Universitetet i Agder: UiA Journal System
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Working Life in the Circular Economy: Taking Stock and Moving Forward
No full textThe circular economy (CE) has for long been an important strategy for sustainable development, promoting resource efficiency through reduce, reuse, and recycle. There is also a growing expectation that the CE may provide new jobs. However, working life dimensions of the CE are often treated separately from environmental and economic concerns. This is unfortunate given the impact that a transition to CE may have on salient issues in working life, including on job security, skills needed, occupational health and safety management (OHSM) and the cooperation between social partners. The lack of integration of environmental, economic and social concerns in CE also risks impeding goal achievement in several policy areas.
The present review article synthesises the existing scientific knowledge on a sustainable working life in the transformation towards a CE, and based upon the synthesis, critically explores the knowledge needs in relation to CE and working life: barriers and enablers; labour market changes; OHSM; skills requirements; the role for social partners; and policy challenges. A total of 2487 peer reviewed journal articles were identified, with 27 articles included in the review.
Future research should focus on creating and upscaling circular business models that promote transparency, collaboration, and value creation across supply chains, developing educational programs for stakeholders and the workforce. More research is required to evaluate existing policies, design effective policy frameworks, promote circular business models, and addressing employment opportunities and job security. Studies should also investigate how social partners can contribute to working life in the CE and identify necessary processes and agreements
Development Practices Supporting Resilient and Sustainable Production: Exploring Greenfield Projects
No full textThe green transition necessitates manufacturing companies to address climate change and incorporate sustainable and resilient solutions into their production. The best opportunity to achieve such solutions in production is during development, especially in greenfield projects with fewer constraints from existing production solutions. So far, the knowledge of how to achieve this is limited. Therefore, this paper aims to elaborate on how manufacturing companies can attain sustainable and resilient production. The focus is on development practices in greenfield projects and their relation to active ownership, collaboration and learning, potentially supporting the lasting impact of change initiatives.
The paper builds on results from a multiple case study, including three greenfield production development projects. A research design, involving 22 semi-structured interviews and four workshops, was applied. An analytical framework was developed to support the analysis, including active ownership, collaboration and learning. In total, 21 different development practices were identified and categorised into active ownership, collaboration, and learning. The paper contributes a new perspective on production development. As an alternative to the traditional planning-and-control perspective, a learning perspective on production development was applied, which is increasingly required for production development processes addressing new domains, such as the green transition.
Keywords:resilient production, sustainable production, production system, production development,green transition, workplace innovatio
Safe and Healthy Green Jobs : Challenges and Opportunities
No full textThe green transition builds on a change to fossil-free energy and to a circular economy. In a European context, the major policy initiative is the Green Deal. While this transition needs to be rapid, gains and losses of jobs need to be considered. This may have profound positive and negative effects for different occupational groups as greening of the jobs may both eliminate current risks (e.g. associated with fossil fuels), and introduce new ones. This article provides examples of such risks to occupational safety and health. It also discusse employment conditions and worker bargaining power in relation to the twin digital and green transition. In order to reduce negative effects of the green transition on the health and safety of workers, we suggest that there is an urgent need to establish strategies for Safe and Healthy Green Jobs. We proceed tosuggest steps towards such a Roadmap, and also indicate some key knowledge gaps.
Keywords
Green Deal, job gains and losses (eller Creative destruction?), occupational safety and health, circular economy, chemical health risks, twin transition, road-map for safe and healthy green job
The Job Quality Side of Climate Change
No full textClimate change is having a profound and transformative impact on the way we live and work. These impacts are direct, through the great shifts in temperatures and weather patterns which are being growingly felt across the globe, and indirect, through the measures and policies that are being deployed in order to tackle it. The Council recommendation on ensuring a fair transition towards climate neutrality confirm the endorsement of EU Member States towards “the imperatives of a just transition of the workforce and the creation of decent work and job quality”, which have been established in the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement. This idea motivated Eurofound in a recent report, “the Job quality side of climate change” to investigate how climate change impacts job quality through a literature review, the consultation of its European network of correspondents and some statistical analysis of the European Working Conditions Telephone Survey of 2021.
The article will first set the scene by describing job quality, and its main components, depicting the relationship between Green House Gas emissions (GHG) and the employment levels by sector of economic activity. The latter can suggest priorities for decarbonisation. Changes in jobs also occur as result of greening which is the process through which occupations adapt the content of their tasks to climate change with a significant impact on changes in the work performed and job quality in these occupations. It will then explore how job quality is expected to change due to climate change risks, and as a result of the greening of tasks and occupations. It will finally consider climate change as a possible driver to reinventing work, by changing the work processes involved in the current extraction, production, distribution and consumption systems which would also impact on the job quality of workers
Interkulturel læring for yngre elever: selektionskriterier til billedbøger i den tidlige engelskundervisning
No full textDet er en global trend, at engelsk udbydes fra 1. klasse, men der mangler viden om implementering af fagets kulturdimension for målgruppen. Nogle didaktiske læremidler kan kritiseres for stereotype fremstillinger af engelsksproget kultur, og det foreslås, at billedbøger kan udgøre et alternativ. Artiklens formål er at undersøge, hvordan man kan udvælge billedbøger, som kan styrke fagets kulturdimension og skabe affordans for interkulturel læring. Artiklen redegør for den teoretiske baggrund: kultur i eksisterende læremidler, billedbøger som alternativ og billedbøger til interkulturel læring. Herefter præsenteres, med afsæt i Critical Interpretive Synthesis (Dixon Woods et al., 2006), en gennemgang og syntese af fire sæt eksisterende kriterier for udvælgelse af sådanne billedbøger. Gennemgangen viser, at kriterierne hver for sig ikke er fyldestgørende til besvarelse af forskningsspørgsmålet. Med udgangspunkt i syntesen præsenteres efterfølgende et nyt sæt selektionskriterier. Afslutningsvis anvendes de udvalgte kriterier til en deduktiv, kvalitativ indholdsanalyse (Mayring, 2014) af én såkaldt realistisk og én postmoderne billedbog for at illustrere, hvordan de kan anvendes i praksis. Analysen peger på, at kriterierne er anvendelige ift. at skærpe bevidstheden om billedbøgers affordans for interkulturel læring for målgruppen
Exclusion and Inclusion Through a Discourse of Equality : Positioning the blue-collar worker in Industry 4.0
No full textBlue-collar steel industry workers have traditionally been engaged in hard, physical, manual labour, but with the transformation of Industry 4.0, the need for manual human labour is reduced. In this article we explore the consequences of this transformation for the constructions of discursive positioning of the blue-collar worker. Analysing the material from 89 interviews from five steel companies in Sweden we analyse the the linguistic constructions of concept: what the blue-collar worker is and might become in Industry 4.0, and the consequences this concept has for the blue-collar worker as object: who the blue-collar worker is, and who (s)he is not. This shows that blue-collar workers are constructed as skilled and equal to white-collar workers, but also as deskilled and standardized.
Furthermore, inclusion into this equal and standardized workforce is constructed as being based on abilities and experiences that are only shared by a fragment of the population; the young, well-versed, socially skilled, and fast learners, with permanent contracts. The study contributes with an understanding of how social polarization is taking place in contemporary industry and points to the need for management, labour unions and to take the constructions of social inclusion and exclusion in daily interactions in the workplace seriously, in order for the development towards an innovative, human-centric Industry 5.0 to become just and fair.
Keywords: blue-collar workers; Industry 4.0; upskilling; deskilling; equalit
Jobs and skills of production workers at manufacturing SMEs: An empirical exploration of smart technology adoption
No full textThe skillsets of production workers are crucial for the effective adoption of smart technologies which are largely shaped by job design. However, current literature lacks comprehensive insights into the skills and work designs of production workers in the context of Industry 5.0, thus hindering the successful adoption of Industry 5.0. Grounded in literature of work design and skills this study explores the required skills and perceived work design characteristics for adoption of smart technologies in Dutch SMEs in the context of AI, AR/VR, and Robotics. This qualitative study involved 19 semi-structured interviews with two groups: 6 work design experts and 12 professionals (managers and production workers). Results reveal a need to reassess traditional job profiles, as two distinct production workers roles emerge from the results. Machine operators face potential deskilling through low feedback from the job, task variety and job complexity, and foreman-production workers require additional skills due to job enlargement and enrichment. However, they seem to be put in this job role due to (1) the lack of various professional and transversal skills to fully utilize smart technologies, and (2) to accommodate a viable return on the technology investment. This highlights the importance of (1) balancing job resources and requirements in work design, (2) the usage of training programs for I5.0 skill development, and (3) understanding of contextual design elements of manufacturing systems that contribute to viable I5.0 adoption in SMEs. Finally, further research may investigate use-cases for viable smart technology adoption in an I5.0 context
Appropriation of SMART Glasses: A Qualitative Study on the Long-term Use of SMART Glasses in Healthcare
No full textSmart glasses could revolutionize healthcare workplaces. Despite pilot studies, long-term use insights are limited. This study examines nurses using smart glasses (Vuzix M400) for wound care over several years. In the use case presented in this study, nurses visit patients at home, consult remote experts via smart glasses, and treat patients accordingly. However, since knowledge about the long-term use and appropriation of smart glasses is scarce, this study aims to understand long-term use experiences through interviews with home care nurses (n=7), remote wound care nurses (n=7), and hospital managers (n=3). Data were analysed using directed content analysis, revealing four main themes: personal experience, collaborative experiences, unanticipated consequences, and future needs. Respondents reported personal habits, emotional aspects, and experiences when working with smart glasses. In collaboration through smart glasses, respondents mentioned the increased quality of care and the change in interdependencies. Furthermore, working together via smart glasses had an impact on care at home as well. The consequences of the long-term use of smart glasses led to more feedback between nurses and patients, and to shifts in tasks between stakeholders. Future needs for smart glasses lie in further coordination with various stakeholders: patients, colleagues, IT, management, and developers of smart glasses. In conclusion smart glasses enable hands-free, high-quality home care, where an expert advises with a first-person perspective, the nurse learns new skills and a vulnerable patient can remain in the comfort of their environment. Despite it is currently cost increasing, it also saves time and space in the hospital
Bridging Motivation: Improving L2 writing motivation via review-based bridging activities:
No full textMotivation is essential for second language learning but is not always forthcoming in the context of Danish high school teaching of L2 English. The present study assesses the possibility of improving high school students’ L2 writing motivation through the use of a “review assignment,” i.e. a writing assignment wherein students review a self-selected piece of media. This assignment is constructed based on the “bridging activities” framework formulated by Steven L. Thorne and Jonathon Reinhardt (2008). By incorporating students’ extramural interests through student-selected texts, such an assignment is conducive to student autonomy, task relevance, and authenticity, all of which are beneficial to writing motivation. A mixed methods study of a Danish high school class was conducted, comprising two questionnaires and student interviews. It is concluded that the review writing assignment had a positive effect on the students’ L2 writing motivation through increased autonomy and relevance to the students’ extramural interests. Additionally, the study suggests that the main hindrance to the effectiveness of motivation-enhancing bridging activities is the performance culture prevalent in Danish high schools
SMART Work Design and Modern Sociotechnical Theory: A marriage made in heaven?
No full textOrganisation designers responsible for organisational change and the introduction of new digital technologies may share an interest in ensuring good quality of work but often choose different angles. Some of them, likely with an HR background typically emphasise the importance of human needs and job satisfaction when it comes to work design. Others, like organisation designers with an operations management background, might focus more on the division of labour, work processes, and sociotechnical design aspects. Some organisation designers may highlight strategic and organisational choices as prerequisites for work quality, whereas others concentrate on person-environment-fit approaches.
However, to ensure a good quality of work in the digital era, it is much more helpful if organisation designers apply a common lens. Recently, we have observed a convergence in the field of organisational and work sciences with the development of the SMART work design model; this approach integrates individual, team, and organisational elements, linking human needs, job characteristics, and organisational conditions. Previously, researchers in Europe had already connected sociotechnical design thinking to organisational design principles for production layouts and work quality criteria, particularly characteristic of the modern sociotechnical approach (MST) of the Low Countries.
This conceptual and essayistic article aims to spark a discussion on how elements of the SMART work design approach and MST can be integrated into a comprehensive approach where organisation designers can collaborate with a common language. The article argues that the WEBA tool, a method to analyse jobs from both a human needs and organisational design perspective, can serve as a bridge in this context.
Key words: work design; modern sociotechnology; quality of work; organisational design; job desig