Work Organisation and Restructuring in the Knowledge Society (WORKS)

Integrating and Strengthening the European Research Area

Project Leader

Makó, Csaba

Coordinator

Catholic University of Leuven, Higher Institute for Labour Studies

Consortium members

  • Catholic University of Leuven, Higher Institute for Labour Studies – Monique Ramioul
  • Forschungs- und Beratungsstelle Arbeitswelt (Working Life Research Centre), Vienna – Jörg Flecker
  • London Metropolitan University, Working Lives Research Institute – Ursula Huws
  • Fondation Travail-Université, Work & Technology Research Centre, Namur – Gérad Valenduc
  • Panteion University of Political and Social Sciences, Department of Social Policy & Social Anthropology of Panteion, Greece – Stavros Gabroglou
  • University of Twente, School of Business, Public Administration & Technology – Willem Trommel
  • University of Essex, Institute for Social and Economic Research – Malcolm Brynin
  • Institute of Sociology, HAS, Budapest– Makó, Csaba
  • ISF MUENCHEN - Institut für Sozialwissenschaftliche Forschung – Pamel Meil
  • Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe GmbH, Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis – Bettina-Johanna Krings
  • Fundação da Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia-UNL, Portugal – António Brandão Moniz
  • National Institute for Working Life, Department for Research on Development Processes, Sweden – Ewa Gunnarsson
  • IRES - Istituto di Ricerche Economiche e Sociali, Italy – Giovanna Altieri
  • SINTEF - Stiftelsen for industriell og teknisk forskning ved Norges tekniske høgskole,
  • Industrial Management – Carla Dahl-Jørgensen ATK Arbetstagarkonsultation AB, Arbetsliv – Per Tengblad
  • CEE – Centre d’études de l’emploi – Nathalie Greenan
  • Institute of Sociology, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences – Vassil Kirov

 

Participants (Institute of Sociology, HAS)

Makó, Csaba
Csizmadia, Péter
Illéssy, Miklós

The research

WORKS is an Integrated Project to carry out research to understand the changes in work in the knowledge-based society (KBS), their driving forces and their implications for the use of knowledge and skills and for the quality of life. The WORKS project involves the comprehensive overview of research traditions and a synthesis of research findings and the theoretical, conceptual, empirical and policy debate on the issues relating to changes in work, covering the European diversity and including the future perspective. The research activities also include the secondary analysis of both the organisational and individual/household data focusing on changes in work in European surveys, 56 case study reports on organisations, on individuals and their households and the providing of training courses both for researchers and various stakeholders. In 2007 in the framework of Work Package (WP) 10 intensive field-work were carried out in various sectors of the Hungarian economy (clothing industry, electronics, IT and public services). Based on the experiences gained from the in-depth we compiled interviews organisational case studies. The case studies focus on changes in work organisation, knowledge use and working conditions in the context of the global value chain restructuring. In the WP 11 we completed two further occupational case studies investigated the changes in employment in the sectors of IT and public services. The occupational case studies covered the issues of carrier-mobility, changes in occupational identities, working conditions and work-life balance. The project team participated at the WP 8 project workshop where the secondary analysis of quantitative data and the related methodological problems were discussed. According to the work task laid down in WP 12 we completed the preliminary version of the thematic report on the changes in work in the transition economies.