Skill and work experience in the European knowledge economy

‘networks of practice’ (Seely Brown and Duguid, forthcoming) to ensure that all parts
of an organisation are actively involved in sharing knowledge.

The demand for knowledge work in the European economy.

A number of significant developments have occurred over the last decade that have
been interpreted as confirming the shift towards a knowledge work in the EU economy.
The first development is that the process of industrial convergence has been widely
proclaimed as constituting evidence of the emergence of ‘knowledge-based’
production (Olivier et al 1999; Thurow 1999). Two different types of convergence
have been distinguished: ‘demand-driven’ and 'supply-driven' convergence. The former
occurs where customers have started to consider products offered by one industry as
interchangeable, for example, the competition between EU banking and insurance
industry for market dominance in providing financial services. The latter occurs when
products from different industries are perceived to work better together than separately.
For example, the breaking down of boundaries in ownership, and in product and
services development, in the telecommunications, computing and entertainment
industries. It has been argued that those industries at the heart of the process of
convergence constitute the ‘growth industries’ of the 21st century (Thurow 1999) and,
as a corollary, the industries where the demand for knowledge work will be most
evident (Coffee 1995). According to this view, therefore, knowledge work is
specifically a feature of employment in industries whose future development rests on
the continued application of scientific research.

The second development is that the significant decline in employment in the primary
and manufacturing (i.e. ‘blue collar’) sectors and a corresponding rise in employment

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