Information Society, Work and the Generation of New Forms of Social Exclusion (SOWING) - the Theoretical Approach

Abstract

culture". Even the case of celibacy with respect to new technologies can be described as "technological practice". The term in particular does not restrict itself to the formal organisational structure of the firm, also extending to the formal and informal structures of the world of work, thus, for instance, adequately addressing the special issue of new forms of social exclusion in connection with the new technologies.The SOWING-Project deals with various empirical research instruments: firm survey, regional profile study, and case studies of enterprises. In the first step of the project, each of the national research groups had to prepare a literature report giving an overview of the national discourses on the information society. These National Literature Reports were synthesized into the first Interim Report of the project. Furthermore, the national state of the art reports became the basis for the final version of the theoretical framework of the SOWING Project. The present report is based on the National Reports and is part of the Interim Report. * The aim of the Interim Report is to further develop the conceptual framework for the project. Therefore, those parts of the National Literature Reports were taken into account which could particularly contribute to this objective. With the selection of parts of the Interim Report given here the authors want to present the conceptual discussion in the project. Therefore the published text is a work in progress. The second contribution "'Standortdebatte' und 'Neue Armut': Bundesdeutsche Illustrationen zum EU-Projekt SOWING" deals with the special historical aspects influencing the development of the Information Society in Germany in the light of SOWING. Vice versa, this results also in an informative illustration of the topics of SOWING in the light of German experiences. German developments like the former "Modell Deutschland" and the recent "Standortdebatte" give the opportunity to demonstrate the comprehensiveness and actuality of this EU project.

Technological and organizational capital: Where complementarities exist

“…We propose to maintain this crucial distinction between IT and CT when examining complementary organizational interactions. We distinguish the two along their functional dimension rather than their formal one because it matters more to workers what they can do with these technologies (i.e., their functional capabilities and use cases), but less so how the technologies are formally set up (technical specifications and architectures; Schienstock, Bechmann, & Frederichs, ).…”

“…Hence, we understand IT as the computer hardware and software, which is primarily used as an information processing device to (a) collect and analyze information, (b) automate and improve work processes, or (c) to monitor and control work behavior or production processes (cf., Huang, Guao, Xie, & Wu, ; Schienstock et al, ). CTs always rely on a network infrastructure to become productive and are primarily used as information flow and knowledge exchange devices to (a) distribute, transmit, and communicate information or (b) to coordinate temporally and spatially distributed activities (cf., Huang et al, ; Schienstock et al, ). A prominent example is the installation of corporate intranets, which notably affected the communication, distribution of documentation, and collaboration within firms (cf., e.g., Bloom et al, ; Boersma & Kingma, ).…”

“…The literature distinguishes between two main types of labor utilization strategies to quickly respond to changing environments (see, e.g., Arvanitis, ; Kalleberg, ; Martinez‐Sanchez, Vela‐Jiménez, Pérez‐Pérez, & de Luis‐Carnicer, ): Numerical flexibility refers to strategies that enable firms to flexibly adjust the quantity of workers via flexible staffing arrangements, such as temporaries or independent (sub‐)contractors (Arvanitis, ; Kalleberg, ; Voudouris, ). Functional flexibility, instead, refers to strategies that allow organizations to flexibly employ workers in different functions by broadening their abilities and knowledge through job rotation, multitasking, teamwork, and multiskilling (see, e.g., Arvanitis, ; Kalleberg, ; Martinez‐Sanchez et al, ; Schienstock et al, ; Voudouris, ). WD, as the term is understood here, refers to the concept of functional flexibility…”

“…Advances in information processing technologies over the past decades were characterized by exponential improvements in computation and storage capacities (hardware) as well as widespread diffusion of computer applications and systems (software) across firms’ value chains (see e.g. Brynjolfsson & McAfee, ; Brynjolfsson & Saunders, ; Hempell, ; Schienstock et al, ). We argue that advances in IT enhance the returns to specialization : They allow employees to be more productive in performing a specialized task by improving the speed, quality and efficiency with which tasks can be executed (see, e.g., Autor et al, ; Bartel, Ichniowski, & Shaw, ; Hempell, ; Lindbeck & Snower, ; ; Schienstock et al, ) .…”

“…Brynjolfsson & McAfee, ; Brynjolfsson & Saunders, ; Hempell, ; Schienstock et al, ). We argue that advances in IT enhance the returns to specialization : They allow employees to be more productive in performing a specialized task by improving the speed, quality and efficiency with which tasks can be executed (see, e.g., Autor et al, ; Bartel, Ichniowski, & Shaw, ; Hempell, ; Lindbeck & Snower, ; ; Schienstock et al, ) . Henry Ford's standardized assembly lines and specialized machinery for mass‐production in car manufacturing constitute a prominent example, where the introduction of new processing technologies raised the gains of task specialization and led to a Tayloristic regime with a widespread increase in the division of labor (Boucekkine & Crifo, ; Lindbeck & Snower, ; Milgrom & Roberts, , ).…”