Context-specific GE knowledge is essential for epistemic contribution, nuanced understanding, and practical GE work in the Arctic HEIs. However, there is a shortage of research regarding gender equality (GE) in these institutions. We explored GE in HEI, and conducted a review on the Scopus database focusing on GE research done in the Nordic countries of Norway, Sweden and Finland. The aim is to explore the produced GE research in an HEI context conducted by scholars affiliated with the Arctic Five universities. As a result, 24 articles met the inclusion criteria, most of which were published in Swedish universities (60%). Articles were dealing with; Academic careers, leadership and gender equality; Change agents and methods for reducing bias; Gendered constructions and gender equality; Discrimination and gender equality, and Entrepreneurship, innovation and gender equality, following mainstream gender equality research. Gender was often presented with binary division, women and men, and as opposite or distinctive from each other. However, some discussions went beyond binary gender categorizations—yet intersectional approaches were not prevalent. Arctic or northern contextualizations were not explicitly presented or elaborated in the studies, neither were Sámi research participants and Sámi researchers’ contribution.

This article discusses how changes in male-dominated work are connected to changes in gender constructions in the workplaces. The discussion is based on results from research conducted 2001–2021, mainly qualitative empirical studies of mine work. Although the development of the mining industry will not be as technologically deterministic and rapid as the usual dystopian and utopian visions predict, our research shows that there has already been changes that have affected mine work and workplaces. These changes have challenged the old, gendered mining workplace cultures and the implementation of new technology and reorganisation initially met resistance in the workplace. Workplace cultures seemed to be lagging behind in their acceptance of technological and organizational changes. The resistance was shaped in relation to intertwined masculinities and miner identities linked to the old ‘macho masculin-ity’, a form of local hegemonic masculinity built upon overarching myths and discourses about both mining and rural communities. The subsequent changes of mining work resulted in new gender encodings of the new technology and the new spaces of work – which created new organisational gender boundaries and new forms of inequality. At the same time, there are new forms of masculinities and feminini-ties emerging in mining organizations, which can provide openings for gender equality. Although mine work continues to be male dominated, we can see that new places, new technology, improved work environment and increased gender equality seem to imply that it has become difficult to preserve the old (‘macho’) miner masculinity and to maintain the gender marking of mining work as male and the image of the miner as male. As of now, the ‘green transition’ and the acceleration of new digital technologies implemented in mine work is beginning to shape the industrial workplaces of northern Sweden. The discourses of “green” and “technological transformation” are permeated by gendered preconceptions, by some expected to reshape the masculine workplace of the mine. Yet, our conclusion is that transformation of gendered structures in mining is not foremost dependent of technological change. Rather, we have seen complex connections between gender, technology, work and place for these male-dominated industrial workplaces, including processes of both stability and change, suggesting that changes in workplaces does not only challenge but also reproduce and reconfigure gender-based preconceptions and social constructions of gender.      

This document describes the Table & Swirl method, which is a quick visualization method for aspects of circular material streams. Use the method to structure and visualize information to understand and share aspects of material streams in a circular economy. It is a time efficient way to start interesting discussions on any topic related to a circular material stream. The method is built around the Table, a tool to in a structured way gather information and the Swirl, which provides quick visualization.

The feedback from our test workshops and end-users were: • ”An eye opener!” • ”First, I thought the model was too simple, then I realized how quickly we got into interesting discussions.”

This method was developed in the year 2023 by the Research Institute of Sweden (RISE) and Luleå University of Technology (LTU) in the joint project “Feasibility study: Five circular material streams for batteries“, which was financed by Energimyndigheten, the Swedish Energy Agency.

The aim with this article is to discuss how changes in technology at workplaces engender both change and restoration of gender constructions within the context of underground mining. The discussions are formed around a constructed case based on material from gender and organizational studies of large-scale industrial mines in different countries, most of them from Sweden. New technologies such as digitalization and automation together with new organizational forms engender changes in mining work, e.g., new types of work tasks, new competence demands, and a move from underground to high-tech control rooms aboveground. One main observation is that the changes challenge the old and recalcitrant blue-collar mining masculinity. On the one hand, the organizational resistance and “lagging” seemed to result in re-gendering and restoration of the male dominance. On the other hand, there were tendencies to adaptation in the workplace cultures, including new ways of forming mining masculinities, perhaps even undoing of gender. The main conclusion is that the most probable development lies somewhere in-between and by analyzing such complex processes of gender, technology, and change future research can get more knowledge of changes of gender constructions in working life.

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.

The Social License to Operate (SLO) continues to influence industry, government, and academia on issues of resource development, particularly mining. But it risks becoming a term that includes all types of company activity aimed at gaining public support. To delimit the term, we look at the malleability of the SLO in a highly-regulated context: Sweden. Comparing the academic literature on the SLO at the global level and in the Swedish context, we assess the usefulness of the term across three themes: institutions, corporate-community engagement, and sustainability. Through this review, we argue that the SLO is best understood as a tool and an indicator. A tool to address significant problems and issues and an indicator of deficiencies in the existing institutional framework

The challenges for any community that seeks to maintain a healthy and thriving social life around an operating mine have been considered at some length in research, but the picture is still far from complete. In order to pinpoint some of the gaps in research, the literature on social sustainability as applied to established mining communities in developed countries is here reviewed, and the general understanding of the social sustainability of such communities is touched on. Diversity of livelihoods is explored as an analytical lens which can be used to approach social sustainability challenges without essentializing the preferences of social groups. Extensive literature searches with keywords such as mining, work, gender, organization, social, sustainability, community, town, area, cohesion and inclusion were conducted. The results of our review show a research gap between studies of mining companies and studies of wider mining communities. We conclude that considering diversity of livelihoods can be a productive analytical tool when approaching aspects of social sustainability such as social cohesion and inclusion, gender equality, managed migration, demographics, and housing infrastructure. Continued research is recommended to further bridge the gap between studies of mining companies and studies of mining communities from the perspective of social sustainability.

Industry 4.0 offers new possibilities to combine increased productivity with stimulating workplaces in a good work environment. Used correctly, digitalization can create attractive jobs in safe control room environments, which provide space for the employee’s full expertise and creativity. This is true also for the mining industry. But, to succeed, it is important to analyze the development from a worker’s perspective. What will happen to their work? What skills will be needed in the mine of tomorrow? We must also consider the risks, such as privacy issues, increased stress, and work-life boundaries. These questions must be understood if we are to create workplaces that can attract a young and diverse workforce to tomorrow’s mining industry. In this article, we try to illustrate what the new technology can mean for the individual miners. We formulate the notion of Mining 4.0 (Industry 4.0 in the mining industry), where we try to create an image of how the future might look from a miner’s perspective and how mining companies may navigate their way to a future that works for all miners. To illustrate the range of possible outcomes, we formulate two scenarios: one utopian and one dystopic. At the end of our article, we bring forward six recommendations that can be considered a beginning of a road map for the human side of Mining 4.0.

The present workforce in the mining industry is ageing, and mining companies have difficulties recruiting young people who are not particularly interested in working in the industry. Simultaneously, mining companies tend to rely on contractors that offer volume flexibility and expertise, often in a combination that is economically appealing. This makes recruitment and development of the whole of the mining workforce complex. To recruit the right workforce, mining companies and their contractors need to cooperate and improve their knowledge about both attractive and repelling work features so that they can make wiser strategic decisions based on facts. On the basis of a Swedish context, we discuss different aspects of attractive workplaces and summarise our 'lessons learned' in six recommendations dealing with general health and safety issues, work organisation, competence development, gender equality, social responsibility and outsourcing.