Nordic manufacturing in transition - Perspectives on digitalization and skill requirements

• Drawing on a qualitative study of companies in the male-dominated manufacturing sector constituting a corner-stone of the Nordic labour market models, Chapter 4 shows not only that digitalization blurs existing boundaries between white-collar and blue-collar workers, but also that different digital technologies are linked with different patterns and opportunities for upskilling between different groups of employees. Based on 65 interviews with representatives of plant management, local trade unions and employees at eight industrial sites in Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland, the study examines the micro-level processes that condition different priorities and organizational responses to the emerging demands for digital skills, changes in work organization and upgrading of work in practice. Especially for bluecollar workers, where unskilled jobs tend to disappear (or be outsourced), the changes in job content, skill requirements, job demarcations, and health and safety conditions were mainly perceived as an upgrading of work (for those who remained). By moving beyond descriptions of digitalization as a coherent, unitary force and distinguishing between the digitalization of production, administration and communication, the chapter identifies significant variation in how the industrial actors respond to the demand for upskilling. While bringing clear prospects for job upgrading among most blue-collar workers, white-collar workers do not experience similar opportunities to rise in the occupational structure, but rather, encounter intensified individualized demands within existing positions to keep themselves updated and agile.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Annan samhällsvetenskap -- Arbetslivsstudier (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Other Social Sciences -- Work Sciences (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Annan samhällsvetenskap -- Övrig annan samhällsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Other Social Sciences -- Other Social Sciences not elsewhere specified (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Sociologi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Sociology (hsv//eng)

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

kap (subject category)