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The future of work


Major changes in technology, economic contexts, workforces, and the institutions of work have come in ebb and flow since well before the first industrial revolution in the 18th century. Yet, many argue that the changes we are currently facing are different, and that the rise of digitalized production will entirely transform our ways and views of work.

In this collaborative project funded by the Nordic Council of Ministers, researchers from the five Nordic countries will study how the ongoing transformations of production and labour markets associated with, amongst other, digitalization, demographic change, and new forms of employment will influence the future of work in the Nordic countries.

Through action and policy oriented studies and dialogue with stakeholders, the objective is to enhance research-based knowledge dissemination, experience exchange, and mutual learning across the Nordic boundaries.

Intermediary results from the project will feed into Nordic debates on how to contribute to the Future of Work Agenda that is to be adopted at the ILO’s centenary anniversary in 2019.

The project is conducted by a team of more than 30 Nordic scholars from universities and research institutes in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. The project started late 2017 and will be completed by a synthesis report in 2020.

The project consists of seven "pillars" (see navigation box or download flyer.

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Final reports

Pillar I - Main drivers of change

There is a variety of factors that influence changes in working life – at present, in the future, and in the past.

Too often, debates about the Future of Work (FoW) narrowly focus on changing technologies – currently digitalization – while equally important factors that already have been at work for a while and will continue influencing working life tend to be neglected.

Examples could be demographic change – ageing and migration – climate change, and economic and political changes associated with globalization, European integration, and rising income gaps, to mention a few.

The impact of such mega-trends on work is not unidirectional. Often they pull in divergent directions, some trends go in reverse, and some prove weaker or slower than expected. Moreover, the opportunities and threats they pose to jobs and working conditions are filtered by institutions, policies, and economic conditions that differ across countries, regions, and industries. That is, the future of work is undetermined and will ultimately depend on human agency and imagination.

In Pillar-I we will briefly review the main drivers of change that are likely to influence Nordic working life in the 15-20 years ahead, and discuss how they may affect the institutions and policy instruments that Nordic politicians and social actors can invoke to shape the FoW.

Pillar coordinator

Jon Erik Dølvik, Senior Researcher, Fafo.

Reports and events

  1. Fafo-seminar 27. november: Fremtidens arbeidsliv – muligheter og utfordringer for de nordiske modellene.
  2. Jon Erik Dølvik & Johan Røed Steen: The Nordic future of work: Drivers, institutions, and politics. TemaNord 2018:555.
    Sammendrag av rapporten.
  3. Trenderna pekar mot en mer polariserad arbetsmarknad. Johan Røed Steen intervjues i Norden, 24. november 2018.
  4. Jon Erik Dølvik: Power point presentation, Nordic conference May 15th–16th 2018 Stockholm: Shaping the Future of Work in the Nordic Countries. 

FoWnordics: Pillar II - Digitalization of traditional forms of work

This pillar will focus on changes during the last decades in the occupational and job structure in the Nordic countries.

New technology in the form of digitalization and ICT, has been described in terms of robotics enhancing automatization, industrialization 4.0, and platforms facilitating the enrollment of extensive networks of resources.

In this pillar, our purpose is to examine how different approaches to digitalization, penetrating the established production system, affect jobs and occupations in the labour market, work and employment relations, and the strategies of stakeholders (employers, unions and governmental bodies) that are trying to govern this change.

Pillar coordinator

Bertil Rolandsson, Associate Professor, Gothenburg University.

Reports and events

  1. Publication: Bertil Rolandsson (ed.): Digital Transformations of Traditional Work in the Nordic Countries, desember 2020
  2. Thomas Berglund, Tuomo Alasoini, Jon Erik Dølvik, Stine Rasmussen, Johan Røed Steen and Pekka Varje (2020). Changes in the occupational structure of Nordic employment: Upgrading or polarization? Nordic future of work Working paper 2, 2nd edition
  3. Rolandsson, Bertil, Jon Erik Dølvik, Anna Hedenus, Johan Røed Steen, Anna Ilsøe, Trine Pernille Larsen and Tuomo Alasoini (2019). Digitalization in Nordic manufacturing: Some case-study illustrations.Nordic future of work Working paper 3
  4. Menneske mot roboter: Hva kan vi vente oss? Artikkel av Johan Røed Steen på Arbeidslivet.no 21. mai 2018.
  5. Seminar at Fafo - Future of work: Addressing the challenges of digitalisation, November, 2017. 

Researchers

Fafo's Publications

Other types of publications and dissemination

Project period

  • Start:
    January 2017
  • End:
    April 2021

Commissioned by

  • Nordic Council of Ministers
Research topic

The Nordic model

Research topic

Collective agreements

Research topic

Wage formation

Research topic

Digitalization of work