Contact info

For Library research help, please contact Moninder Lalli Liaison Librarian for Labour Studies by email moninder_lalli@sfu.ca or Ask a librarian.

Research process

Start Your Research Here - This page gives you an overview of the research process, or in other words how to find materials for your essay.

Selected encyclopedias and handbooks

Use encyclopedias, dictionaries and handbooks to obtain definitions and overviews of a topic and also to identify key authors.

• Cambridge handbook of the changing nature of work
• Handbook Global History of Work
• Handbook of labor economics
• Handbook of Globalisation
• Handbook on globalisation and labour standards
• Handbook of Migration and Globalisation
• Handbook of research on the global political economy of work
• Handbook on the international political economy of gender 
• New Forms of Employment: Current Problems and Future Challenges
• Routledge handbook of the gig economy
• Sociology of work : an encyclopedia 

Find journal articles

Databases let you easily to search for articles from within scholarly journals for a discipline.

• How to find journal articles tutorial. 
• What is a scholarly (or peer-reviewed) journal?

If the full-text of the article is not available within the database then use the "Get@SFU" link to find it or to initiate an inter-library loan request.

• Sociological Abstracts - indexes journals in Sociology, labour studies and other social sciences
• Social Sciences Full Text - journals, covering the latest concepts, theories and methods from both applied and theoretical aspects of the social sciences
• Business Source Complete - information in virtually every area of business including accounting & tax, banking, finance & insurance, economics, labour, human relations
• Econlit - Index to economics journals and working papers.
• ScienceDirect - Ebooks and journal articles on science and medicine, from Elsevier.

Data

• OECD iLibrary  Publications from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, including country studies, forecasting publications, reports, periodicals, and socio-economic databases. Topics covered include agriculture, developing economies, education, employment, energy, environment, migration, social issues, and sustainable development.

For more databases, try Labour Studies Databases

Find books

The Library Catalogue provides access to books, journal articles, videos, government documents and much more.  To limit the search results to "books", use the filter (left-hand column in search results) to "resource type" of "books."

Library Catalogue search guide

Search the SFU Library Catalogue, either the Basic or the Advanced search

Note: In the searches below, search results have been limited to "Online Resources only" and "Resource type" of "Books" or "book chapters". You can further limit by using "Subject" (left-hand column)

• precar* AND (work* OR jobs OR employ*)
  • limited by selected subjects
• precar* AND (work* OR jobs OR employ*) AND (future OR trend* OR outlook OR forecast OR projection)
• ("skilled labour" OR "skilled labor" OR "unskilled labour" OR "unskilled labor") AND class AND ("technological change" OR automation or robot* or ai or artificial intelligence) 
• (feminization OR gender* OR female*) AND (work* OR jobs OR employ*)
• (unions OR "collective bargaining") AND (future OR trend* OR outlook OR forecast OR projection)
• (work OR jobs) AND (future OR projection* OR predict*)
• (labour OR labor) AND (technol* OR "artificial intelligence") AND (future OR forecast* OR projection*)
  • results limited to "books" or "book chapters" and selected "subjects"
• ("knowledge-based economy" OR "sharing economy") AND (labor OR labour OR worker* OR jobs)
• (labor OR labour OR worker* OR jobs) AND "technological innovat*"
• (labor OR labour OR worker* OR jobs) AND "skills" AND future
• "post-industrial society"
• "global political economy" AND (labor OR labour OR worker* OR unions)

Combine different concepts using AND
Combine same concepts using OR
Use quotation marks to search for a phrase
Use brackets for synonyms
Use asterisk (*) for different endings of words

Use pulldown menu and select, "Source Types" as "Books"

Note:  For Catalogue Search, when combining concepts, use CAPITAL letters ( "OR", "AND")

Selected books

• Best jobs for the 21st century
• Contemporary work and the future of employment in developed countries
• Decent Work: Concept, Theory and Measurement
• Digital Economy and the New Labor Market: Jobs, Competences and Innovative HR Technologies
• Digital is destroying everything : what the tech giants won't tell you about how robots, big data, and algorithms are radically remaking your future
• Digital labour and Karl Marx
• Digital transformation of labor : automation, the gig economy and welfare
• Digital work and the platform economy : understanding tasks, skills and capabilities in the new era
• Digitisation and Precarisation: Redefining Work and Redefining Society
• Digitalization of work : new spaces and new working times 
• Disintegrating democracy at work labor unions and the future of good jobs in the service economy
• Dominant Divisions of Labor : Models of Production that have Transformed the World of Work
• Entreprecariat : everyone is an entrepreneur, nobody is safe [print]
• Fight Against Platform Capitalism: An Inquiry into the Global Struggles of the Gig Economy
• Fourth industrial revolution and the labour market : future-proofing work in the innovation economy
• Future of the factory : how megatrends are changing industrialization 
• Future of Work / Government of Canada
• Future of Work in Asia and Beyond
• Future of work, technology, and basic income
• Ghost work : how to stop Silicon Valley from building a new global underclass [print]
• Global platform work negotiating relations in a translocal assemblage
• Humans and Machines at Work Monitoring, Surveillance and Automation in Contemporary Capitalism
• Knowledge economy at work : skills and innovation in knowledge intensive service activities
• The job : Work and its future in a time of radical change 
• Laws of the knowledge workplace : changing roles and the meaning of work in knowledge-intensive environments
• Made to work : mobilising contemporary worklives
• Mapping precariousness, labour insecurity and uncertain livelihoods : subjectivities and resistance
• New Normal of Working Lives Critical Studies in Contemporary Work and Employment
• Non-standard Employment under Globalization : Flexible Work and Social Security in the Newly
• Precarious lives : Job insecurity and well-being in rich democracies 
• Protecting the future of work : new institutional arrangements for safeguarding labour standards
• OECD employment outlook 2019
• The realities and futures of work
• Rise of the robots : technology and the threat of a jobless future
• Sharing Economy: The End of Employment and the Rise of Crowd-Based Capitalism
• Size and Characteristics of Informal ('Gig') Work in Canada / Bank of Canada
• Surviving the Machine Age Intelligent Technology and the Transformation of Human Work
• The talent revolution : Longevity and the future of work
• Technologies of Labour and the Politics of Contradiction
• Technology and the future of work : the impact on labour markets and welfare states
• Temporary and Gig Economy Workers in China and Japan : The Culture of Unequal Work 
• Work and labor in the digital age
• Working Time, Knowledge Work and Post-Industrial Society Unpredictable Work
• Workplace of the future : the fourth industrial revolution, the precariat and the death of hierarchies
• World employment and social outlook : The changing nature of jobs [2015]

Find books by subject

Browse by Subject    (change the default "title" to "subject").  Browse by Subject will only result in books, not book chapters or journal articles.

• Employment forecasting
• Foreign workers
• Industrial relations -- Canada
• Industrial sociology
• International labor activities
• Knowledge workers
• Labor
• Labor and globalization
• Labor laws and legislation, International
• Labor movement -- History -- 21st century
• Labor supply -- Effect of technological innovations on
• Precarious employment
• Sociology of work
• Technological innovations -- Social aspects
• Technology - Sociological aspects
• Work - Forecasting
• Work -- Technological innovations

Government information

Canada

Government of Canada

• The future of work [2018]
  • "As part of Canada Beyond 150, our nine-person interdepartmental team looked at the changing nature of work: how automation, telepresence, aging, identity, and capital and asset formation can lead to prosperity and social inclusion....

Statistics Canada

• Labour
  • The Daily — Study: Projections to 2036 of the labour force in Canada and its regions Release published in The Daily – Statistics Canada's official release bulletin
     
  • Employment by industry, annual (14-10-0202-01) (Formerly CANSIM 281-0024) Geography: Canada, Province or territory
    Number of employees by North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) and type of employee, last 5 years. 
     
  • The labour force in Canada and its regions: Projections to 2036 (75-006-X201900100004) In this study, data from the Demosim microsimulation model are used to assess the labour force participation rate of Canadians in 2036 under various scenarios of population growth and participation rate ...

United States

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

• Employment Projections

International Labor Association Statistics (ILOSTAT) - database of labour statistics provides multiple datasets with annual and infra-annual labour market statistics for over 100 indicators and 230 countries, areas and territories, including annual indicators, short-term indicators, estimates and projects, and more.

International

• International Labour Standards
• Search: future of work
  • Results include results such as "Global Commission on Future of Work's report, "Work for a brighter future"
    • Among the key issues considered by the Commission are new forms of work, the institutional ramifications of the changing nature of work, lifelong learning, greater inclusivity and gender equality, the measurement of work and human well-being, and the role of universal social protection in a stable and just future of work.
       
  • International Labour Organization. (2015). World employment and social outlook : The changing nature of jobs. (World Employment and Social Outlook). International Labour Organization.

SourceOECD - includes statistical data on country studies, forecasting publications, reports, periodicals, and socio-economic databases. Topics covered include agriculture, developing economies, education, employment, energy, environment, migration, social issues, and sustainable development.

  Click on "Browse by theme" tab and choose "employment"
 

OECD Policy Forum on the Future of Work

Searching using Google

While searching the internet can find unexpected gems, be sure to evaluate the sources using the guide, "Evaluating sources"

• Use intitle: to force Google to find those words in the titles of results.  Use quotation marks ("") to search for phrases.  With a Google search the Boolean operator "AND" is assumed, so you don't need to use it in your search strategy.
   
  • intitle:"future of work"
     
• Use site: to specify results from a government web site
   
  • intitle:(future OR outlook) (work OR jobs OR skills) site:gov

For more, try Search Tips for Google and Google Scholar

Presentation skills and writing help

See the Student Learning Commons for expert and friendly help with academic writing, learning, and study strategies.

• Resources on developing your participation skills
• Resources to help you improve your presentation skills

Library guides

• Library Research Tutorials. Animated tutorials on search techniques for finding books and journal articles.
• Annotated bibliographies
• Evaluating sources
• How to find journal articles
• Library Catalogue search guide
• What is a scholarly (or peer-reviewed) journal?
• What is plagiarism?  Guide to common forms of plagiarism and how to avoid them