Milestones in the “Occupational tasks and requirements in international comparative terms – analyses of national and international datasets” project

The international research project to compare the national framework conditions of occupations and the actual occupational tasks carried out is being driven forward in leaps and bounds. To allow for better coordination of the work processes and combine the individual research results, at the initiative of BIBB (Division 3.1), a virtual project meeting every two weeks with the Spanish (Rovira i Virgili University) and Korean (KRIVET) project partners has become routine.

Presentation at SASE conference

BIBB was able to present initial research results in a contribution at the 32nd SASE (Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics) conference in July (18-21 July 2020). SASE is an international, interdisciplinary academic organisation that brings together findings from the fields of economics, sociology, political science, organisational research, management, psychology, law and history. The virtual conference on the topic of “Development Today: Accumulation, Surveillance, Redistribution” had a thematic focus on new political, technological and economic forces that are having a major impact on change processes in both highly developed and less developed countries.

In the session “Beyond Routine Biased Technological Change: Organisation, Power and Institutions”, work and results were presented that analyse occupational tasks beyond the established assumptions regarding the substitution of routine tasks and polarisation. The contribution presented by Viktor Ulbrich focused on the concept of empirical knowledge. From this perspective, the extent to which technological changes influence occupations is dependent not only on the mechanisability of tasks but also, above all, on the the possibility to develop extensive experience in the context of occupational work and bring the ability to act to bear in the workplace. The importance of various national institutional forces was highlighted in all the contributions. The analysis of occupations as institutions is of particular significance in the investigation of international differences.

New project partner

Another exciting milestone is that, this month, the research team was able to gain further expertise for the project in the form of Professor Yongjin Nho from the National University of Science and Technology in Seoul.