job-LIFE project

The seventh international conference of territorial intelligence, held in Salerno from 4th to 6th of November achieved its two goals.

It showed that culture can be considered as the fourth pillar of sustainable development and that it constitutes an important element in the development of territories.

It helped organize the convergence of the research axes of the ENTI, European Network of Territorial Intelligence and the guidance of call for the projects for FP7, the 7th Framework Program for Research and Development of the European Union, published on 30th of July.

The conference brought together nearly one hundred participants from nineteen countries worldwide, and there were fifty participants online. Over one hundred people visited the blog of the conference every day.

After the end of the coordination action caENTI, supported by the FP6 from March 2006 to February 2009, ENTI had reorganized its research axes, as well as its research and dissemination activities in the continuity of caENTI.

The previous editorial presented in a global way the overall objective and axes of research of the project " Future jobs for a better life ", answer of the ENTI to the call for project of the 7th Framework Programme for Research, Technological Development and Demonstration Activities of the European Union FP7), in the theme “ Socio-economic Sciences and the Humanities” in the topic “Creating and adapting jobs in Europe in the context of a socio-ecological transition”.

The present editorial focuses on the objectives of the axis of research called { life quality}: “Work, territories and life quality in the combination of the objectives of the sustainable development”.

This axis aims at drawing a prospective analysis of the mutations of work in a global comparative approach of European territories development.

Worldwide mutations towards a sustainable development suggest a multi dimensional and integrated life system in which work is a genuine part. Articulation between “work side”, “social side” and “countryside” designs the quality level of human life, so called wellbeing or life quality.

Nevertheless, these variations and gaps remind difficult to affirm rigorously, as social and ecologic indicators suffer from a lake of territorial definition. Work as an integrating part of life quality can’t be defined through the exclusive economic dimension; therefore, it can’t answer the pure economic objective, as this last more responding to financial and market solicitations than to a quantitative and qualitative job progress.

After a paper about the main objectives of the project Job-LIFE and another one about the research Axis {life quality}, the present editorial introduces a second research axis of the project: {job system}.

It was elaborated in the Framework of the project " Future jobs for a better life " (Job-LIFE), which is an answer of the ENTI to the call for project of the 7th Framework Program for Research, Technological Development and Demonstration Activities of the European Union FP7, in the theme “Socio-economic Sciences and the Humanities” in the topic “Creating and adapting jobs in Europe in the context of a socio-ecological transition”.

This axis “Territorial job systems, innovation and governance for creating and adapting jobs in the socio-ecological transition”, will focus on the identification of territorial trends of creation and adaptation of employment in the framework of the current socio-ecological transition. It will address positive experiences of social and ecological innovation and discuss the characteristics of territorial governance of employment systems in order to detect those that are potentially favorable to the creation and the adaptation of jobs in this new context...