Members of the Steering Committee are:

Prof Claire Wallace, University of Aberdeen
Mr Sanjin Kaharevic, Scottish Government
Mr Brian McKechnie, University of Strathclyde
Mr John McCann, Scotland's Colleges
Ms Marion Beattie, Skills Development Scotland
Mr Donald Jarvie, Scotland's Futures Forum
Mr Ewan McIntosh, NoTosh Limited
Prof Do Coyle, University of Aberdeen
Prof Bente Elkjaer, Aarhus University
Prof Monika Nerland, University of Oslo

The Nature of Digital Work

Dates: Friday 20th April 10:30 - 17:15 and Saturday 21st April 10:00 - 15:30

Venue: Royal College, Room 213 & 215, University of Strathclyde, 204 George Street, Glasgow G1 1XW

Aim: This seminar considers innovative strategies and practices for sustaining work.

Schedule: download the schedule of talks and discussions. Speakers Biographies

Content: The focus of the seminar is on creating and sustaining work and learning using digital technology to overcome challenging conditions, including those that derive from social and physical geography. Seminar attendees will share multi-sectoral and multi-disciplinary knowledge of how digital technology strategies and practices are developing. The seminar will offer insights into key aspects of the Scottish Government's digital strategy for sustaining work and relevant learning. The seminar will take account of wider, critical strategy discourses and practices in Scotland. It will consider specific projects that have been funded to promote digital working as well as the opportunities and challenges they entail. It will examine innovative company practices in the private sector and consider their potential contribution in strategy implementation.

Outcomes: A key outcome of this seminar will be a working paper that identifies how policy and practice need to develop to meet opportunities and challenges in sustaining work. It will describe areas where further knowledge exchange and research may be needed, generating questions 'from the bottom up' it will recommend actions and relevant stakeholder groups for these. 

Overcoming Exclusions

Dates: Wednesday 30th May 9.30 - 17:30 and Thursday 31st May 9.30 - 15:00

Venue: School of Computing, University of Dundee, Dundee, DD1 4HN

Schedule: download the schedule of talks and discussions. Speakers Biographies

Aim: The aim of this seminar is to suggest ways that digital exclusions may be overcome.

Content: The focus of the seminar is on problems that arise from digital exclusions. It will examine current and potential exclusions that are based on age, ability, gender and social class. It will consider the complexity of these exclusions, how their workings are often hidden and how they are sometimes inter-related. Speakers will draw on their research and practice to present analyses of exclusions they have encountered. They will discuss the origin and operations of these to suggest new directions and ways that they may be overcome.

Outcomes: A key outcome of this seminar will be a working paper that analyses exclusions and highlights those that are neglected or unresolved. It will discuss the nature of interactions between forms of exclusion and it will make recommendations to address these, identifying future directions and relevant stakeholder groups. The seminar will also identify the development of knowledge themes, as well as research and knowledge exchange questions.

Learning in digital work

Dates: Monday 10th September 10:30 - 17:30 and Tuesday 11th September 10:00 - 15:30

Venue: Scottish Universities Insight Institute, Collins Building, 26 Richmond Street, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow G1 1XQ

Aim: The aim of this seminar is to explore how learning and knowledge can be sustained in digital work.

Content: The focus of the seminar is on the need for a better understanding of how learning and knowledge are developed and sustained in digital work. The problem it addresses is how this can happen when work is technically mediated and distributed, and when constant innovation is required. The seminar explores new learning directions and the challenges that arise when traditional assumptions about shared workplaces, tacit learning or the durability of knowledge do not apply. The seminar will suggest future directions, potential solutions and areas of further inquiry.

Outcomes: A key outcome of this seminar will be a working paper that identifies practical and theoretical issues for learning in digital work, with recommendations for particular stakeholders. It will summarise how the considerations of this seminar relate to other themes, identifying new directions and emerging knowledge that is significant at an international level. By drawing together the programme themes it will identify new research and knowledge exchange questions that lay the ground for the next meeting at the Scottish Parliament.