Skills, Creativity and Innovation in the Digital Platform Era: Analyzing the New Reality of Professions and Entrepreneurship brings together two important areas: the separate research topics of professions, platforms, and entrepreneurship, and the various dimensions of what platformization means to work and to professions in contemporary societies. One of the most noteworthy global aspects in current societies is the intensifying presence of technology, to the extent that we can talk about the omnipotence of technologies, a kind of technological imperative that prevails in societies. This new type of technological imperative emerges in the working lives of practicing professionals from medical doctors to lawyers and from teachers to preachers. Platforms have become a powerful actor as enablers and reorganizers of work, creating new types of inequalities but also expanding the market relations for new professions such as social influencers. How do platforms govern and shape work and lead to new questions concerning organizing of work and professions? These are few of the key questions Poutanen and Kovalainen explore in this profound and insightful book.

"Uberization," "digitalization," "platform economy," "gig economy," and "sharing economy" are some of the buzzwords that characterize the current intense discussions about the development of the economy and work around the world, among both experts and laypersons. Immense changes in the ways goods are manufactured, business is done, work tasks are performed, education is accomplished, and so on, are clearly underway. This also means that demand for careful, first-rate social scientific analyses of the phenomena in question is rapidly growing. This edited volume gathers distinguished researchers from economics, business studies, organization studies, medicine, social psychology, occupational health, pedagogics, and sociology to put particular work in both public and private sectors and education in both academic and vocational settings at the focus of the emerging digitalized platform economy. The authors anchor their analyses and conceptual and theoretical work in distinctive empirical developments that are taking place in one of the leading countries of digitalization processes: Finland. Finnish case studies reflect general global developments and show their particular, context-related actualization in multiple ways. This double exposure enables the authors of this multi- and interdisciplinary volume to advance conceptualization and theorization of the key phenomena in digitalizing platform societies in novel, creative, and groundbreaking directions. This book will without doubt be of great value to academic researchers and students in the fields of economics, business studies, work studies, social sciences, education, technology, digitalization, platforms, occupational health, entrepreneurship, and professions.

Published in 1999, Working Europe: Reshaping European employment systems offers a fresh analysis of recent changes in labour markets and the restructuring of welfare states. The analyzes presented in the articles not only focus on labour market changes, but take up the important issues of: * How labour markets have been regulated and directed * How the various social security systems offered by the welfare state are related to the questions of labour markets and employment systems * How efficient labour market policies are in reducing unemployment * How employment is locally created and initiated * How the gender system is related to employment systems. This book is the first to offer a full picture of the restructuring of the employment systems and the complex relationship between employment, the welfare state and concepts of work.

This volume presents the most recent studies of work and labor in the digital age as it unfolds in both Europe and the United States. One of the critical questions facing modernity concerns the reconfiguration of paid employment, which has been subject to wholesale changes that have widespread consequences for workers, their families, and the institutional structure that characterizes capitalist societies. A key driver of these changes has been the digital revolution and the rapid proliferation of the gig economy. Together with social network sites for hiring, the spread of robotics, and the rise of artificial intelligence and machine learning, they leave virtually no occupation untouched.

This book provides a thorough and novel examination of the gendered nature of innovations in the new economy. It tracks the contemporary shift from heavy industry to game industry and how this has altered relationships between gender, identity, corporate culture, creative work, and the future of business. Through empirical research and theoretical analysis, the authors present their own carefully contextualized cases and conceptual frameworks relating themes of innovation and gender to recent theories concerning globalization and transnationalism. This wide-ranging and interdisciplinary text provides readers with insightful entries on what innovations are and the ways innovation processes become gendered. It explores the business landscape based on creative work and offers a wealth of information for scholars of entrepreneurship, management, sociology, cultural studies, and communication.

Published in 1999, Working Europe: Reshaping European employment systems offers a fresh analysis of recent changes in labour markets and the restructuring of welfare states. The analyzes presented in the articles not only focus on labour market changes, but take up the important issues of: * How labour markets have been regulated and directed * How the various social security systems offered by the welfare state are related to the questions of labour markets and employment systems * How efficient labour market policies are in reducing unemployment * How employment is locally created and initiated * How the gender system is related to employment systems. This book is the first to offer a full picture of the restructuring of the employment systems and the complex relationship between employment, the welfare state and concepts of work.

"Uberization," "digitalization," "platform economy," "gig economy," and "sharing economy" are some of the buzzwords that characterize the current intense discussions about the development of the economy and work around the world, among both experts and laypersons. Immense changes in the ways goods are manufactured, business is done, work tasks are performed, education is accomplished, and so on, are clearly underway. This also means that demand for careful, first-rate social scientific analyses of the phenomena in question is rapidly growing. This edited volume gathers distinguished researchers from economics, business studies, organization studies, medicine, social psychology, occupational health, pedagogics, and sociology to put particular work in both public and private sectors and education in both academic and vocational settings at the focus of the emerging digitalized platform economy. The authors anchor their analyses and conceptual and theoretical work in distinctive empirical developments that are taking place in one of the leading countries of digitalization processes: Finland. Finnish case studies reflect general global developments and show their particular, context-related actualization in multiple ways. This double exposure enables the authors of this multi- and interdisciplinary volume to advance conceptualization and theorization of the key phenomena in digitalizing platform societies in novel, creative, and groundbreaking directions. This book will without doubt be of great value to academic researchers and students in the fields of economics, business studies, work studies, social sciences, education, technology, digitalization, platforms, occupational health, entrepreneurship, and professions.

This pragmatic, applied textbook showcases the potential and impact of qualitative research in business and management. Using case studies and a global approach it provides you with an overview of the philosophies, methodologies and methods you will need to research in this field. Demystifying the whole process, it walks you through every aspect of conducting and using research in business, including generating questions, collecting useful data, evaluating the research and disseminating your findings. It also: Explores the challenges of working with qualitative data Introduces qualitative methods including interviews, focus groups & ethnography New to the 2nd edition: The role of digital tools and social media, and how you can use them for data collection 3 new chapters on qualitative content analysis, visual research and publishing research. Praise for the 1st edition: `Comprehensive, current and compelling, a winning combination for any research student or practitioner interested in increasing his/her knowledge about qualitative methods as they apply to business research' - The Qualitative Report

This pragmatic, applied textbook showcases the potential and impact of qualitative research in business and management. Using case studies and a global approach it provides you with an overview of the philosophies, methodologies and methods you will need to research in this field. Demystifying the whole process, it walks you through every aspect of conducting and using research in business, including generating questions, collecting useful data, evaluating the research and disseminating your findings. It also: Explores the challenges of working with qualitative data Introduces qualitative methods including interviews, focus groups & ethnography New to the 2nd edition: The role of digital tools and social media, and how you can use them for data collection 3 new chapters on qualitative content analysis, visual research and publishing research. Praise for the 1st edition: `Comprehensive, current and compelling, a winning combination for any research student or practitioner interested in increasing his/her knowledge about qualitative methods as they apply to business research' - The Qualitative Report