The project explores the meaning of the future of work in Germany. Germany is the largest EU economy, has a strong industrial base, and a highly regarded education system, making it a particularly interesting case to study the future of work. Rather than trying to predict trends in job automation, the project explores questions around what it is that workers and company leaders want digital technologies to deliver for them and how they are using technologies to reshape the relationship between jobs, skills, and education. In this way, the project aims to go beyond the state of the art by changing the focus of the questions asked from technology’s capacity to replace jobs to stakeholders’ aims and strategies to shape the future of work. The above questions will be addressed, primarily, through the analysis of interview data. By listening to the voices of those directly involved in the transformation of work through technology the project aims to gain a better understanding of the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.
Prof. Manuel Souto-Otero
Cardiff University (UK) | Education Policy, Sociology
Manuel Souto-Otero is a Professor of Education Policy and Sociology at the School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University (UK), where he is Director of Research and Head of the Education Research Group. He has published widely on the link between education and work (in particular digitalisation, the future of work and its implications for skills development), social stratification and inequalities, and non-formal education. He has recently completed a project on “Digital Disruption and the Future of Work: reimagining education, skills and employ-ability” for Skills Futures Singapore, and has also undertaken a large number of research projects for international organisations (European Commission, European Parliament, Cedefop, UNESCO, OECD), national governments (Belgium, Spain, Estonia, UK), and think tanks and third sector organisations (including the European Youth Forum and the Institute for Public Policy Research). He is an executive editor of the British Journal of Sociology of Education, Associate Editor of the Journal Education and Work, and Advisory Board Member for the Journal of Education Policy.
Prof. Birgit Apitzsch
Ruhr University Bochum | Sociology of Work, Economy, and Welfare
Prof. Birgit Apitzsch
Ruhr University Bochum | Sociology of Work, Economy, and Welfare
Birgit Apitzsch is professor of sociology at Ruhr University Bochum. She received her doctorate at the University of Duisburg-Essen and the Max Planck Institute for the Studies of Societies, where she also worked as a postdoctoral researcher, followed by a Max Weber fellowship at the European University Institute in Florence, and a position as a senior researcher at the Sociological Research Institute in Göttingen. Her research focuses on non-standard work, especially in creative, social and knowledge-intensive services, on digitalisation and changes in industrial relations. Furthermore, she specialises in research on transformations within the legal professions, such as current challenges to the rule of law in Europe, and the introduction of digital technologies in the legal professions, courts and civil society organisations.
Website
https://www.sowi.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/sozaww/lehrstuhlinhaberin/apitzsch.html.de