An Interdisciplinary Programme. Why Future of Work? Bottom-Up Approach Food for Thought: What is ‘out there’ in ‘work’ related research? Opportunities.

An Interdisciplinary Programme

Why Future of Work? Bottom-Up Approach Food for Thought: What is ‘out there’ in

‘work’ related research? Opportunities for Students and Fellows The Open Forum

The distinctive academic identity of Green Templeton College lies in its strengths in crucial contemporary subject areas broadly concerned with human welfare and social well-being, which link scholarship with the professions, with practice, with policy, and with public understanding of science and society.

The College has ambitious plans to positively impact the world outside academia.

To achieve its ambitions Green Templeton College wants to foster more academic collaboration within its community.

This is both challenging and potentially rewarding:◦ Students are pursuing 1,2, and 3+ year graduate

programmes◦ Students and Fellows are involved with medicine, natural

sciences, business studies, and social sciences, etc. ◦ Students and Fellows come from diverse backgrounds with

different career and research interests

In order to harness the diversity present, a GTC research programme needs to be accessible to all and built upon existing interests.

The Future of Work Programme is intended to build on the diversity and significantly contribute to the academic life of the College in the coming years.

The academic Co-ordinators of the Future of Work Programme come from diverse backgrounds:◦ Ian Kessler, Reader in Employment Relations at SBS; MA and PhD in

Industrial Relations, Warwick University◦ Martin Seeleib-Kaiser, Professor of Comparative Social Policy and Politics

at DSPSW; MA and Dr.phil. in Political Science, Munich University; Habilitation, Bremen University

◦ Marc Thompson, Senior Research Fellow at SBS and Associate Researcher at MIT; BA in Modern History, Trinity College Dublin; MSc in Industrial Relations, LSE

◦ Robert Walker, Professor of Social Policy at DSPSW, Research Affiliate of the National Poverty Centre, University of Michigan and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts; BSocSci Bristol, MSc (Econ), PhD (Econ) LSE

◦ Jonas Heirman, GTC FoW Research Officer; BA in Political Science, Hope College, Holland, MI, USA; M.Sc. Public Policy, Maastricht University, the Netherlands

The Future of Work Programme will develop out of your interests and ideas. Topics can be guided by:

Interest in the changing nature of work Questions about how work and livelihood opportunities

are changing Scientific interests in the process of managing and

developing employment Participating in the building of a more collaborative

academic environment at GTC will benefit both students and Fellows involved as well as the College.

The direction and future outputs of the programme will build on your interests.

You are the Founding Members of the Future of Work Programme!

When designing the Future of Work programme it was proposed that research could include, but is not limited to, the following topic areas:◦ The global economic crisis and work◦ Demographic change and work◦ Skills and work◦ Work and occupational welfare◦ Poverty reduction through work◦ Work and healthcare◦ The organization of work

‘Work’, as a subject, has been chosen because of its universal importance and the longevity of the area as an interest and research topic. Even the ‘Future of Work’ has been and is the topic of much research.

Globally, there are many ongoing ‘work’ related academic, public, and private sector (PWC has the “Future of Work to 2020”) programmes. This larger body of ‘work’ research can become a source of inspiration and interaction at later stages of programme development.

Ongoing ‘work’ related research includes topics that range from the micro (personal) to macro (global): ◦ Examples of Micro level research:

U of Nottingham, Human Factors Research Group: i.e. Occupational Ergonomics, etc.

Stanford University, Center for Work, Technology, and Organization: i.e. Robots at Work, etc.

GOETHE - INSTITUT, Germany: i.e. Future of Work - Idealistic Professionals, Outsourcing, Do-It-Yourself Economy, Creative Class, Working and Family Life, The Creative Imperative, Workers at Play

◦ Examples of Mezzo level research: Wayne State U, Labor Studies Center Research: i.e. Auto work in the Americas,

etc. U of Massachusetts, The Labor Center, Projects: i.e. Labor and Community

Coalitions, etc.

◦ Examples of Macro level research: University of Colorado at Boulder, The Center for the Integrative Study of Work:

i.e. Role that work plays in living systems, etc. Cardiff U, The Centre for Global Labour Research: i.e. Research on the impact of

changing work, employment and consumption patterns, etc.

Students and Fellow’s are encouraged to participate in the Future of Work Programme in their individual capacities. Ideas for future participation include:◦ Attending events;◦ Presenting research;◦ Submitting papers and gaining publications;◦ Competing for a Future of Work Prize;◦ Taking a leadership role in the future Programme.

More detailed information and planning will be available after the information gained during this event is synthesized into the foundation for the Future of Work Programme.

Objective: We need to identify and discuss what ‘work’ related interests or research exists in Green Templeton, and what you would like to see happen in the Future of Work programme.

The Open Forum Approach: A. To better accomplish the objective we will begin by taking a very general

survey of ideas to stimulate discussions in smaller discussion groups. We will then break up into groups and move to 3 rooms in the Stables.

B. The smaller groups will be responsible for discussing and later presenting:1. What research topics are relevant to the individual participants (a

challenge is to think of the topics in regards to the 3 levels of research).2. What research related activities are of interest (more workshops,

publications, etc.).3. What should be the long-term goal of the programme?

C. When the smaller groups reconvene into one larger group, we will begin the first stage of collaboration by presenting our findings and then clarifying a way forward. Each group should choose 2 presenters for this part.

Output: Once we have identified the interests that exists within the group we will agree upon a way forward, and the option of having a lunch time discussion series.

John Martin is the OECD Director for Employment, Labour, and Social Affairs, Paris.

John Martin is also: ◦ Policy Associate of the Leverhulme Centre for Research on Globalisation and

Economic Policy at the University of Nottingham;◦ A Research Fellow of the Institute for the Study of Labour (IZA) in Bonn;◦ A member of the Advisory Board of the World Demographic Association;◦ A member of the French Prime Minister’s “Conseil d’orientation pour l’emploi”; ◦ A part-time Professor at the Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po) in Paris. 

The seminar presentation will provide and opportunity to ground some of the theoretical brain storming which come out of the Open Forum in current ‘work’ related research and concerns.

The presentation will provide further research topic ideas, as well as an example of the type of outputs that the Future of Work programme can bring to GTC.