Portal on the New Society

General Research

Our General Research section on Labor Market provides you with various links on research centers, think tanks and institutions that are concerned with industrial relations, the service sector, new media at the workplace, globalization and the development of the labor market in general.

19.04.2005 · Research Group on the Global Future

The Workfoundation exists to provide fresh thinking and new ideas to help transform labor markets, workplaces and working life, now and in the future.

Online research laboratory for labor statisticians.

List of social science databases in the U.S. and Canada

List of social science databases in Europe.

Here one can find results of anthropological research done by Chuck Darrah and others on the impact of Silicon Valley work on family, community and social structure.

Homepage of the Social Science Research Center in Berlin (also available in English), which concerns itself mainly with aspects of the labor market, its shape, transition, the interests involved and its interference with societal change. Discussion papers of interest can be found here.

Site of the Sozialforschungsstelle Dortmund, a university institute for the research of aspects and impacts of work. One of their current projects is on health impacts of flexible work arrangements. Also u can find lots of other research on aspects such as ageing.

Homepage of the German "Institut für Arbeit und Technik”. One of the main research areas is "Flexibility and social security in the new economy." In addition, the institute is concerned with industrial relations, the service sector, new media at the workplace, globalization and glocalization, the change of the work setting as induced by the introduction of IT and developments in the retail sector. Only few material is available online, but three documents may be particularly interesting:
A study on call center work.

The yearbook of the institute, assembling fine articles of leading researchers in the field of this approach towards the work sphere.

This site offers a forum for information and knowledge exchange in Northrhine-Westfalia, the biggest of the German federal states, providing exchange of experience on work organization in virtual companies, chances offered by the utilization of new media technologies, worker’s participation and new media, consulting for and exchange between companies, employees and state agencies.
The homepage of the Kooperationsstelle Wissenschaft-Arbeitswelt offers an excellent list of links to employer’s organizations.

The Frauenhofer Institut for Industrial Engineering is a scientific constancy organization concerned with incorporating the new technologies, making the company work and work organization and employee-employer relations as productive as possible.

The Max Planck Institute is the home of two of the politically most influential scholars in Germany, Fritz W. Scharpf and Wolfgang Streeck. The institute concentrates on the effects of the welfare state, European integration, the changes in the world of work and the efficiency of public projects. Many downloadable working papers.

The Hudson Institute, an American think tank doing research on societal trends, e.g. concerning the work place. Nearly 25 years ago, this institute issued an influential report on "workforce 2000" which proved surprisingly correct in its predictions. Recently, they launched the project: "Beyond Workforce 2020." An executive summary is available online.

The Economic Policy Institute is a source both for surveys on "old economy" work place practices and business organization models in the high-tech industries. An interesting paper on today’s labor market conditions can be found here.

For German speakers interested in Germany’s development into an information society, the agency Initiative Information Society Germany documents and examines governmental initiatives to facilitate Germany’s growth and social stability in an age of increasing digitalization.

The Work Foundation exists to provide fresh thinking and new ideas to help transform labor markets, workplaces and working life, now and in the future.

The Bonn Institute for Economic and Social Research is a German think-tank examining the relationship of and interaction between society and economy. Their publications are mostly also available in English, but must be ordered.