Industrial employees in transformation

Project: Industrial Workers in Transformation

Duration: April 1, 2025 to March 31, 2027

HWR Berlin: Department of Economics 

Responsible for the project: Prof. Dr. Markus Wissen

Project participants at HWR Berlin: Dr. Jenny Simon; Dr. Tobias Kalt

Funded by: Hans Böckler Foundation

What motivated you to do this research?

The interest in socio-ecological alliances between the climate and labor movements.

What is the starting point?

The (industrial) political handling of the climate crisis under the auspices of international competition is driving company transformation processes towards a - nevertheless fiercely contested - “green capitalism”. Where decarbonization becomes practical as a concrete transformation of work processes, there is considerable potential for conflict - even in those companies for which a future of “climate neutrality” through technological modernization is emerging.

The level of company interest articulation and conflict resolution is therefore central to assessing the sustainability of ecologically modernized capitalism. At the same time, it is underexplored in the corresponding social science discussion. The image of the distressed job owner needs to be expanded to include subjective perceptions of the ecological crisis and its specific relationship to claims to justice.

What are the specific aims of the project?

Previous studies suggest that a clear majority of industrial employees have a pronounced awareness of ecological problems, but at the same time have a well-founded scepticism about the modernization processes they are experiencing. 

The project aims to shed light on

• how the handling of the ecological crisis becomes relevant at company level,
• the conflicts through which political decisions and social discourses are translated into company practice,
• how these are perceived by those employees who are affected by them in the work process,

The project team is particularly interested in

• how employees integrate the ecological issue into the formulation of their interests,
• how they deal with contradictions to other interests,
• what consequences this has for participation orientation,
• to what extent and in what form industrial employees take up the decarbonization discourse and link it to their own justice concerns.

How does the project team intend to achieve these goals?

First, the inter-company factors influencing the development of company decarbonization regimes are to be determined. The main empirical part consists of the comparative study of concrete decarbonization constellations and combines several qualitative methods: expert interviews, document analyses and company visits ensure the clear outline of the field; however, the focus is on interviews with employees in relevant transition situations. In a multi-stage evaluation process, the material is analyzed to determine how the interviewees weigh up their workplace-related interests and ecological concerns against each other or integrate them in their arguments. This ultimately makes it possible to understand the ecological modernization of production regimes in its contested nature in several arenas: in the socio-political and industrial policy arena, in the social partnership/company arena and in the work process-related arena.