three days of meetings is as follows:

20 June 2017: the objective of the first day is to take stock of the trends, scenarios and challenges that researchers are dealing with and to identify possible opportunities for collaboration between the different academic approaches;

21 June 2017: the next stage will be to compare the analyses and expectations of researchers and trade union leaders and to build a dialogue about the challenges of the future;

22 June 2017: the last day will focus on enabling trade union leaders to interpret the results of this dialogue in strategic terms and to ascertain how this guidance for future action can apply to their organisations.”

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Shaping the new world of work: The impacts of digitalisation and robotisation.

Stacco Troncoso — Mon, 25 Apr 2016 09:59:51 +0000

If you’re in Brussels in late June don’t miss this conference on the social digitalisation of work which will feature, among many others, my colleague Michel Bauwens. The following is extracted from the conference’s website.

The purpose of this ETUC/ETUI conference is to discuss how the world and nature of work and employment is being changed radically by the digital revolution.

Contrary to similar conferences, this event will not only focus on the quantity of work (‘will robots destroy our jobs?’) but also on the quality of work (working conditions, life-work balance, autonomy versus precarious jobs, impacts on social dialogue, health and safety at the workplace etc.) and the challenges of these trends for trade unions and workers.

It will try to answer the question how trade unions and civil society can help define a path to a ‘social digitalisation of work and the work place’ which will support and even strengthen the overall well-being of Europe’s workers.