The Design of “Future Work” in Industrial Contexts

AbstractThis chapter proposes to discuss work transformation management as a key issue to designing working conditions to ensure safe, healthy and performant work in a context of technological transitions. Here, we view the design of future work as a transition process and as a set of projects—social, organisational, technological—that will together shape a “future of work”. We consider lessons from the past regarding: (1) cooperation between workers and technology and (2) project management of work transformations, as resources to manage this transition. These lessons will be discussed with reference to ongoing research dealing with introduction of artificial intelligence (AI) or collaborative robotics at work in the French industrial context, as an illustration of the transformation of industry at a global level.