Can, and should, social science contribute to better quality jobs?
A 70-year retrospect and prospect

This workshop will interest scholars of work and employment, policy makers in employers’ organisations and trade unions, public officials, and researchers in research institutes with an interest in work and the labour market. It is intended to be an engaged conversation among experts. Numbers will be restricted.

There will four short (15 minute) presentations by experts in the field, taking specific examples to address some of the above questions:

• Tuomo Alasoini (Chief Adviser, TEKES, Finland) on Nordic models of workplace change and the workforce development programmes.
• Prof. Anne-marie Greene (De Montfort University) on the impact of feminism on working life.
• Prof. David Guest (King’s College, London) on the Quality of Work Life movement.
• Prof. Ewart Keep (Oxford University) on skills and understanding of the demand for and utilisation of skills.

There will be six short presentations from other participants on different aspects of work. There will be space for questions and discussion, leading up to a concluding round table of experts.

Prof. William Brown (University of Cambridge) will comment on overall themes.

To book your place, please contact the journal’s Managing Editor, Claire Castle, at c.castle@tavinstitute.org, no later than 5th September.

EVENT LEADERS

Prof. Paul K Edwards (former Editor-in-Chief of Human Relations)Paul is Professor of Employment Relations at Birmingham Business School, UK and was formerly at Warwick University where he directed the Industrial Relations Research Unit and held several Associate Dean positions. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and has served as the Chair of the Academy’s Social Science Group, is a Senior Fellow of the UK’s Advanced Institute of Management Research and an Academician of the Academy of the Social Sciences.His publications include (with Judy Wajcman) The Politics of Working Life (OUP, 2005). He edited Industrial Relations (1995 and 2003) and co-edited (with Marek Korczynski and Randy Hodson) Social Theory at Work (2006). He has been an Associate Editor for Human Relations since 2006 and was our Editor-in-Chief 2012–2016. His research interests include employment relations at workplace level and new forms of work organisation, the personnel policies and practices of multinational companies and employment relations in small firms.