The combination of economic globalisation, computerisation and the spread of cheap telecommunications has introduced a new global division of labour in work involving the processing of digitised information. Virtual workers may be continents apart but still linked together through complex global value chains. This working group draws together a diverse range of international experts from such diverse fields as labour sociology, organisational theory, economics, technology studies and gender studies who have studied this phenomenon from different perspectives. Pooling this expertise will make it possible to examine the complex interrelationships between technological change, the restructuring of work processes, the changing gender division of labour, the restructuring of value chains and the spatial transformation of work.
The leader of this Working Group is Jörg Flecker, Professor of Sociology at the University of Vienna (email: joerg.flecker@univie.ac.at)