Changing Workplaces in a Knowledge Economy (CWKE)
Canadian workplaces are widely assumed to have changed greatly in the past three decades in response to rapidly diffusing information technologies and globalizing markets. But there are four important questions that beg to be answered with direct evidence:
- To what extent has the occupational structure of employment changed?
- How well are the skills of the general labour force being used in this occupational structure?
- How well are the skills of professionals being used as key contributors to the development of a knowledge economy?
- As a leading case, how well are the skills of engineers being used?
The objective of the CWKE project research is to provide clear answers to these four questions and aid the development of more effective employment and training policies.
To do this we have conducted a national general labour force survey (N=3,000) of working conditions and skill use. Building directly on these survey findings, we have also conducted comprehensive case studies of Ontario engineers and nurses involving oral history, provincial survey and in depth interview methods. Each are widely regarded as highly strategic to the development of a knowledge economy. They are ideal for detailed study of the occupational class make-up and skill use of professionals because they are employed in diverse organizational settings and recent research is highly divided on how effectively their skills are now being utilized.
Publications & Conferences Presentations
- Engineers' and nurses' current perceptions of working conditions and career opportunities: Exploring general professional concerns and potential class differences (by Tracey L. Adams, D.W. Livingstone and Peter H. Sawchuk) at the annual conference of the Canadian Sociology Association in May-June 2016
- The growing gap between post-secondary schooling and further education: Findings of 1998, 2004, 2010, and 2016 surveys of the employed Canadian labour force (by D.W. Livingstone and Milosh Raykov) in the Canadian Journal for the Study of Adult Education in June 2016
- The changing employment class structure and the pivotal role of professional employees in a "knowledge economy": Canada, 1982-2016 (by D.W. Livingstone and Brendan Watts) at the annual conference of the Canadian Sociology Association in May-June 2017
- Professions, hybrid professionalism and internal stratification: Evidence on Canadian engineers (by Tracey L. Adams) at the annual conference of the Canadian Sociology Association in May-June 2017
- Professions, working and knowing: Class conflict and contested hybridization among Ontario nurses (by Peter H. Sawchuk) at the annual conference of the Canadian Sociology Association in May-June 2017
- The changing nature of professional work and professional knowledge: A case study of Canadian nurses and engineers (by Tracey L. Adams and Peter H. Sawchuk) at the annual conference of the Canadian Sociology Association in May-June 2017
- Polarization of professionals? Class analysis of job control in an emergent "knowledge economy" (by D.W. Livingstone, Peter H. Sawchuk and Tracey L. Adams) at the annual conference of the Canadian Sociology Association in May-June 2017
- Dialectical materialist methodologies for researching work, learning, change: Implications for class consciousness (by Peter H. Sawchuk) at the annual conference of the Canadian Sociology Association in May-June 2017
- The great licensure assumption: Erosion of closure in the Canadian engineering profession (by Michael Klassen) at the conference on Researching Work and Learning at Rhodes University, South Africa in December 2017
- Tipping point for teachers? Changing working conditions and continuing learning in a "knowledge economy" (by D.W. Livingstone) in the International Journal of Lifelong Education in June 2018
- Learning, knowledge and technology within the meta-orthodox proletarianization of nursing in Ontario (by Peter H. Sawchuk) at the annual conference of the Canadian Sociology Association in May-June 2019
- Are changes in professionals' work environments altering their skills and knowledge? (by Tracey L. Adams) at the the annual conference of the Canadian Sociology Association in May-June 2019
- Underemployment of highly qualified labour in advanced capitalism: Trends and prospects (by D.W. Livingstone) at the annual conference of the Canadian Sociology Association in May-June 2019
- Self-regulating Professionals and Experts in the "Knowledge Economy": Autonomy and Authority Compared (by Tracey L. Adams & D.W. Livingstone) Working Paper for the Changing Workplaces in a Knowledge Economy Project (November 24, 2020)
Data Archived in Canada Work Learning Surveys 1998-2016
The CWKE data archive contains codebooks, questionnaires and survey data for analyses conducted in 鈥淐hanging Workplaces in a Knowledge Economy: Occupational Class Structure, Skill Use and the Place of Professions in Canada鈥. The CWKE project was funded by SSHRC Insight Research Grant 435-2015-0732.
.
The basic data information provided in this archive include several national labour force surveys:
- CCS1982NationalSurvey
- NALL1998NationalSurvey
- WALL2004NationalSurvey
- WALL2010NationalSurvey
- CWKE2016NationalSurvey
as well as two 2017 case study surveys:
- CWKE2017EngineeringSurvey
- CWKE2017NursingSurvey
With regard to all the national surveys, the data sources files include a comparative template for common variables in the 1982, 1998, 2004, 2010 and 2016 national surveys, a more detailed integrated codebook for the 1998-2010 surveys and codebooks for specific surveys. In addition, the original questionnaires and several versions of the basic data in different formats (Excel; CSV; SPSS; Tab Delimited) are provided in the archive. .
The fullest overview of the project may be found in the main book publication:
Livingstone, D.W., Adams, T. & Sawchuk, P. (2021). Professional power and skill use in the 'Knowledge Economy': A class analysis. Leiden: Brill.
This is the first systematic analysis of the class structure of professionals. Their growing numbers, including mainly non-managerial professional employees as well as self-employed professionals, professional employers and professional managers, have been conflated in most prior studies. In this book, evidence comes from a unique series of large-scale surveys since the 1980s as well as recent comparative case studies of engineers and nurses. A primary focus is on issues of job control and skill utilization among these knowledge workers widely regarded as pivotal to the sustainability of knowledge economies. Professional employees in particular are found to face declining job control, diminishing use of their skills and increasing barriers to continuing learning. There are many original benchmarks here to serve as guides for further studies on professional classes, job design and training strategies in advanced capitalist economies.
Other easily accessible published papers include:
- Adams, Tracey L. and Peter Sawchuk. (2020). Vocations and Learning. (Published online July 24, 2020).
- Livingstone, D.W. and Brendan Watts (2019). , Studies in Political Economy, 99:1 (2018): 79-96. (with Brendan Watts).
Those interested in using the national survey data series should be able to access the data directly from the dataverse archive. For further assistance, please contact:
David Livingstone 鈥 dwlivingstone@gmail.com
Those interested in using the engineering or nursing case study survey data can consult the questionnaires and codebooks in this archive. Access to these specific data sets can be provided with permission of the lead investigators:
- Engineering Survey: Tracey Adams 鈥 tladams@uwo.ca
- Nursing Survey: Peter Sawchuk 鈥 peter.sawchuk@utoronto.ca
The new national survey coupled with trend analyses using the few comparable prior national surveys and more in-depth studies of professionals, and engineers in particular, will permit unique insights into the extent of change in the general occupational class structure, the extent of general skill use/under-utilization, and the recognition of specialized skills. This project will provide essential benchmarks for future research and policy. In this period widely claimed to be transformative of relations between work demands and training requirements, this evidence will be of vital aid for policy-making aimed at improving job design, occupational training, and optimal use of the general and specialized skills of the Canadian labour force.
Contact Us
To learn more about Changing Workplaces in a Knowledge Economy (CWKE) please email D.W. Livingstone at dwlivingstone@gmail.com.
Additional Notes
This project is supported by the .