Research projects
	WORKS - Work Organisation and Restructuring in the Knowledge Society, integrated project of the 6th framework programme of RTD of the European Union (2005-2008)

WORKS is a research project with 17 partners from 14 European and Accession States to carry out research on how employment, learning and labour practices adapt to change and with what effect. WORKS is an integrated project within the programme "Citizens and governance in the knowledge-based society", under the 6th framework RTD programme of the European Union. Detailed information can be found on the project web site (English only).

Publications

The project publications are downloadable from the project web site. The most recent publications are (2006):

• Huws U. (editor), The transformation of work in a global knowledge economy: towards a conceptual framework, WORKS report, September 2006 (PDF, 1.2 Mo, 249 pp.)
• Newsletter n°2, June 2006

WORKS objectives

Taking account of the global context and regional diversity within Europe, the project will:

• integrate knowledge on changes in work in the knowledge based society;
  
• analyse existing quantitative data, identify best practices and develop a roadmap for convergence;
  
• carry out organisational case studies to provide windows into the restructuring of value chains at strategic points to illuminate changes in the organisation of work within and between organisations;
  
• carry out qualitative research at the individual level in order to analyse the quality of work, time use, learning and occupational identities;
  
• carry out a comparative regional mapping of the institutional, policy and social dialogue aspects of workplace changes and their impact on organisations and individuals;
  
• establish a Global Reference Group to compare European developments with those elsewhere and to identify the niches of European regions in the new global division of labour in the knowledge economy;
  
• develop methodologies for carrying out qualitative research into work organisation which are sufficiently rigorous to allow for comparability whilst retaining sensitivity to cultural and institutional differences;
  
• actively involve the social partners and other policy stakeholders in the project;
  
• include the future perspective grounded in robust empirical research, take account of regional diversity and the differing interests of social actors and avoid crude extrapolation;
  
• take account of gender, ethnic and other social variables within as well as between sectors, regions, organisations, workplaces and households and, finally, disseminate the results to the policy and research communities.
  

The approach WORKS takes is innovative in so far as it locates work organisation and its analysis within the global dynamics of the restructuring of 'value chains' and attempts to integrate the study of working and of living conditions.

The Work & Technology Research Centre of FTU is part of the project's "Scientific Board", who is in charge of the international coordination of the research, training and dissemination activities in all phases of the project. The research centre is mainly involved in the sub-project on theory and methodology, and the sub-project on qualitative empirical research. The project coordinator is Monique Ramioul (Higher Institute for Labour, University of Leuven).