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Beyond Bulletin #2

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Beyond Bulletin #2

December 10, 2019

WP2 leader Professor Chris Warhurst (Warwick Institute for Employment Research) on D2.1: Project Guidance Paper

WP2 Guidance paper provides a common intellectual understanding for the BEYOND4.0 research project. It puts up a common starting point for the aim of BEYOND4.0 to support the delivery of an inclusive European future by examining the impact of new technologies on the future of jobs, business models and welfare in the European Union (EU). We asked WP2 leader Professor Chris Warhurst three questions about the first scientific document of BEYOND4.0 project.

Dear Professor Warhurst, you coordinated the just published "Guidance paper on key concepts, issues and developments", could you tell us what are the main messages of this working paper?

The key message that emerges from the guidance paper is that, when it comes to the future of work and welfare, nothing is written. The overview of existing debates and literature shows that there is huge scope for the BEYOND4.0 project to develop innovative research-based ideas and recommendations that can help the European Commission develop an inclusive digital economy in which the new technologies provide decent work and decent lives for EU citizens. There is also an important gap in that literature that we are filling – namely an integrated approach to research at the EU-level focused, firstly, on the relationship between work and welfare and, secondly within ‘work’ broadly defined, examines different aspects of this work e.g. skills, education and training, job quality, occupational safety and health, and business models.

How the project research framework should be adapted in line with the Guidance paper from now on?

The framework document sets out the concepts, issues and developments that drive BEYOND4.0 project. It provides a baseline of current understanding that will be developed as BEYOND4.0 progresses. The framework also outlines how the research team will approach its analysis through its statistical, case study and historical research. In the same way that the research teams’ understanding develops, it is not unlikely that there will be some practical adaptions in the execution of the research as new opportunities unfold or new challenges emerge.

What this paper could bring to a larger audience, beyond the project Consortium?

The big picture that BEYOND4.0 aims to address is the reduction of poverty and equality and an increase in decent work. These are major policy concerns for the EU for linked instrumental and political reasons. Instrumentally, the EU needs to develop an evidenced-based alternative to claims of a workless or at least jobless future. Politically, the EU project is currently being challenged, with many of its citizens worried about being ‘left behind’ as the EU recovers from the global financial crisis. Beyond 4.0 will develop new social investment approaches and tools to support a form of technological transformation that is inclusive and provides a better future for EU citizens. In addition to examining different aspect of work and how work and access to it can be enhanced, BEYOND4.0 will be looking new fiscal policy initiatives, such as the introduction of ‘robot taxes’, and new welfare policy initiatives, such as universal basic income, all to ensure that EU policy is fit for purpose in the digital age.

D2.1 Guidance Paper on Key Concepts, Issues and Developments is here.

On November 18 and 19, 2019 in Leiden, the Netherlands, WP4 and WP8 paricipants (WP - work package) of BEYOND4.0 spent two intensive days preparing the research framework for the main project fieldwork. The research consortium confirmed the choice of 6 regions (Oulu and Salo in Finland, Sofia in Bulgaria, Düsseldorf and Dortmund in Germany, Zuidoost-Noord-Brabant in the Netherlands, the Basque country in Spain and West-Midlands in the UK), and proceeded ahead with the selection of regional stakeholders and companies for the research.

More about the workshop...

BEYOND4.0 participated in a laboratory, organized by the Research Executive Agency (REA) of the European Commission, together with the Plus and Technequality projects that also have funding from the H2020 Program for the investigation of “socioeconomic and cultural transformations in the context of the fourth industrial revolution ”. The activity has been held in Brussels in October within the framework of the European Week of the Regions and Cities 2019 (October 7 - 10), co-organized by Directorate General for Regional and Urban Policy (DG Regio) and the European Committee of the Regions (CoR), which annually brings together experts in economic and social development.

More about the event...

International Conference on Jobs and New Technology in Korea.
November 18 - 19 BEYOND4.0 was represented at the International Conference on Jobs and New Technology: New Jobs Strategy for Changing World of Work , held in Seoul (South Korea), by Peter Oeij (TNO).
More…

BEYOND4.0 in Canada
Dr. Vassil Kirov, ISSK-BAS, gave a keynote speech entitled "The future of social dialogue in the context of the digital transformation" at the Canadian-European Workshop (November 14) on collective bargaining
More…

BEYOND4.0 Switzerland

BEYOND4.0 researchers Steven Dhond, Peter Oeij, Egoitz Pomares and Vassil Kirov held presentations at the 2019 Congress of the Swiss Sociological Association “The Future of Work” that took place at the University of Neuchâtel on September 10-12

More...

Steven Dhondt (TNO) is invited by EC to speak during the CASS-EC Annual Conference 2019. Artificial intelligence, Automation and Employment in the era of Digital Economy. His presentation is on: “Technological change, new organisational concepts and transformation of work and work practices in Europe”, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Nanjing, China, December 12-13^th, 2019.
More to come in the News section of the site.

During the meeting will be discussed the progress, the future research plans and methodology. The Work Package leaders will present their research and approach.

BEYOND4.0 SAB members:

Dr. Ágotha Scharle
Budapest Institute for Policy Analysis, Budapest, Hungary (not confirmed yet)

Dr. Bart Vanhercke
Director of the Europe Social Observatory, Brussels, Belgium

Eileen Appelbaum
Co-Director, Center for Economic and Policy Research, Washington, USA

Prof. Dr. Peter Totterdill
Director of Workplace Innovation Ltd., Dublin, Ireland

Prof. Dr. Ulrich Jürgens
WZB Berlin, Germany

PROJECT’S FIRST DELIVERABLE :
The Key Concepts, Key Issues and Key Developments That Drive BEYOND4.0

BEYOND4.0 Prepares the Fieldwork to Study Six Entrepreneurial And Business Ecosystems

Beyond the European Week of the Regions and Cities

BEYOND4.0
Around The Globe

The First Scientific Advisory Board Meeting To Be Held in Brussels Belgium on March 10, 2020.

Projects Presentations Depository is Created on SlideShare

The Second Edition of
Atlas of Social Innovation
is on. Features a contributions of TNO and TUDO researchers.

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