June 3, 2016
Announcements:
Workplace Democracy for the 21st Century
On June 16th, the Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources (CIRHR) in conjunction with the Broadbent Institute and Woodsworth College at the University of Toronto, is hosting a free event you won't want to miss: Workplace Democracy for the 21st Century.
To combat precarious work, enhance job satisfaction, increase productivity and support decent wages and working conditions, critical new thinking is needed. Come take part in an afternoon of thought-provoking speakers and panels including remarks by Institute Chair Ed Broadbent. As part of this event, we're excited to be releasing an important new discussion paper.
You can register here.
The event, which runs from 2:00 to 5:00 with a reception to follow, is free but seating is limited and registration is required.
We hope to see you on June 16th at Innis College Town Hall, University of Toronto (2 Sussex Ave.)
Calling all alumni -- We need your memories!
Now is the time to put those journalistic urges to pen and paper, or rather keyboard, and send us a few words (fond or irreverent) on your time at the Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources. Please write to us at cirhr.library@utoronto.ca with your memories and stories by June 10, 2016 so they can be shared at the CIRHR 50th Anniversary Celebration on Friday June 17, 2016: The Face of Work: Honouring the Past and Charting a Future for IR/HR Research and Practice.
Thank you to everyone who has written to us so far!
Follow us on the CIRHR Library Tumblr and on the CIRHR Library Twitter.
- Perspectives on 'My Millennial Life'
- Work-Integrated Learning for All
- Canadian Guidelines for Optimal Internships
- Canadian Intern Rights Guide
- Changing Expectations for Young Workers
- Do Private Career College Grads Get Careers?
- Promoting Decent Work
- LA Leads the Way
- Workplace Automation: Better Jobs or None at All?
- The Virtues of Working Less
- Quantity vs Quality in ESG Information
- Looking for a Union Label?
- Why Have France's Labour Reforms Proved so Contentious?
- Global Slavery Index 2016
Perspectives on 'My Millennial Life'
“The documentary -- streaming nationally on TVO.org -- is a major work about the current twentysomething generation. It’s made by Maureen Judge (and produced with Charlotte Engel), who has an excellent track record in documentaries ... and a deft hand in revealing ordinary people in emotional detail without any contrivance.”
“She followed the subjects over a long period and most are revealed to be more flexible and thoughtful than they first appear. The world they land in, looking for jobs and success, is more demanding and cruel than they expect. Yes, some feel entitled in a way that makes your skin crawl. Most, mind you, learn to readjust and tailor themselves and their expectation to that cruel world.”
“Yes, I’d still like to remind some of them that there’s no shame in working at jobs that simply pay the bills. But, no, one cannot have contempt for them -- only sympathy, in the end.”
The Globe and Mail, May 27, 2016: “John Doyle: Important statement about millennials -- please have sympathy,” by John Doyle
“You could watch My Millennial Life or parse millennial research and come to the conclusion that young people with big dreams are screwed here and now, in this particular moment. But you could also just as easily conclude that young people with big dreams have always been kind of screwed, then, now, and forevermore.”
“The real difference these days, economics and technology aside, is that our parents are obsessed with us. How else to explain the intense and constant focus on our success and behaviour? It’s as if their impulse to remind us again and again how special we were (even when we weren’t) has morphed into a contradictory compulsion to constantly remind us how massively screwed we are. The upshot? If we were never really as special as they claimed we were, it’s unlikely we are just as screwed.”
The Toronto Star, May 29, 2016: “The struggle has always been real for young people: Teitel,” by Emma Teitl
Work-Integrated Learning for All
"Every university and college student in Canada should participate in a co-op, internship or other workplace experience before they graduate, a group of business, university and college leaders says, arguing that students in arts and humanities must participate as well as those in engineering and business.”
“The group, formally known as the Business-Higher Education Roundtable, [unveiled] an initial plan to work toward the goal of ensuring that 100 per cent of students participate in work-integrated learning. The aim is to address long-running concerns that many postsecondary students lack the skills and experience businesses are seeking, and often end up in jobs for which they are overqualified.”
“Although the group has been ambitious in setting a target, many questions remain about how they will achieve it. No deadline accompanies the release and members of the roundtable said they are more than a year away from developing benchmarks. Universities will also need time to adapt highly theoretical programs such as philosophy to include credit for one or more work terms.”
“For now, areas that will be first to expand the number of work-integrated learning opportunities include advanced manufacturing, cybersecurity and IT. Companies participating include TransAlta Corporation, Linamar, Microsoft, IBM, RBC, Telus and Clearwater Fine Foods Inc. Including arts, humanities and social-science students will be one of the most challenging parts of fulfilling the promise, members of the roundtable recognize.”
The Globe and Mail, June 2, 2016: “Group wants workplace stints for all postsecondary students,” by Simona Chiose
Business Council of Canada, June 2, 2016: “Every university and college student should have access to work-integrated learning, business and post-secondary leaders say”
Business-Higher Education Roundtable, April 27, 2016: “Speech to the Universities Canada Governing Council Chamber meeting: An agile future through work-integrated learning,” by Dave McKay
Canadian Guidelines for Optimal Internships
“In today’s ruthless job market internships often give students a competitive edge. But what makes for a valuable experience? And how do you measure success? Researchers from U of T’s Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education are addressing these long overdue questions with Canada’s first post-secondary internship guidelines.”
“Under the Employment Standards Act, 2000, the Ontario Ministry of Labour provides legal guidance for placements, but the quality can vary dramatically. Students could learn valuable lessons each day, or they could learn how everyone takes their coffee.”
“The recommendations are set out in A Practical Guide for Work-integrated Learning, are based on the most current research and could be applied to any type of internship around the world, including placements, co-op programs, field experiences and work study.”
“What makes for an optimal internship? The guide outlines a concrete structure featuring explicit learning outcomes, hands-on practice, analysis and the opportunity to test new skills and ideas.”
U of T News, May 24, 2016: “U of T researchers create first Canadian guidelines for optimal internships"
Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario, April 19, 2016: “A Practical Guide for Work-integrated Learning: Effective Practices to Enhance the Educational Quality of Structured Work Experiences Offered through Colleges and Universities,” by Ashley Stirling, Gretchen Kerr, Jenessa Banwell, Ellen MacPherson and Amanda Heron (192 pages, PDF)
Metro News, May 31, 2016: “New guidelines aim to make internships more rewarding for UofT students,” by May Warren
Canadian Intern Rights Guide
"The Canadian Intern Association is very pleased to present the Canadian Intern Rights Guide, the first ever comprehensive publication on workplace rights for interns in Canada!”
“The Guide provides a summary of employment, health and safety, and human rights for interns in each province and the federal sector in the 'know your rights' section. The Guide also features 'claim back your pay' information, recommendations for law reform, and best practices for employers and academic institutions.”
Canadian Intern Association, March 2016: “Canadian Intern Rights Guide,” by Joshua Mandryk, Claire Seaborn, Jacob Schweda, Schenella Pinto, Amy Kishek, Yana Nedyalkova and Andrew Langille (56 pages, PDF)
Changing Expectations for Young Workers
“New technologies, disruptive innovation and global competition for talent are raising skill requirements and changing expectations for entry-level employees and future leaders, according to a new report from Aon Hewitt.”
“The study, Developing Canada’s Future Workforce: A Survey of Large Private-Sector Employers, is based on a survey of 90 leading Canadian companies. It found that large companies are putting a priority on recruiting and developing employees who can adapt to changing workplace and industry circumstances.”
“Aon Hewitt conducted the survey in partnership with the Business Council of Canada, as part of the Council’s National Conversation on Workplace Learning and Development. The participants include major banks and other financial services providers, retailers, manufacturers, telecommunications providers, energy producers, mining companies, food processors, transportation firms and real estate developers.”
“While respondents generally reported that post-secondary graduates are adequately prepared for the workforce, they noted that the ability to carry out basic functions is no longer enough for most entry-level jobs. Young workers are expected to take on more responsibility earlier in their careers.”
Market Wired, March 1, 2016: “Skill Requirements for Entry-Level Employees and Future Leaders Are Changing Rapidly, New Report Finds”
The Business Council of Canada, March 2016: “Developing Canada’s future workforce: a survey of large private-sector employers” (22 pages, PDF)
Decoding Declines in Youth Employment
“Education requirements for good jobs are getting higher, so finishing high school and earning a post-secondary credential like two or four-year college degrees, apprenticeships, or certifications are top priorities. But early work experiences can allow young people to learn new skills, gain experience, and expand networks. Evidence suggests that it can improve employment prospects down the line. And the earlier that people are exposed to the workplace, the earlier they learn such skills as teamwork, communication, and dependability -- skills that employers say are in short supply.”
Medium, June 1, 2016: “Decoding declines in youth employment,” by Martha Ross
The Brookings Institution, May 24, 2016: “Employment and disconnection among teens and young adults: The role of place, race, and education,” by Martha Ross and Nicole Prchal Svajlenka
Do Private Career College Grads Get Careers?
“Almost 40 per cent of the most highly rated private career colleges in Ontario appear to be failing to prepare students for the labour market, with a third of graduates at 58 out of 159 campuses unable to find any work six months after graduation.”
“The numbers, released by the provincial government this spring and analyzed by The Globe and Mail, raise renewed questions about whether public money should be used to help students attend the private institutions. Data were made public only for the schools the province has approved as eligible for financial aid.”
“Private colleges argue that they meet a need for fast diplomas that appeal to students with families, immigrants upgrading credentials obtained abroad or laid-off workers training for new careers. Changes to financial aid announced in this spring’s budget will make it easier for mature students to access grants and loans. That means the $200-million the province spent providing OSAP to those enrolled in private postsecondary institutions will also go up.”
The Globe and Mail, May 20, 2016: “Ontario’s private-college grads not finding jobs, provincial numbers show,” by Simona Chiose
Ontario Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities, April 19, 2016: “Key Performance Indicators for Private Career Colleges” (Detailed report: 204 pages, PDF)
The Globe and Mail, May 26, 2016: “Career colleges protect student choice for post-secondary education,” by Serge Buy and Sharon Maloney
The Wall Street Journal, May 26, 2016: “College Isn’t Always the Answer,” by Jeffery J. Sellingo
Quartz, May 24. 2016: “New college grads don’t care about good jobs so much as good pay,” by Amy X. Wang
Promoting Decent Work
“Social enterprises fill an important gap in Manitoba’s economy for those struggling to enter the workforce. The Manitoba provincial government has seen the value of investing in social enterprises through funding training and procuring housing retrofit services. This in combination with financing from the Manitoba Hydro Pay As You Save (PAYS) program is producing great results. For instance, 194 people are employed in the six social enterprises involved in this study.“
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, May 25, 2015: “Creating Pride Through Decent Work,” by Josh Brandon and Molly McCracken (48 pages, PDF)
“Decent work sums up the aspirations of people in their working lives. It involves opportunities for work that is productive and delivers a fair income, security in the workplace and social protection for families, better prospects for personal development and social integration, freedom for people to express their concerns, organize and participate in the decisions that affect their lives and equality of opportunity and treatment for all women and men.”
International Labour Organization, May 27, 2016: “Decent Work”
International Labour Organization, May 27, 2016: “Video: Decent work key to ending poverty” (2:43 minutes)
International Labour Organization, May 27, 2016: “Mainstreaming decent work”
International Labour Organization, May 27, 2016: “Measuring decent work”
International Labour Organization, May 27, 2016: “Decent Work Country Programmes”
LA Leads the Way
“[Los Angeles] is in fact America’s wage theft capital. An estimated $26.2 million (U.S.) in wages are stolen from ordinary Angelenos every week. One in three Californian workers is low-wage -- about 4.8 million people. In short, it’s an unlikely source of inspiration for Ontarians who want better workplace protection. But ... that’s exactly what’s happened.”
“As Ontario’s Ministry of Labour prepares to release its interim report reviewing its employment and labour laws, California has spent the past two years forging ahead. Things are not perfect. But there is momentum.”
“The scale of California’s precarious employment problem is unique and perhaps unrivalled in North America. It is the world’s eighth-largest economy, with a population the size of Canada’s. At about the same time as its manufacturing dried up in the 1980s, the state gained 6 million new residents -- up to one-third of them undocumented, according to research by the Public Policy Institute of California. That, combined with a shift toward poorly paid, non-unionized jobs in sectors such as retail, makes California’s workers especially vulnerable. But in spite of -- or perhaps because of -- the scale of the problem, change is afoot”:
“The state has just implemented a new measure that gives it stronger tools to tackle wage theft.”
“In Los Angeles, city authorities are also introducing new robust mechanisms to confront the issue.”
“Fair scheduling, too, has become part of California’s reform agenda.“
The Toronto Star, May 30, 2016: “How America’s wage theft capital became an unlikely inspiration for Ontario,” by Sara Mojtehedzadeh
Ontario Ministry of Labour, May 2016: “The Changing Workplaces Review”
Ontario Ministry of Labour, February 2016: "Interim Update from the Changing Workplaces Review Advisors"
Workplace Automation: Better Jobs or None at All?
“ROSS is an artificial intelligence (AI) system developed by a team at the University of Toronto that has now spun out into a San Francisco startup. He’s won a place at a prestigious North American firm, where he’ll be working in bankruptcy law.”
“'ROSS is going to be able to be the smartest, most knowledgeable legal expert, but you still need some humans to be able to take the information that ROSS can give you and figure out how to use it,’ [Steve Engels, an associate professor in the teaching stream at the University of Toronto’s computer science department and one of the professors who taught the original course behind ROSS] said, calling combing through documents a ‘mundane, menial task.’”
“Jordan Furlong, an Ottawa-based consultant and legal market analyst, called ROSS the ‘the next level up’ in a longer-term trend of using AI in the legal field. Furlong said the rise of software like ROSS is ‘one of the many factors that are combining to reduce the demand for lawyers, especially the demand for new and relatively unskilled lawyers.’ But he said he’s ‘cautiously optimistic’ that ROSS will not put skilled entry-level lawyers out of work and instead will free them up to do less menial tasks.”
The Toronto Star, May 19, 2015: “Toronto developed robo-lawyer ‘hired’ by U.S. firm,” by May Warren
Inverse, May 27, 2016: “McDonald’s CEO Says Robot Workers Will Bring Employees Better Jobs, Not Replace Them,” by Claire Groden
The Globe and Mail, May 29, 2016: “Trump should blame technology, not trade, for factory job losses,” by Barrie McKenna
“Technological change may be bringing increased automation and even robots into our workplaces, but the continuing success of businesses will still be closely linked to the quality of the human talent they possess. The companies that recognize this are the ones that will thrive.”
The Globe and Mail, May 31, 2016: “The robots are coming, but companies still need to hire the best talent,” by Margaret Eaton and Tom Zizys
The Virtues of Working Less
“Nowadays, excessive work and pressure are status symbols. Moaning about too much work is often just a veiled attempt to come across as important and interesting. Time to oneself is sooner equated with unemployment and laziness, certainly in countries where the wealth gap has widened.”
“It doesn’t have to be this way. We have the ability to cut a big chunk off our working week. Not only would it make all of society a whole lot healthier, it would also put an end to untold piles of pointless and even downright harmful tasks (a recent poll found that as many as 37% of British workers think they have a 'bullshit job'). A universal basic income would be the best way to give everyone the opportunity to do more unpaid but incredibly important work, such as caring for children and the elderly.”
Quartz, May 31, 2016: “The solution to just about everything: working less,” by Rutger Bregman
YouGov UK, August 12, 2015: “37% of British workers think their jobs are meaningless,” by Will Dahlgreen
For Example:
“There’s only one way the lot of working women is likely to change, according to the director of the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, Libby Lyons, and that’s for men to take more time off. ‘I firmly believe that the way we are going to get real change in this area is by men embracing flexible work practices for themselves,’ she says.”
“One of her concerns is that women re-entering the workforce after parental leave are not being given managerial roles, if they wanted to do them on a part-time basis. WGEA figures, released in November 2015, showed that although 75.1% of part-time roles were held by women, demonstrating that women are much more likely than men to fit work around caring, only 6.3% of management roles were part-time.”
The Guardian, May 30, 2016: “Workplace equality depends on men embracing flexible hours, says gender office,” by Alexandra Spring
“After quitting her job at agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH), [ad woman Heidi Hackemer] founded her own agency, New York-based Wolf & Wilhelmine, to test whether it would be possible to work in the industry while allowing her employees work-life balance.”
“At Wolf & Wilhelmine, that required actual rules: her employees are not allowed to send e-mails after 7 p.m. or on Saturdays. (Sundays are okay but nobody is required to respond to an internal e-mail on Sunday.) They will be disciplined for sending e-mails or being connected to the office while on vacation. Employees who do not take their vacation time are ineligible for bonuses. Each week, the agency conducts a meeting where everyone estimates their workload for the week; if anyone is in danger of exceeding 40 hours that week, work is shifted around or freelancers are brought in to help. All of this is disclosed to clients up front before they begin working together.”
The Globe and Mail, May 20, 2016: “’Can we do the work without killing ourselves?’ Ad executive enforces shorter workdays,” by Susan Krashinsky
Quantity vs Quality in ESG Information
“The market for environmental, social and governance (ESG) information is growing. Investors and other stakeholders are increasingly looking at the business world through a wide-angle lens. They realize that long-term sustainable financial success requires looking beyond the current quarter to the longer term.”
“Stakeholders understand, for example, that managing waste, energy and water use and greenhouse gas emissions, providing safe working conditions and incorporating diversity into decision-making are smart business practices. Exceeding minimum environmental and safety standards can pay off with improved performance over the long term and an enhanced reputation for good management.”
“Organizations are responding to stakeholder demand for this information by investing significant thought, time and money reporting about ESG issues in voluntary sustainability reports.”
“The increased focus on sustainability reporting is beginning to morph into a debate about quantity versus quality. Despite the amount of information being provided, many users claim that these reports fail to provide concise, integrated and reliable pictures of organizations.”
Corporate Knights, May 20, 2015: “Quantity versus quality,” by Julie Desjardins and Rosemary McGuire
KPMG, May 18, 2016: “Carrots & Sticks: Global trends in sustainability reporting regulation and policy” (34 pages, PDF)
KPMG, 2015: “Currents of change: The KPMG Survey of Corporate Responsibility Reporting 2015" (48 pages, PDF)
PricewaterhouseCoopers, July 20, 2015: “Sustainability disclosures - Is your company meeting investor expectations?" (2 pages, PDF)
Looking for a Union Label?
”If you pick up a standard piece of clothing from J.C. Penney -- say, a pair of Levi’s, or a plaid shirt, you’re likely to notice a few things about the clothing item. Generally, the wearable will have a handful of tags hidden somewhere, including one that prominently features the logo of the company.”
“But before we became obsessed with brands, labels generally had another source: It was a way for labor unions to show their strength.”
“At the turn of the 20th century, union labels were used by a variety of labor groups, both inside and outside of unions. In fact, the first example of such labels came from cigar-makers in 1874, who used it as a way to highlight the higher product quality compared with products made elsewhere.”
“But the most famous use of this tactic came from clothing-makers, particularly the International Ladies Garment Workers’ Union (ILGWU), which used the tags almost as a branding strategy for the union. In fact, the union became noted in the '70s and early '80s for its television commercials, in which members of the union sing a ditty called "Look for the Union Label.”
Tedium, May 30, 2016: “The roots of modern clothing labels start with unions,” by Ernie Smith
Garment Labels for Sustainable Consumption
“Avery Dennison, a packaging and labelling company, has come together with Evrything, a London-based internet-of-things start-up, to create over the next three years a web identity for over 10 billion pieces of apparel. This partnership will enable companies to track products for supply-chain purposes and decreasing waste. It will also empower customers to check the manufacturing history of these products and provide them with recycling options.”
“Even as consumers demand better accountability from companies, few change their own consumption patterns. This demand seldom translates into sustainable consumption. Most consumers are blocked by availability, affordability and their own scepticism. Transparency offered by technology and consistent and effective customer service can alter the public perception about green claims.”
Medium, June 1, 2016: “Sustainable consumption and the fourth industrial revolution,” by Sarita Nayyar
RFID 24-7, April 18, 2016: “Born Identity: Avery Dennison & EVRYTHNG Ink Largest IoT Deal”
Why Have France's Labour Reforms Proved so Contentious?
“The reforms that have plunged France into strike chaos ... are aimed at simplifying and relaxing the country’s labour laws, mainly by giving individual companies greater leeway to make more decisions about hiring, firing, pay and working hours according to economic conditions, rather than being constrained by collective-bargaining procedures.”
“The reforms, which were forced through this month without parliamentary approval, are fiercely opposed by the hardline CGT union, which sees them as an attempt to undermine union power and sector-based labour deals, students and other protestors on the left -- including some in the Socialist party -- who regard them as unacceptably pro-business.”
“Initially approved by many economists and businesses, the reforms are now largely rejected by the country’s main employers’ associations, because the government has been forced to water them down significantly in an attempt to gain popular support.”
“The World Economic Forum’s rankings of the most competitive countries includes Sweden, Norway and Finland, which have similar employment protections to France, showing that winning foreign investment and creating jobs is about more than just attacking workers’ rights.”
The Guardian, May 26, 2016: “Why have France’s labour reforms proved so contentious?,” by Jon Henley and Phillip Inman
CBC News, May 26, 2016: “French dock workers throw smoke bombs as labour reform protests escalate,” by Raphael Satter and Angela Charlton
Reuters, May 30, 2016: “Pilots, oil workers strike as France seeks way out of crisis,” by Emmanuel Jarry and Ingrid Melander
The Washington Post, May 30, 2016: “French unions plan strikes to disrupt trains, ports, flights"
“Buried inside a hotly contested French labor reform bill is an amendment suggesting that companies of 50 or more employees draft formal policies to limit the spillover of work, specifically as it’s related to 'digital technology,' into the private lives of employees. This, according to the BBC, would involve establishing a policy that specifies hours when employees aren’t supposed to send or receive email.”
The Huffington Post, May 25, 2016: "French Legislation Suggests Employees Deserve The Right To Disconnect," by Dominique Mosbergen
BBC News, May 11, 2016: "The plan to ban work emails out of hours,” by Hugh Schofield
Global Slavery Index 2016
“India is home to the largest number of enslaved people in the world. A little over 18 million people -- equal to the entire population of Chile -- are victims of modern slavery in Asia’s third-largest economy, according to the Global Slavery Index, published by Australia-based human rights group Walk Free Foundation. Such persons are often engaged in domestic work, construction, farming, fishing, manual labour, forced begging, and in the sex industry.”
“Across the world, nearly 46 million people are held as modern slaves, the report said. Of these, 58% are currently in India, China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Uzbekistan. Meanwhile, North Korea has one out of every 20 persons, or 4.7% of the entire population, enslaved -- the highest proportion in the world.”
“The index was created by Walk Free Foundation along with US-based market research firm, Gallup. Together, they interviewed over 42,000 respondents in 52 languages across the world. In India, they conducted surveys in 15 states, covering 80% of the population, the report said.”
Quartz, May 31, 2016: “India has 18 million modern slaves -- at least five times more than any other country in the world,” by Manu Balachandran
The Global Slavery Index website
The Global Slavery Index, May 31, 2016: “The Global Slavery Index 2016 Report” (216 pages, PDF)
The Globe and Mail, May 31, 2016: “Global Slavery Index says 45.8 million people trapped in servitude”
“Canada is among 12 nations with the lowest estimated prevalence of modern slavery, according to the charity. The index put Canada’s population at 35,871,000 with an estimated 6,500 or 0.018 per cent people living in slavery.”
Global News, May 31, 2016: “There are 6,500 slaves in Canada, nearly 46 million worldwide: charity,” by Adam Frisk
Book of the Week
A New Culture of Learning: Cultivating the Imagination for a World of Constant Change, by Douglas Thomas and John Seely Brown. Lexington, Ky. : CreateSpace, 2011. 137 p. ISBN 9781456458881 (pbk.)
From the publisher: "The 21st century is a world in constant change. In A New Culture of Learning, Douglas Thomas and John Seely Brown pursue an understanding of how the forces of change, and emerging waves of interest associated with these forces, inspire and invite us to imagine a future of learning that is as powerful as it is optimistic. Our understanding of what constitutes 'a new culture of learning' is based on several basic assumptions about the world and how learning occurs: The world is changing faster than ever and our skill sets have a shorter life; Understanding play is critical to understanding learning; The world is getting more connected that ever before -- can that be a resource?; In this connected world, mentorship takes on new importance and meaning; Challenges we face are multi-faceted requiring systems thinking & socio-technical sensibilities; Skills are important but so are mind sets and dispositions; Innovation is more important than ever -- but turns on our ability to cultivate imagination; A new culture of learning needs to leverage social & technical infrastructures in new ways; Play is the basis for cultivating imagination and innovation. By exploring play, innovation, and the cultivation of the imagination as cornerstones of learning, the authors create a vision of learning for the future that is achievable, scalable and one that grows along with the technology that fosters it and the people who engage with it. The result is a new form of culture in which knowledge is seen as fluid and evolving, the personal is both enhanced and refined in relation to the collective, and the ability to manage, negotiate and participate in the world is governed by the play of the imagination. Typically, when we think of culture, we think of an existing, stable entity that changes and evolves over long periods of time. In A New Culture of Learning, Thomas and Brown explore a second sense of culture, one that responds to its surroundings organically. It not only adapts, it integrates change into its process as one of its environmental variables. Replete with stories, this is a book that looks at the challenges that our education and learning environments face in a fresh way."
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