Digitalisation and Sustainable Work: obstacles and pathways:

Jan Jan Johansson; Lena Abrahamsson

doi:10.46364/ejwi.v6i2.801

Digitalisation and Sustainable Work: obstacles and pathways

The wolf is coming or God's gift to mankind

Jan Jan Johansson Luleå University of Technology https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1367-3277
Lena Abrahamsson Luleå University of Technology https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2840-8510

DOI: https://doi.org/10.46364/ejwi.v6i2.801

Abstract

Work is a central part of our lives in many aspects. Half of our awake time is for most of us performed as paid work. At work, we create the values we need to live the life we desire. At work, we are socialized and shaped into the human beings we are. We are all concerned about how our work will be in the future; will we be able to handle the new technology or will we be replaced by a robot? Do we see the new technology as The wolf is coming or God's gift to mankind? This is an existential question and the future work is shaped here and now. This means that we need to get a picture of what is happening so we can act, but we also need a vision of where we want to go. Our mission as a researcher is to find the pathways to the Sustainable work, but in order to to find the way, we sometimes have to take on the role of the wolf and ask the uncomfortable questions.

Author Biographies

Jan Jan Johansson, Luleå University of Technology

Jan Johansson is Professor in Industrial Work Environment since 1994. Johansson has been a member or the Swedish Research Council and the Swedish Research Councils Ethical Committee. He has also been Deputy Dean at Faculty of Technology and Head of department for Business Administration, Technology and Social Sciences. Johansson’s main research interest is new technology, work organisation and attractive work places.

Lena Abrahamsson, Luleå University of Technology

Lena Abrahamsson is Chair Professor in Human Work Science since 2016 and before that Chair Professor in Gender & Technology since 2013. Abrahamsson is currently Dean at the Faculty of Science and Technology. After she took her PhD in Human Work Science in 2000 she was post-doc at University of Wollongong, Australia, in 2001. Abrahamsson’s main research areas cover production and organisational changes, workplace learning and gender issues in industrial companies – with a strong focus on mining.

Published

2021-03-05

Issue

Vol. 6 No. 2 (2021): Special Double Issue: European Approaches to Sustainable Work

Section

Articles

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