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Decarbonising industry : A places-of-work research agenda

Eadson, Will ; van Veelen, Bregje LU and Backius, Stefan (2023) In Extractive Industries and Society 15.
Abstract

Deep decarbonisation of extractive and foundational industries will involve widespread social and economic change. Research on previous industrial restructuring has demonstrated that resultant changes will be geographically uneven, especially without countervailing state intervention. Such change has been shown to matter for both the nature and location of work in those industries as well as for the wider wellbeing of places. Concentrations of economic activity create place-based economic and sociocultural dependencies. As such industries and industrial work often become entwined with workers’ and communities’ cultural identities. It is important to understand implications of industrial change for work, for place, and – as we argue here... (More)

Deep decarbonisation of extractive and foundational industries will involve widespread social and economic change. Research on previous industrial restructuring has demonstrated that resultant changes will be geographically uneven, especially without countervailing state intervention. Such change has been shown to matter for both the nature and location of work in those industries as well as for the wider wellbeing of places. Concentrations of economic activity create place-based economic and sociocultural dependencies. As such industries and industrial work often become entwined with workers’ and communities’ cultural identities. It is important to understand implications of industrial change for work, for place, and – as we argue here – relations between work and place. Building from a semi-systematic review of existing literature on industrial decarbonisation, work and place, we extend prevailing political economic approaches to economic change, to also set out an original approach to decarbonising extractive and foundational industries, which we term ‘places-of-work’. This approach is embedded in acknowledgement of the deep economic and cultural relations between work and place, which also plays out in processes of industrial decarbonisation. The approach builds from cultural and feminist approaches to economic change to emphasise sets of interrelations important to study of industrial decarbonisation as geographic phenomenon. Such an approach means extending the role of the state not as solely, or even primarily, focused on provision of training or employment opportunities, but as requiring adoption of a place-based approach to remaking economic and cultural characteristics of a location and its people. In setting out our alternative agenda, we seek to develop new insights that enable us to understand how industrial transitions potentially act within, and impact upon, places and their cultural identities, and the role of the state in reinforcing and disrupting these to support just transitions.

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Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Cultural economy, Industrial decarbonisation, Just transition, Place, Political economy, Work
in
Extractive Industries and Society
volume
15
article number
101307
publisher
Elsevier
external identifiers
  • scopus:85166635700
ISSN
2214-790X
DOI
10.1016/j.exis.2023.101307
project
Changing places of work: A place-based approach for re-imagining work in fossil free industrial towns of the future
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
531d10eb-ec82-4832-ab26-30d837709d77
date added to LUP
2023-10-27 16:51:26
date last changed
2024-02-27 15:06:51
@article{531d10eb-ec82-4832-ab26-30d837709d77,
  abstract     = {{<p>Deep decarbonisation of extractive and foundational industries will involve widespread social and economic change. Research on previous industrial restructuring has demonstrated that resultant changes will be geographically uneven, especially without countervailing state intervention. Such change has been shown to matter for both the nature and location of work in those industries as well as for the wider wellbeing of places. Concentrations of economic activity create place-based economic and sociocultural dependencies. As such industries and industrial work often become entwined with workers’ and communities’ cultural identities. It is important to understand implications of industrial change for work, for place, and – as we argue here – relations between work and place. Building from a semi-systematic review of existing literature on industrial decarbonisation, work and place, we extend prevailing political economic approaches to economic change, to also set out an original approach to decarbonising extractive and foundational industries, which we term ‘places-of-work’. This approach is embedded in acknowledgement of the deep economic and cultural relations between work and place, which also plays out in processes of industrial decarbonisation. The approach builds from cultural and feminist approaches to economic change to emphasise sets of interrelations important to study of industrial decarbonisation as geographic phenomenon. Such an approach means extending the role of the state not as solely, or even primarily, focused on provision of training or employment opportunities, but as requiring adoption of a place-based approach to remaking economic and cultural characteristics of a location and its people. In setting out our alternative agenda, we seek to develop new insights that enable us to understand how industrial transitions potentially act within, and impact upon, places and their cultural identities, and the role of the state in reinforcing and disrupting these to support just transitions.</p>}},
  author       = {{Eadson, Will and van Veelen, Bregje and Backius, Stefan}},
  issn         = {{2214-790X}},
  keywords     = {{Cultural economy; Industrial decarbonisation; Just transition; Place; Political economy; Work}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  publisher    = {{Elsevier}},
  series       = {{Extractive Industries and Society}},
  title        = {{Decarbonising industry : A places-of-work research agenda}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.exis.2023.101307}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.exis.2023.101307}},
  volume       = {{15}},
  year         = {{2023}},
}