The Future of Work is a joint research project of the Labor Centers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Boston, Dartmouth, and Lowell, funded by the University of Massachusetts' President's Office with monies provided by the Massachusetts legislature. The project encompasses diverse research efforts to describe, analyze, and document the rapid transformation that work is undergoing in Massachusetts, including the introduction of new technologies and new forms of work organization, and what that means for workers and their unions.
Center-Sponsored Research
The Labor Education Program at UMass Lowell funds UMass Lowell graduate students to do research which supports ongoing work of labor councils and other community-based organizations. Future of Work research focuses on key work-process trends, including:
- Standardization/De-skilling
- Intensification
- Multi-skilling/Job combination/Flexibility
- Automation/New technologies
- Monitoring
- Outsourcing/Moving work
- The Changing Workplace: A Challenge for Organizers (pdf) - a Labor Extension Program paper
- The Future of Work: Surrendering the Shop Floor Means Surrendering the Future (pdf) - Charley Richardson, October 2004
Articles published in "Labor Notes."