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The fourth international WORK2019 Conference gathered experts in work and working life to Helsinki between 14.–16. of August. During the conference we heard speeches on the platform economy, the automation of work and digital online gig work. Read the highlights of each conference day below. The WORK2019 organising committee would like to thank the participants … Continued

On the final day of the conference, the spotlight was on the power of platforms in relation to businesses. If a business does not appear in Google’s search results, does it exist? The WORK2019 conference culminated on Friday in the closing seminar of the SWiPE consortium (Smart Work in Platform Economy), which is funded by … Continued

The second day of the conference featured presentations on work automation and its links to employees’ rights and privacy. The second day of the WORK2019 conference featured keynote presentations on work automation and standardisation, as well as personal branding. During the day, digital visibility and invisibility in work were also discussed. Digitalisation has enabled a … Continued

On the opening day of the conference, discussions revolved around the effects of the platform economy on work, and we heard keynote speeches on the online gig economy and the downside of innovation work. The first day of the WORK2019 Conference began with a speech by the Minister of Employment of Finland, Timo Harakka. Harakka … Continued

The discussion about the digitalisation of work is often conducted with technology in front. Hamid Ekbia and Bonnie Nardi from the US (2017) add a refreshing perspective to the discussion in their book Heteromation and other stories of computing and capitalism: Despite the technology, all value is based on human work, or at least in … Continued

The broad Charles River separates, just before flowing to the Atlantic, the city of Boston from the city of Cambridge. On the Cambridge side of Charles is the Massachusetts Avenue, one of the main roads of Greater Boston. There, it combines the MIT (the 4th best University in the world in 2018, according to Shanghai … Continued

Die Plattformökonomie ändert alles – Platform economy changes everything. This punchy line was written in one of Germany’s widely-read online magazines in February 2017. Actually, this sentence started the idea of writing my master’s thesis about platform economy and crowdwork platforms and how they are described in German online magazines. I remained to ponder the … Continued

What kind of skills will be needed in working life? In what way would it be useful to develop professional skills? Among other things, these questions were discussed in the research seminar “Osaamisella tulevaisuuteen” (To the future with competence) on 7 November 2018 organized by projects funded by the Strategic Research Council at the Academy … Continued

The SWiPE project is as much about research as it is about delivering insights that are of use for Finnish businesses. My colleague Kaisa, for example, is working on the responsiveness of the Finnish education system to the emerging and future needs of Finnish industry. As a part-timer on SWiPE, my doctoral project has a … Continued

Changes in working life challenge competences. We are emphasising this message with a common voice. Is this a new situation? Well, not exactly. The work has changed its shape throughout the history of mankind. Of course, the speed of change is now and will be on a whole new level, and this challenges us all. … Continued