WISE4All @ the EGE Roundtable on the Future of Work
Published by scom
Posted on February 15, 2018
On the 5th of February WISE4All took part in the Open Roundtable on the Future of Work (https://ec.europa.eu/research/ege/pdf/roundtable_programme_web.pdf) organised by the European Group on Ethics in Science and New Technologies (EGE).
The Delegation of WISE4All was composed of two members of its Secretariat (Valentina Zoccali, Secretary General of S-Com and Lara Grosso Sategna, responsible for the communication of WISE4All) and the representatives of two of the WISE4All Signatories: Aslihan Tekin of Women Entrepreneurship Platform and Davide Meinero of ID Consulting.
This event has represented a step forward concerning the promotion of the values of the future society that WISE4All brings forward.
The future of work is the future of the society; a society that is increasingly complex and where digitalization is influencing every aspect of people life. The Open Roundtable called for a reflection on three major questions:
- Why do we work and how does work give us meaning?
- How can European values of justice, dignity and solidarity be realized in a changing world?
- To what extent might longstanding governance frameworks, such as social security systems and employment laws, require updating?
The EGE asked to its stakeholders to express an opinion and raise key points on four panel of discussion. The first panel addressed the redefinition of the notion of “work” and the influence that new technologies and globalization have on reaffirming values; the next panel dealt with the impact of new employment forms related to the raising of the gig and platform economies; whereas, the third panel explored the influence of automation and digitalization on work and employment. The last panel was dedicated to the review of governance frameworks and the redefinition of workers’ rights.
Starting from the question “Why do we work?” and analyzing the current context, WISE4All promoted the perspective elaborated with all the Signatories. It highlighted the importance of work in people’s life, as it is deeply interconnected with principles such as “freedom”, “responsibility” and “attention for the other”. Three principles at the heart of WISE4All Charter of Values.
WISE4All stated that new technologies allow an increased participation of people who, by working, provide their wider contribution to the progress of society.
In a scenario in which society is increasingly complex and where new technologies allow a higher level of participation, raising the level of people’s knowledge by improving their critical thinking and “knowledge of others” so that they can responsibly be free to choose is of paramount importance, just as it is important to take advantage of an intercultural and multidisciplinary approach.
Knowledge must have a twofold aim: on the one hand it should focus on the ability to use new technologies, on the other hand, it must integrate humanities and social sciences; both humanities and social sciences are fundamental in order to understand the scope of people in the new digital society and the role of the ethical framework in shaping economies and societies.
WISE4All stressed also the fundamental role played by Data Analysis to better deciphering the world and the importance of transforming data (information) into knowledge that could be further disseminated through the creation of ad-hoc training paths and new educational models.
The results of the Roundtable on the Future of Work will be published by the EGE this summer.
Below you can find the statement received by Aslihan Tekin of WEP, one of the WISE4All Signatories, who attended the EGE Roundtable:
“Women constitute 52% of the total European population but only 34.4% of the EU self-employed and 30% of start-up entrepreneurs. SMEs are a major source of jobs across all economic sectors and geographical areas and are key drivers of innovation. Women-owned SMEs contribute significantly to the economies in which they operate. We have to invent new forms of education for new forms of jobs to meet the needs of a new economy. Institutions must be more ambitious in providing access to lifelong learning and educational opportunities for upskilling women entrepreneurs and reskilling women jobseekers, as part of a long-term social and economic strategy for Europe. Instead of trying to predict the future, we must invent it together.”
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