As part of a competition sponsored by Germany's
Federal Ministry for Education and Research to gather ideas on "sustainable research on work", a concept is being developed to guide the thematic and organizational approach to studying the continued pluralization of the concept of work. The substantive objective of the project is to breakdown the aspects bearing on the change of paradigm that is necessary for an expanded concept of work. The methodological objective is to organize the relevant strands of research around the criteria of interdisciplinarity, open discourse, an orientation to the future, and internationality.
Observable phenomena and current strands of research are to be brought together in three heterogeneous focus groups, which will then condense and further develop them in scenarios of sustainable work. In the first group, discussion is to be pursued by pioneers of work-people who live different concepts of work. The second group will consist of researchers who are studying different concepts of work. In the third group, international researchers of work shall debate through Intranet. Comparison of the three groups will permit assessment of the organizational process underlying research and of the interaction between method and content.
