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The journal for labour research, work design and labour policy, ARBEIT, announces a Call for Papers on the subject "The Future of Industrial Work – Beyond Industry 4.0". Abstracts in German or English language should be submitted to the editorial office until 1 September 2024. The contributions are scheduled for issue 4/2025 of ARBEIT. Editors of this special issue are Hartmut Hirsch-Kreinsen, Peter Ittermann, and Jonathan Falkenberg.
With a special issue "The future of industrial work – beyond Industry 4.0", a topic that has increasingly fallen out of the focus of social science labor research will be taken up again. The question of industrial work has probably lost relevance because the discourse on the digitalization of work has led to the establishment of a broad and now difficult-to-manage landscape of research and design projects with various, sometimes highly specialized issues. The challenges of skilled labor shortage, the work-related consequences of the corona virus pandemic and the socio-ecological transformation have shifted the focus of work research to other topics. And the hype surrounding Industry 4.0 and the general focus on industrial modernization have lost much of their former attention in labor and research policy in recent years. As a result, there is a risk of losing touch with a topic that is relevant both in terms of the sociology of work and social policy and that used to be constitutive for the discourse on the transformation of work not only in Germany but also elsewhere in Europe.
This situation is proving to be deficient in several respects:
Firstly, the state of research on the digitalization of industrial work still presents unanswered questions and unfilled gaps. For example, neither an empirically saturated overarching theoretical analysis nor a convincing interpretation of the current transformation processes of industrial work in the form of a Zeitdiagnose (diagnosis of the present society) are currently in sight.
Secondly, large segments of industrial production are undergoing an accelerated structural transformation that can no longer be described solely in terms of digitalization, as is sometimes the case. Rather, it is the result of the interplay of a number of other factors such as decarbonization and resource scarcity, demographic trends and changes in global economic conditions. There is no question that this will have lasting consequences for industrial work, which should be dealt with by more intensive research and discussion.
Thirdly, these transformation trends affect an employment sector that con-tinues to strongly shape the German and European economic system. The changes of this sector exert a variety of direct and indirect spill-over effects on other employment sectors: These include many supplier and service branches such as logistics, technical services, temporary work, trade, and others.
The contributions to this special issue should address these development trends. Based on a relatively narrow concept of industrial work as directly value-adding activities on the shop floor, the focus is primarily on change processes at the micro-level of production processes. This addresses a broad spectrum of work, qualification and social types, ranging from unskilled and semi-skilled workers to (highly) skilled labor and scientific-technological qualifications. Of course, meso- and macro-structural developments in the transformation of industrial work and their interaction with the transformation of other employment sectors in the economic system and the social institutional system should also be taken into account.
In detail, the objectives of the planned special issue can be summarized as follows:
Firstly, the current state of labor research on the transformation of industrial work under the transformation conditions mentioned should be summarized. On this basis, substantial theoretical findings and convincing inter-pretations should be developed.
Secondly, conceivable development perspectives should be formulated and scenarios for future industrial work should be discussed. In this context, various scenarios could be considered, ranging from further “de-industrialization” to a “re-vitalization” of industrial production.
Thirdly, approaches and measures in the areas of labor, industrial, and social policies supporting a desirable further development of industrial work (e.g. referring to concepts as Industry 5.0 and Workplace Innovation) and the management of industrial transformation should be put up for discussion. A key question here is to what extent the traditional norms of decent work or “Gute Arbeit” should be problematized in view of the transformation conditions and whether new guidelines for human-oriented industrial work should be discussed.
Fourthly, the transformation of industrial work should be discussed with regard to its consequences for the various levels of the system of industrial relations. Traditional semi-skilled work and skilled work in the industrial sector still form the core of company and inter-company trade union organizational power, which is currently subject to massive pressure for change and major challenges.
Of course, the publication planned is by no means capable of treating the topic of the future of industrial work in its various social dimensions in an exhaustive manner. However, ideally it should provide an impetus for a more intensive discussion on the current status and future appearance of industrial work in Germany and Europe.
Both empirical and theoretical as well as labor policy-oriented contributions are welcome. The call for papers is aimed not only at researchers from the social sciences but also to other related disciplines like economics. Practice-oriented contributions from experts in labor policy or companies are also welcome. Both German and English-language contributions are possible.
Please send a one- to two-page abstract of your proposed contribution by no later than
September 1, 2024 to the editorial office of the journal ARBEIT: frank.seiss@isf-muenchen.de
You will receive feedback from us by October 31, 2024. The deadline for full manuscripts with a maximum of 45,000 characters is February 15, 2025. The contributions are intended for issue 4/2025 of ARBEIT.
Frank Seiß, editorial office of the journal ARBEIT, frank.seiss@isf-muenchen.de
https://www.degruyter.com/journal/key/arbeit/html?lang=en The journal ARBEIT
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