JUST TRANSFORM: Enabling a sustainable, just, and inclusive twin green-digital transformation

Norwegian economy and the labour market are undergoing a process of change to meet goals for a green transition. In many industries and sectors, digitalization is a central part of the solution. How will a twin green and digital transition affect the labour market? Vestlandsforsking, Norce, with support from IfM Engage (UK), will study this in the project JUST TRANSFORM. The study starts with exploring policy strategies at the global, European, national, and regional levels to investigate how narratives of sustainability and inclusion contribute to visions of a desired future. The next part focuses on the practical and organizational level, examining how political narratives about a sustainable future are reflected among key stakeholders in a region with active engagement in the green transition. Through labour market statistics, a survey, and interviews with business leaders and regional authorities, we examine how goals for the twin green digital transitions affect and are translated into practice in the region. In dialogue with educational institutions, we will investigate how the requirements and needs related to the new green and digital economy are reflected and prepared for in the education sector. Finally, we will interview employees in companies from the same region to build knowledge about how individuals experience participation alongside competence and skill requirements in a labour market striving to meet the demands of the green and digital transitions. Exploring individuals' access to opportunities and experiences of risk will provide insights into how a broader set of social categories such as gender, age, ethnicity, social background, and education enable or hinder participation in the new green-digital labour market. In this way, we aim to fill today's knowledge gaps regarding how different demographic groups are affected by new patterns in the labour market and develop recommendations for how to enhance just and equitable processes and outcomes.

This project will investigate how the twin green-digital transitions affect working life by studying policy, organization, and individual’s experiences, with the goal of identifying barriers and drivers for turning this into a more holistic sustainable, just, and inclusive transformation. The interdisciplinary team will break new ground by combining expertise in studies of i) digitalization of working life, ii) STS and feminist technology studies of exclusion and inclusion in information technology (IT) education and IT and digitalized work, and iii) just, fair, and inclusive perspectives on the green transition. The theoretical and methodological framework will develop the notion of transformation as a holistic and inclusive approach for a more sustainable and just future working life. The project will create insight into how policy narratives of the green and digital transitions enable or challenge the goal of an inclusive transformation, from global to national and regional structures. Studying working life organizations, from companies to employer and labour organizations as well as public authorities involved and invested in the green and digital transitions will create knowledge about drivers and barriers for inclusive mechanisms. Exploring individuals’ access to opportunities and experiences of risks will create insight into how a wider set of social categories such as gender, age, ethnicity, social background and education enable or hinder participation in the new green-digital working life. Approaching this knowledge gap involves moving boundaries between what has so far been politically and practically dealt with as separate processes of a green transition and a digital transition, and where questions of gender equality, diversity, and inclusion have rarely been a top priority in the policy documents and strategies.