Meeting climate targets through a ‘green transition’ will involve widespread changes for industries, work, and society. Enabling a successful and effective ‘green transition’ that minimises social opposition also requires socially and economically just outcomes, i.e. a Just Transition.

This project seeks to address this timely issue by:

1. Identifying the ‘state of the art’ of research on Just Transitions. How has the research field progressed in the last five years, and what are the current key gaps of knowledge?

2. Identifying how Just Transition approaches are implemented in different geographical and sectoral contexts, as well as the role of different actors (e.g. policy makers, industry, unions).

This collaboration would develop further our current research focus on the impact of transitions in the Swedish steel industry on industrial towns and the relevance of skills for energy transitions in the UK (e.g. offshore wind). Through our respective research and initial discussion, we have identified emerging trends and remaining gaps in existing research, including: workers’ skills; the distribution of future ‘green’ jobs; the role of cultural factors such as workers identities; and the role of different actors, such as unions in securing a Just Transition. However, through our initial conversation we realised these research gaps look different depending on (1) the academic discipline one is situated in; (2) the empirical context of the research (Sweden vs UK); the sectoral focus (steel vs renewables); (4) as well as other factors, such as whether these industries are geographically concentrated or dispersed, onshore or offshore.

Through these workshops we seek to bring together researchers from Scotland and Sweden working on questions of a Just Transition and work(ers) to develop an interdisciplinary and international understanding of these issues.

The first workshop will be implemented on the 13-14 June 2024 in Edinburgh, and will focus on the establishment of a research agenda (state of the art, knowledge gaps, future research directions).