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 paper one presents and discuss the hybridation concept using some aspect that integrate it, as the physical architecture of automated systems (hardware), the information system that integrates that architecture and the working places design. Analyzed are also the inter-dependences of those aspects, and we have as a reference the flexible production and assembly system existent at UNINOVA-CRI. The focus is made on possible problems that can occur with the use of possible development of those systems, namely: a) full automation with centralized human control, b) non-automated process of shop-floor work with a system “one man, one machine”, c) hybrid system of automated cells with “elastic” human jobs.

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 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.

As was recently published in the GERPISA newsletter, one of the aims of the research for the new years will be the knowledge of interactions between the organisational company dynamics and the social-economical models of development. If one takes the example of the German exercise in the framework of FUTUR programme, one of the main thematic groups that emerged from the first discussions was preciselly “Mobility: individually atractive and socially sustainable”. Also the IMVP programme at MIT is taking these questions on the “visions for a sustainable future” theme. In the same way the WorTiS Project analysed several scenario topics on the issue of mobility and automotive industry. Those scenario topics are explained and justified in this research paper.

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).

The focus of the following article is on the use of new robotic systems in the manufacturing industry with respect to the social dimension. Since “intuitive” human–machine interaction (HMI) in robotic systems becomes a significant objective of technical progress, new models of work organization are needed. This hypothesis will be investigated through the following two aims: The first aim is to identify relevant research questions related to the potential use of robotic systems in different systems of work organization at the manufacturing shop-floor level. The second aim is to discuss the conceptualization of (old) organizational problems of human–robot interaction (HRI). In this context, the article reflects on the limits of cognitive and perceptual workload for robot operators in complex working systems. This will be particularly relevant whenever more robots with different “roles” are to be increasingly used in the manufacturing industry. The integration of such complex socio-technical systems needs further empirical and conceptual research with regard to “social” aspects of the technical dimension. Future research should, therefore, also integrate economic and societal issues to understand the full dimensions of new human–robot interaction in industry today.

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).

Some programs and research networks are dealing with topics associated to the automtive sector and they observe one of the most significative sectores of modern economies. Because of that is so interesting to forecast some possible changes in an horizon of 10 to 20 years. But this exercse must not be centred only on technical aspects of automobile construction, or on the design, or even on the mobility systems. How one can face these problems, and how it can be so decisivelly important, is what we will try to answer in this paper that resumes some of the debates on the foresight exercises in Germany (Futur) and on the automotive sector in Portugal (WorTiS).

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

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

Taking into account the global trends towards vertical de-integration and functional integration, the WorTiS project is expected to be able to determine to what extent the Portuguese automobile industry is experiencing far-reaching changes as far as innovative (post-fordist) work systems are concerned. One of the objectives is to reach wider conclusions regarding the sector under analysis within a new multi-disciplinary approach, in connection with other research networks (namely, GERPISA and IMVP-MIT). It will recover relevant information in automobile companies located in Portugal (like, Toyota, Citröen, FIAT, Renault, Ford, VW, UMM), in order to understand how concrete practices have being developed in time, and update the scientific knowledge with the development of new case studies (Mitsubishi, AutoEuropa, Opel-GM, and other sub-contracting firms). is intended to present a new fieldwork methodology in order to analyse the variety, and contradictory character, of changes in work practices. The analysis would focus on the cases of automotive firms that operated, and are still operating, in Portugal. The effectiveness of such a tool will last far beyond the project itself.

No abstract is available for this item.

This paper summarises the methodological approach and main results of the MARHE project (Employment and Human Resources in the Fisheries Socio-Economic System). This project had as its main aim the search for alternative futures for the fisheries sector in Portugal, with particular attention being paid to the human resources situation and the working and living conditions of the fisheries-dependent populations in the coastal areas. This is a particularly interesting case, since fisheries were once an important activity and they are now in deep recession, even though it is generally recognised that the future utilisation of maritime resources offer an immense potential. As part of the research, a Delphi exercise was implemented involving in two successive stages some of the leading actors and experts dealing with the sector in Portugal. Other initiatives were held in the context of the MARHE project providing direct and indirect inputs to the scenarios and recommendations that were put forward in the sequence of the Delphi exercise. Overall the activities described in the paper contributed to the mobilisation of major actors and to discussions that may have practical implication for the future of the sector, if certain conditions are now met in the follow up to the project.

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).

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 design of jobs is defined and its different implications. These aspects must be taken into consideration when applied to new automated systems, once it can occur workers in-adaptations to certain type of activity and tasks. Other concepts that emerge from this are the mental workload, stress, work accidents, shift work, or the physical environment that can reveal to become determinant in the process of job design. That means also the organizational design. In this sense, the manufacturing, organizational and individual dimensions, are the most meaningful in the mentioned process of organizational design. Are analyzed different application cases of robotized systems and their social effects, mostly those that are related to the dimensions of working conditions. Are particularly analyzed the new risk situations that occur with the use of robotic systems. One concludes on the need to take into consideration qualitative variables in the definition and design of robotic cells, jobs and production systems. This consideration influences directly in the labor productivity, in such way that the development of these methodologies of analysis can be considered as integrating the processes of technological innovation in manufacturing.

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.

The 2nd International Conference on "Foresight Studies on Work in the Knowledge Society" was organised by IET, the Research Centre on Enterprise and Work Innovation, at the Faculty of Sciences and Technology of "Universidade Nova de Lisboa" (FCT-UNL), and took place on January 26 and 27 of 2009 with the support of the European project WORKS-Work Organisation Re-structuring in the Knowledge Society (financed by the European Commission, and co-ordinated by HIVA Leuven)

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.

No abstract is available for this item.

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.

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.

The resulting economic integration of industrial processes and manufacturing internationalisation lead several authors to argue that world economy is globalised. In this context, the approach to the divestment concept without an social and económical context, does not show a group of associated practices and representations. Choices and options are motivated by exogenous forces that pushes companies to determine strategies that stop capital investment on new equipment goods, or on other imaterial goods. This type of strategy is designated by "divestment". The social level of consequencies are not due to the closing down or de-localization of production units that are divesting, but can be materialised of efects that are irreversible. This means unemployment, de-skilling, labour precarization and even emergence of new forms of social exclusion in former industrialised regions.

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.