Professor Karen Evans has been working with colleagues in Australia and the United States to bring to fruition the new Sage Handbook of Learning and Work.
Published by Sage in November 2021, the Handbook brings together 40 chapters which, taken together, paint a picture of how scholars from around the world view developments in both theory and practice, and map the shifts in learning and work over the past two decades.
Members and associates of LLAKES, over its 3 phases of work, are among the authors. In this, the third decade of the 21st Century, work is changing rapidly around us. Fresh insights from authors who can take the long view on enduring challenges in the development of work and learning are enriched with contributions from new generation researchers to the field.
The Handbook was produced in the time immediately before and during the Covid19 pandemic. The short -term effects on work and employment might or might not be transformative for future directions. Acceleration of so-called ‘flexibilisation’ afforded by increased use of contract-based employment is already called for by some employers – an intensification rather than a transformation.
At the same time, the insecurities of such work have been harshly exposed, leading to new momentum for advocates of Universal Basic Income and proponents of greater investment in the public services and key workers on which whole systems have been shown to rely.
The case for creation of jobs to support the greening of economies has also been boosted. While claims that the world of work is about to undergo fundamental transformation might be overstated, our aim in this collection has been to generate debate on ideas and perspectives that will have increasing salience in the decades to come.
Download: Sage Handbook of Learning and Work