This study aims to examine the social, economic, and cultural transformations that occur in a small local community following significant industrial investment. The research focuses on shifts in social cohesion, status hierarchies, and behavioral patterns, investigating how attitudes, values, and perceptions of the future have evolved because of the mining industry’s establishment. The empirical analysis covers the period from 2008 to 2026. The study seeks to answer the following key research questions:

1. How have demographic trends, economic conditions, and local welfare—along with recreational habits and public health—been influenced by the establishment of the mining industry?

2. In what ways have value systems and status relationships between different social groups been affected by the mining investment?

3. How has the mining industry shaped young people’s perceptions of career opportunities and their prospects?

4. What new social challenges, if any, have emerged as a result of the rapid economic growth?

5. What are the anticipated long-term implications for the future of Pajala Municipality?

Syfet med föreliggande projekt är att studera vad som händer med social sammanhållning, statussystem och beteendemönster när omfattande ekonomiska investeringar genomförs i ett mindre lokalsamhälle. Projektet uppmärksammar hur attityder, värderingar och beteenden förändras, vilka statusmässiga förändringar som har ägt rum avseende synen på arbetsliv och fritid, hur tidsanvändandet har förändrats samt om det har skett förskjutningar i människors framtidssyner som en effekt av gruvetableringen? Empiriskt kommer projektet att behandla effekterna av gruvetableringen i Pajala kommun under perioden 2008–2026. Följande frågeställningar ska besvaras:

1. På vilket sätt har lokalsamhällets demografi, ekonomi samt människors välfärd, fritidsanvändning och hälsa förändrats som en konsekvens av gruvetableringen?

2. På vilket sätt har värderings- och statusmässiga förändringar ägt rum mellan olika grupper som resultat av gruvetableringen?

3. Vilken betydelse har etableringen av gruvnäringen för ungdomars föreställningar om framtida yrkesvägar?

4. Vilka eventuella "nya" sociala problem har uppkommit som en konsekvens av den snabba lokala tillväxten?

5. Vilken ny framtid ser man i Pajala kommun?

This study examines differences in leadership behaviors and in the perceived work environment between older and younger managers in a large Swedish mining company. The leadership behaviors and work environment of young managers in the mining industry will become more important in the future due to the changes taking place in the industry. Such changes include the older generation of managers reaching retirement age, while the industry generally finds it difficult to recruit a younger generation of employees. Moreover, rapid technology-centered transition, such as the green transition of the mining industry, is underway which may put young managers in particular under pressure. Meanwhile, research on young managers in the mining industry more broadly is sparse. Data for this study was mainly gathered via a questionnaire, complemented by data from interviews. The questionnaire included 48 validated self-rate questions on background variables, social and organizational working conditions, health, and leadership behavior. The survey was answered by 216 managers (response rate: 63%). Interviews were carried out with ten young managers (35 years or younger). The study found no statistically significant differences between younger and older managers with regards to workload, working hours, health, and work satisfaction. We found that older managers rate themselves higher, at a statistically significant level, for change-oriented leadership behaviors. However, when age is analyzed together with other variables that are significantly different between the two groups, only managerial experience and managerial positions show statistically significant associations with change-oriented and healthy and effective leadership behaviors. The interviews indicate that the young managers encounter challenges that are related to their experience and training, but few are related to their age. Given the influence of managerial experience on leadership behaviors, leadership training appears to be an important area of intervention, and conditions must be improved to enable change-oriented leadership among managers in the mining industry, with a greater focus on young managers.

Intra-professional collaboration is essential as it enables professionals to learn, develop, and define the terms of the profession in their own way. Yet conditions for collaboration are shaped by how work is organized and governed. This article examines how conditions for intra-professional collaboration, where work takes place with colleagues within the same profession in same or similar roles, are perceived by teachers, in relation to how work is organized, by drawing on empirical insights from a study on teachers working in education systems defined by market-driven reforms. Our findings nuance ideas of professional connectedness by showing how the organization of work, affected by 'entangled institutional logics' (Blomgren and Waks 2015; Alvehus and Andersson 2018) and market-based governance reforms, shapes intra-professional collaboration. Our contribution is thus to take departure from established understandings of connectivity, that is, 'related to others and outsiders' (Noordegraaf 2020) by examining connectivity within professions, showing how there continues to be a struggle between the profession, organization, and market which shapes conditions for intra-professional work within the teaching profession. Our analysis of intra-professional collaboration holds significance for emergent understandings of connectivity (see Adams et al. 2020a; Alvehus, Avoon and Oliver 2021: 201; Kanon and Andersson 2023) by underscoring how the contemporary organization and management of work shape the conditions that enable, or augment, inwards connectivity and the ability for professionals to collaborate in meaningful ways.

The study is exploratory in nature, and the empirical material is used to explore the effects of the pandemic on the work environments of managers. Results are based on interviews in combination with a self-reported data regarding how the managers allocated their work time during a work week. The results are then summarized into six hypotheses for how the pandemic affected the work of managers: 1) the workday was densified due to remote meetings; 2) "double work" during meetings became the rule, rather than the exception; 3) meetings became more focused; 4) meetings became more accessible; 5) the manager became less operational; and 6) a new work culture was created.

The mining industry faces specific challenges related to the working conditions and safety of employees. Studies indicate that the leadership behaviours, working conditions and health of managers are of importance for the working conditions and health of subordinates. Therefore, the aim here is to study these factors in a large international mining company with its head office in Sweden. The specific focus is on identifying similarities and differences that may exist between managers in Sweden and managers outside Sweden. An online survey with validated questions has been distributed to all managers in the company. The main findings are that both managers in and outside of Sweden report relatively high values regarding relation-, structure- and change-oriented leadership behaviours. In addition, managers also rated HEL (healthy and effective leadership) behaviours with relatively high values. The managers in Sweden rate relation orientation with the highest value and the managers outside Sweden rate structure orientation with the highest value. These differences have been confirmed by a regression analysis that identified significant associations between the group of managers based outside Sweden and higher structure orientated leadership behaviours. Both manager groups rate relatively high values regarding job satisfaction and self-rated health. However, they rate relatively high work demand values. The main conclusions are that there are different patterns in leadership behaviours between these two manager groups that can be related to cross-culture factors. Further investigation of the reasons for these differences is important in this industrial sector.

Den här rapporten beskriver en forskningsstudie utförd under 2022 med deltagande ungdomar i Piteå som syftar till att utforska deras fritidsaktiviteter och hur dessa påverkar ungdomars upplevelse av inkludering och en attraktiv livsmiljö. Studien utgår från ungdomars deltagande i - och upplevelser av - befintligt tjänsteutbud i Piteå kommun och deras tankar och idéer om framtidens tjänsteutbud. Genom att undersöka olika aspekter av fritidsaktiviteter och inkluderande design syftar studien till att bidra med kunskap om vad inkludering och attraktiv livsmiljö för ungdomar kan vara i Piteå.