ABSTRACT
The aim of this chapter is to draw together many of the themes developed in previous chapters about one of these factors – the use of new technology in the workplace and the implications for the organization of contemporary work. The linking thread in this chapter is the manner in which both the quantity and the quality of jobs have changed as new technologies have been utilized to manage production. One of the key tasks of the chapter is to review, if not to reconcile, alternative accounts of technological change and employment that have developed almost independently in economics on the one hand and political economy and sociology on the other. Both approaches will be explored to develop an analytical framework to review the empirical evidence for long term structural changes in employment in industry sectors, and the dynamic changes in knowledge and skills that characterize the contemporary economy.
