Do not steel our identities! Industry, identity, and its implications for a green steel transition in Oxelösund, Sweden

Sammanfattning

To achieve established climate objectives, Sweden must effectively target its carbon-intensive steel industry. This study offers a social perspective on the Swedish steel industry's decarbonization, exploring how workers’ identities shape their experience of the transition. Social identity theory is utilised to explore what elements shape steelworkers’ collective and occupational identities in the context of Oxelösund’s steel industry. Through semi-structured interviews with white- and blue-collar workers, retired and non-retired, the study investigates how structural changes have reshaped workers´ identities and how identity shapes workers' perceptions of the transition. The study reveals blue-collar workers experiencing their collective and occupational identities diminishing, influencing their attitudes towards the transition and their ability to cope with change. This thesis proposes that workers’ identities could have a dual role towards the green steel transition in either supporting or opposing it. Finally, the study highlights the need to further consider workers’ identities in green steel transitions.