Digitalisation, between disruption and evolution

Gérard Valenduc and Patricia Vendramin
Additional contact information
Gérard Valenduc: Chaire Travail-Université (UCL), Belgium
Patricia Vendramin: Open Faculty for Economic and Social Policy at the University of Louvain-la-Neuve (UCL), Belgium

Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, 2017, vol. 23, issue 2, 121-134

Abstract: This article questions the disruptive nature of the current process of digitalisation from a retrospective point of view. Four aspects of this process are considered: digitised information as a strategic economic resource; the nature and pace of industrial revolutions; the contested nature of the link between technology and employment; and the shift from flexible work practices towards virtual work. The article reviews some salient research findings from the past three decades and confronts them with recent publications concerning the future of work in the digital economy. It argues that the current wave of digitalisation combines, on the one hand, continuing trends in the analysis of the information society or knowledge-based society, and, on the other hand, significant breakthroughs the scope and impacts of which must be carefully assessed, avoiding any return to technological determinism.

Keywords: Digitalisation; industrial revolutions; virtual work; technology and employment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1024258917701379 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:treure:v:23:y:2017:i:2:p:121-134

DOI: 10.1177/1024258917701379

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().