The clothing sector in Portugal is still seen, in many aspects as a traditional sector with some average characteristics, such as: low level of qualifications, less flexible labour legislation and stronger unionisation, very low salaries and low capability of investment in innovation and new technology. Is, nevertheless, a very important sector in terms of labour market, with increased weight in the exporting structure. Globalisation and delocalisation are having a strong impact in the organisation of work and in occupational careers in the sector. With the pressure of global competitiveness in what concerns time and prices, very few companies are able to keep a position in the market without changes in organisation of work and workers. And those that can perform good responses to such challenges are achieving a better economical stability. The companies have found different ways to face this reality according to size, capital and position. We could find two main paths: one where companies outsource a part or the entire production to another territory (for example, several manufacturing tasks), close and/or dismissal the workers. Other path, where companies up skilled their capacities investing, for example, in design, workers training, conception and introduction of new or original products. This paper will present some results from the European project WORKS – Work organisation and restructuring in the knowledge society (6th Framework Programme), focusing the Portuguese case studies in several clothing companies in what concern implications of global context for the companies in general and for the workers in particular, in a comparative analysis with some other European countries.

The clothing sector in Portugal is still seen, in many aspects as a traditional sector with some average characteristics, such as: low level of qualifications, less flexible labour legislation and stronger unionisation, very low salaries and low capability of investment in innovation and new technology. Is, nevertheless, a very important sector in terms of labour market, with increased weight in the exporting structure. Globalisation and delocalisation are having a strong impact in the organisation of work and in occupational careers in the sector. With the pressure of global competitiveness in what concerns time and prices, very few companies are able to keep a position in the market without changes in organisation of work and workers. And those that can perform good responses to such challenges are achieving a better economical stability. The companies have found different ways to face this reality according to size, capital and position. We could find two main paths: one where companies outsource a part or the entire production to another territory (for example, several manufacturing tasks), close and/or dismissal the workers. Other path, where companies up skilled their capacities investing, for example, in design, workers training, conception and introduction of new or original products. This paper will present some results from the European project WORKS – Work organisation and restructuring in the knowledge society (6th Framework Programme), focusing the Portuguese case studies in several clothing companies in what concern implications of global context for the companies in general and for the workers in particular, in a comparative analysis with some other European countries.

On 19 and 20 October 2006, the Research Centre on Enterprise and Work Organisation (IET) organised the first international conference on “Foresight Studies on Work in the Knowledge Society”. It took place at the auditorium of the new Library of FCT-UNL and had the support of the research project “CodeWork@VO” (financed by FCT-MCTES and co-ordinated by INESC, Porto). The conference related to the European research project “Work Organisation and Restructuring in the Knowledge Society” (WORKS), which is financed by the European Commission. The main objective of the conference was to analyse and discuss research findings on the trends of work structures in the knowledge society, and to debate on new work organisation models and new forms of work supported by ICT.

The interest to study this factory of GM group in Portugal is due to the facto of being one of the oldest assembly lines of the automotive sector still operating in Portugal (it was founded in 1963). Besides that, it went recently across a very intensive technological change, and then would be interesting to know the organisation of work model chose. The Opel factory occupies at the moment the former one that belonged to Ford Lusitana. There it has being under production some modules that feed the assembly line on JIT and in sequence. Although there were severe difficulties to implement the case study at Opel, this report could be done using secondary information and several interviews at the factory and initial visits. This Opel factory was recently closed down in the frame of a GM European strategy for re-structuring.

One can assist to significant changes in the organisation of manufacturing systems during the last years. Lean production, network enterprise or the virtual enterprises are reference concepts of the re-organisation of manufacturing systems. Some authors mention a new enterprise paradigm, of generalisation of intelligent manufacture, organised in networks and assisted by information and communication technologies. The first part of the paper develops a critical approach to the illusion connected to these concepts, calling the attention to the diversity of the type of relationships among firms. If virtual enterprises (VE) are networks of firms with intensive usage of ICT, one can verify a predominance of a technicist perspective. This one considers that the development of VEs is a technological problem, of development and management of information systems, and of entrepreneurial share of different databases. Sociology can be useful, even fundamental in an anthropocentric approach. The last part of the paper is on the Portuguese situation in the automobile sector, approaching the types of entrepreneurial organisation.

In this working paper is presented information on the Portuguese labour market developed with the support of the European project WORKS-“Work organisation and restructuring in the knowledge society”. Is still a on the process article and thus commentaries are welcome. The structure is based on the following topics: a) The employment policy (Time regimes - time use, flexibility, part-time work, work-life balance -, and the work contracts regimes – wages, contract types, diversity); b) Education and training (skilling outcomes, rules on retraining and further training, employability schemes, transferability of skills); c) Equal opportunities (relevance of equal opportunity regulation for restructuring outcomes, the role of gender and age regulation); d) Restructuring effects (policy on transfer of personnel, policy on redundancies, and participation or voice in restructuring).

The majority of papers published in the last decades on European Union policy strongly stress the importance of the so-called Lisbon Strategy approved in the year 2000. The same applies to studies and reports on the shift of the European countries towards modernisation and restructuring policy in recent years. This EU development strategy defines a new direction for the coordination of national policies. But why has it become so important? One of the reasons is the fact that many of the papers are based on the concept of “knowledge society” as the key driver for an increased competitiveness of all political and economic regions of Europe. In this context, the term “knowledge” means the inter-linkage of education (including training, qualification, skills) and innovation (including research, information and communication). The use of the concept represents an important shift in the European strategy: further development would not only be based on investment in material infrastructures, but also more on the immaterial ground. However, this Lisbon Strategy was criticised by many politicians and opinion-makers in the first years of this century because the European structures were not prepared for such a quick change. At the same time, the focus for investment moved away from the traditional support of industrial sectors (manufacturing, agriculture and fisheries, construction) towards the “new economy” sectors. The vision of a knowledge society remained appealing also in a changing international context: the Middle East wars (Afghanistan, Iraq and Israel-Palestine) and the fast growth of the Chinese economy. However, the shadows of new recessions have strongly questioned the options made by the European Council. New challenges have emerged with the need to redefine collective strategies in terms of European development as set by the Lisbon strategy. “Europe 2020” is one more attempt to define a new strategy. But at present no clear path has been identifi

The analysis on the technological and organizational change in the European industry, and particularlly the Portuguese one, has been studied at CESO I&D since its foundation on 1988. Few time after that, started a development project that started from a previous research project on the same topics, and supported by JNICT (Ministry of Science). In that projecto we continued to process data that was then not possible to do in the first one. It was then possible to continue a research programme that was urgent and determinant in the field of industrial sociology in Portugal. It focus again on the processes of technological and organizational change in the manufacturing industry.

Portugal had only very few foresight exercises on the automobile sector, and the most recent one was a survey held in a project on work organisation systems in the automobile industry, its recent historical paths and the special strategies of location of companies (the WorTiS project). This involved several teams with different disciplinary backgrounds and from two Portuguese universities. The provisional main results of the first round of a Delphi survey held in Portugal on the automotive sector were already published, but a further analysis was not yet done. This foresight survey was done under the WorTiS project, developed in 2004 by IET – Research Centre on Enterprise and Work Innovation (at FCT-UNL), and financed by the Portuguese Ministry of Science and Technology. Some of this experience on foresight analysis is also been transferred to other projects, namely the WORKS project on work organisation restructuring in the knowledge society that received the support from EC and still is running. The majority of experts considered having an average of less knowledge in almost all the scenario topics presented. This means that information on the automotive industry is not spread enough among academics or experts in related fields (regional scientists, innovation economists, engineers, sociologists). Some have a good knowledge but in very specialised fields. Others have expertise on foresight, or macroeconomics, or management sciences, but feel insecure on issues related with futures of automobile sector. Nevertheless, we considered specially the topics where the experts considered themselves to have some knowledge. There were no “irrelevant” topics considered as such by the expert panel. There are also no topics that are not considered a need for co-operation. The lack of technological infrastructures was not considered as a hindered factor for the accomplishment of any scenario. The experts’ panel considered no other international competence besides US, Japan or Ge

Portugal had only very few foresight exercises on the automobile sector, and the most recent one was a survey held in a project on work organisation systems in the automobile industry, its recent historical paths and the special strategies of location of companies (the WorTiS project). This involved several teams with different disciplinary backgrounds and from two Portuguese universities. The provisional main results of the first round of a Delphi survey held in Portugal on the automotive sector were already published, but a further analysis was not yet done. This foresight survey was done under the WorTiS project, developed in 2004 by IET – Research Centre on Enterprise and Work Innovation (at FCT-UNL), and financed by the Portuguese Ministry of Science and Technology. Some of this experience on foresight analysis is also been transferred to other projects, namely the WORKS project on work organisation restructuring in the knowledge society that received the support from EC and still is running. The majority of experts considered having an average of less knowledge in almost all the scenario topics presented. This means that information on the automotive industry is not spread enough among academics or experts in related fields (regional scientists, innovation economists, engineers, sociologists). Some have a good knowledge but in very specialised fields. Others have expertise on foresight, or macroeconomics, or management sciences, but feel insecure on issues related with futures of automobile sector. Nevertheless, we considered specially the topics where the experts considered themselves to have some knowledge. There were no “irrelevant” topics considered as such by the expert panel. There are also no topics that are not considered a need for co-operation. The lack of technological infrastructures was not considered as a hindered factor for the accomplishment of any scenario. The experts’ panel considered no other international competence besides US, Jap

The majority of papers published in the last decades on European Union policy strongly stress the importance of the so-called Lisbon Strategy approved in the year 2000. The same applies to studies and reports on the shift of the European countries towards modernisation and restructuring policy in recent years. This EU development strategy defines a new direction for the coordination of national policies. But why has it become so important? One of the reasons is the fact that many of the papers are based on the concept of “knowledge society” as the key driver for an increased competitiveness of all political and economic regions of Europe. In this context, the term “knowledge” means the inter-linkage of education (including training, qualification, skills) and innovation (including research, information and communication). The use of the concept represents an important shift in the European strategy: further development would not only be based on investment in material infrastructures, but also more on the immaterial ground. However, this Lisbon Strategy was criticised by many politicians and opinion-makers in the first years of this century because the European structures were not prepared for such a quick change. At the same time, the focus for investment moved away from the traditional support of industrial sectors (manufacturing, agriculture and fisheries, construction) towards the “new economy” sectors. The vision of a knowledge society remained appealing also in a changing international context: the Middle East wars (Afghanistan, Iraq and Israel-Palestine) and the fast growth of the Chinese economy. However, the shadows of new recessions have strongly questioned the options made by the European Council. New challenges have emerged with the need to redefine collective strategies in terms of European development as set by the Lisbon strategy. “Europe 2020” is one more attempt to define a new strategy. But at present no clear path has been identified. Whether the

If indicators of international competitivity of the Portuguese industry reveal very strong weaknesses in the field of education and vocational training, the achievement of a solution is not based only (and should not!) in a decisive increase of investment and support in the education and training system. It seem not logical to think in that way, once normally when one tries to solve a problem that is done in the context of that same problem. Eventually there are other strategies. Which are, then, the fields where is necessary to orient the investiment to improve an industrial competitivity? To try to answer this question, we analise one of the sectors that have contributed the most for an improvement of the Portuguese economical performance, and for a true innovative process as in terms of industrial product, or in terms of manufacturing and distribution processes. Is the automotive sector where that happens, taken in its two most important sub-sectors: the one of automobile manufacturing and assembly, and the one of components manufacturing.

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The relation between work organisation and technological practices in auto industry is analysed in this article. The concept of “technological practice” in this sector is used to describe the specific ways of embedding information and communication technology applications into the organizational forms and cultural patterns. This concept was developed with the Sowing project (TSER, DG XII) and that approach included either the shop floor co-operation up to the regionally based networks of companies and supporting institutions. The authors studied different sectors in the automotive firms of different European countries (Germany, Belgium and Portugal): shopfloor and production lines, design and management and the local inter-relationships. It was underlined some evidencies of the different alternatives in terms of technological practices for the same sector. Much of the litterature try to disseminate an idea of a single (and optimum) organisational model for the same type of product. And here, even with the same type of technology, and of product (medium-high range), one can find different models, different cultures, different ways of organising the industrial structure (firms, regional institutions, R&D centres) in the same sector (auto industry).

Currently distributed business process (re) design (resulting in components of business networks) basically relies on technical criteria. And that are the main purposes of most research projects supported by EC. Through the process of building a European Research Area, this means a strong influence in the national research programmes. However it is generally accepted that it should also take into account social criteria and aspects such as the quality of working life, or participation in decision processes. Those were some of the objectives of projects in de 80s decade, and framed some of the main concepts and scientific approaches to work organisation. The democratic participation of network and organisations members in the design process is a critical success factor. This is not accepted by everyone, but is based in sufficient case studies. Nevertheless, in order to achieve an optimization that can satisfying the requirements of agility of a network of enterprises, more complex design methods must be developed. Thus, the support to the collaborative design of distributed work in a network of enterprises, through a concurrent approaching business processes, work organisation and task content is a key factor to achieve such purposes. Increasing needs in terms of amounts of information, agility, and support for collaboration without time and space constrains, imposes the use of a computer-based model.

In this working paper are present the main provisional results of the first round of a Delphi survey held in Portugal on the automotive sector. It was done under the WorTiS project, developed by IET – Research Centre on Enterprise and Work Innovation, and financed by the Portuguese Ministry of Science and Technology. The majority of experts consider to have an average of less knowledge in almost all the scenario topics presented. Nevertheless, we considered specially the topics where the experts considered themselves to have some knowledge. There were no “irrelevant” topics considered as such by the expert panel. There are also no topics that is not considered a need for co-operation (that happens in jus tone case). The lack of technological infra-structrures was not considered as an hindered factor for the accomplishement of any scenario. The experts panel considered no other international competence besides US, Japan or Germany in these topics. Although the members of the expert panel were not as many as needed, These situations will be taken into consideration for a second round of the Delphi survey

The socio-economic subsystem encompassing fisheries may be defined as including not only the harvesting sector but also several related activities occurring both upstream (shipbuilding, gear manufacture) and downstream (processing, distribution and trade). But these closely interrelated economic activities can also be set within a much broader system which would include the ecological, institutional and political influences which frame economic behaviour. The value of this broader conceptualisation is that it treats fisheries not as an isolated and independent economic activity but as part of a more holistic and complex system. This broader perspective is of particular significance when attempting to examine the concept of regional dependence. The socio-economic subsystem for fisheries is dominated by small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). And Peniche emerges as one of Portugal’s most important fishing ports whether measured in terms of the volume of landings or the total numbers of fishermen. It also has one of the highest levels of fisheries dependence of all coastal municipalities in Portugal with over 20% of its workforce currently engaged in fisheries related employment, faces a daunting and uncertain future. The social fabric of fisheries dependent communities also suffers serious damage; once again, the technocratic approach to management has no solutions to offer. It is essential, therefore, to turn away from the existing approach and to develop instead new forms of intervention; in short, to provide a new vision. This implies change not only to the policy process but also in the attitudes of the social actors and in the preoccupations of fisheries related research. An integrated approach is required based on participative action and the development of an integrated information network.

As a Norwegian sociologist pointed out recently at the Encontro Internacional de Vilamoura on Fishing, “the fisheries management is the management of people, not fish" This statement may surprise many specialists, but it puts once again a series of questions and problems in their true place: society, social relationships, individuals. It is necessary to adopt a new attitude, a new type of intervention, a new vision, which may mean “community management”, a system of co-management, new models of business organisation and consumer behaviour. Towards this end, sociology can and should contribute with its analytical instruments, with its set of scientific reflections and controversies, to the enrichment of the knowledge about a complex reality in profound change, such as that of the socio-economic fisheries system.

In this paper is analyzed the work organization and the forms of quality control in a robotic welding station in a company of office equipment and metal components manufacturing. The robotic cell is recent and works in two shifts. Quality and production rationalization implied in this firms the adoption of a strategy of organization of teamwork, and it is supported the collaborative tools to decrease the possibilities for errors and to improve means and methods of manufacturing. The analysis of quality control process needed the use of productivity indicators. In this way it was possible to understand the connections between the function quality and the new form of work organization adopted in this innovative experience in Portugal.

A scenario is a policy analysis tool that describes a possible set of future conditions. The most useful scenarios (for corporations, for policy decision makers) are those that display the conditions of important variables over time. In this approach, the quantitative underpinning enriches the narrative evolution of conditions or evolution of the variables; narratives describe the important events and developments that shape the variables. In terms of innovative methods for policy analysis, the foresight and scenario building methods can be an interesting reference for social sciences. Some examples of these exercises will be present in this paper, either related to vision in science and technology developments, social and technological futures, or related to aggregated indicators on human development. Two cases (Japan and Germany) are held on behalf the ministries of science and education (respectively, MEXT and BMBF), and another with the support of United Nations.

In this paper will be discussed different types of scenarios and the aims for using scenarios. Normaly they are being used by organisations due to the need to anticipate processes, to support policy-making and to understand the complexities of relations. Such organisations can be private companies, R&D organisations and networks of organisations, or even by some public administration institutions. Some cases will be discussed as the methods for ongoing scenario-building process (Shell Internacional). Scenarios should anticipate possible relations among social actors as in the Triple Helix Model, and is possible to develop strategic intelligence in the innovation process that would enable the construction of scenarios. Such processes can be assessed. The focus will be made in relation to the steps chosen for the WORKS scenarios. In this case is there a model of work changes that can be used for foresight? Differences according to sectors were found, as well on other dimensions. Problems of assessment are analysed with specific application to the scenario construction methods.

In this working paper is presented information on the Portuguese labour market developed with the support of the European project WORKS-“Work organisation and restructuring in the knowledge society”. Is still a on the process article and thus commentaries are welcome. The structure is based on the following topics: a) The employment policy (Time regimes - time use, flexibility, part-time work, work-life balance -, and the work contracts regimes – wages, contract types, diversity); b) Education and training (skilling outcomes, rules on retraining and further training, employability schemes, transferability of skills); c) Equal opportunities (relevance of equal opportunity regulation for restructuring outcomes, the role of gender and age regulation); d) Restructuring effects (policy on transfer of personnel, policy on redundancies, and participation or voice in restructuring).

On 19 and 20 October 2006, the Research Centre on Enterprise and Work Organisation (IET) organised the first international conference on “Foresight Studies on Work in the Knowledge Society”. It took place at the auditorium of the new Library of FCT-UNL and had the support of the research project “CodeWork@VO” (financed by FCT-MCTES and co-ordinated by INESC, Porto). The conference related to the European research project “Work Organisation and Restructuring in the Knowledge Society” (WORKS), which is financed by the European Commission. The main objective of the conference was to analyse and discuss research findings on the trends of work structures in the knowledge society, and to debate on new work organisation models and new forms of work supported by ICT.

The relation between work organisation and technological practices in auto industry is analysed in this article. The concept of “technological practice” in this sector is used to describe the specific ways of embedding information and communication technology applications into the organizational forms and cultural patterns. This concept was developed with the Sowing project (TSER, DG XII) and that approach included either the shop floor co-operation up to the regionally based networks of companies and supporting institutions. The authors studied different sectors in the automotive firms of different European countries (Germany, Belgium and Portugal): shopfloor and production lines, design and management and the local inter-relationships. It was underlined some evidencies of the different alternatives in terms of technological practices for the same sector. Much of the litterature try to disseminate an idea of a single (and optimum) organisational model for the same type of product. And here, even with the same type of technology, and of product (medium-high range), one can find different models, different cultures, different ways of organising the industrial structure (firms, regional institutions, R&D centres) in the same sector (auto industry).

Working teams in enterprise environment are considered as the most advanced forms of work organisation. This means the forms that can improve productivity quality of working life. Nevertheless, it prevails a slow development and dissemination of these advanced organisational forms in European companies. The reason for that lays in a complex linkage factors from social values to the economical pressures. But other factors are also related to the national systems of education training, to the different systems of industrial relations and technology policy.