Making material things remains central to human economies and subsistence, and to how earthly resources are transformed. Yet experiences and knowledges of those who make things – especially in the heart of the industrial complex – are notably absent in existing debates on shifting to a less resource-intensive future. We review research on materials and their making, presenting three research trajectories: making beyond binaries of craft and manufacturing; the social life of making; and acknowledging industrial cultures, workers and capacities amidst climate change. Success in transforming economy and society in anticipation of volatile futures depends on material acknowledgements and accomplishments.

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Geographies of making Rethinking materials and skills for volatile futures

Scorcher : the dirty politics of climate change

The impacts of climate change - and especially the subsequent mitigation and adaptation policies - on labour markets are still largely unknown despite the recent demand for knowledge production and diffusion on this topic and the increasing avalanche of reports and studies from public, private and not-for-profit organisations The search for alternative models of growth in the midst of the financial crisis has increased interest in the "green growth paradigm" and what it means for a rich-jobs recovery This paper discusses some of the impacts of climate change including labour market regulation, the dynamics of green growth at the level of jobs and skills development, and the local implications for mitigation and enabling green growth Although the paper does not provide all the answers to the green enigma (green jobs will come but how?), it argues that much benefit will come from focusing efforts on skills transformation, tools and initiatives This paper benefits from the financial support of the European Commission

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Greening Jobs and Skills

The Earth system is a complex adaptive system, characterised by non-linear change and with significant capacity for surprise. In times of systemic crisis, such as dangerous anthropogenic climate change, perverse resilience (for example the structural power of fossil fuel interests in the global economy) can threaten overall Earth system stability. Critical political economic analysis recognises climate change as a threat with significant political economic characteristics and implications. However, key dimensions of climate change as a globally coherent phenomenon, including the important implications of Earth system dynamism and non-linear change, can remain unrecognised, mischaracterised or underestimated. In contrast, resilience approaches describe social-ecological systems but neglect the significance of norms and power relations in human societies. This article builds theory by linking key concepts – hegemony and resilience – from neo-Gramscian political economic analysis and resilience approaches to...

The political economy of addressing the climate crisis in the earth system: undermining perverse resilience

Narratives and discourses are central to how we interpret and understand the world. The capacity to construct and disseminate compelling stories about particular issues is hence critical to an agent's capacity to advance their interests. This paper examines some of the main narratives through which the conversation about renewable energy in Australia takes place. We label these narratives feasibility (‘Pie in the Sky’); security (‘Keeping the Lights on’); cost (‘Costing the Earth’); and employment (‘Jobs Carnage’). Some of the most effective narratives are those that are constructed around some of the ‘legitimate’ concerns that pertain to an issue. The renewable energy narratives identified in this paper build on ‘reasonableness’ and ‘common sense’ concerns, and their effectiveness is determined as much by contextualising information absent from the energy conversation as present. While our focus is Australia, some of the narrative dynamics revealed have application to energy politics more broadly.

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Contested energy futures: Shaping renewable energy narratives in Australia

The impact of climate change policies on the number, type and location of employment or jobs in Australia is discussed. The current state of research and policy work on such issues, including likely areas of job growth and decline, regional labor market implications, problems with the conceptualization of green-collar jobs and some public policy challenges are highlighted.

Green-collar' jobs: employment impacts of climate change policies

Working from home expanded rapidly during the COVID-19 pandemic. This Controversy examines how working from home was framed and regulated pre-pandemic. We contrast this with the changes made to Australia's industrial award system during the pandemic to increase flexibilities around working from home, in response to a collective need for a responsive safety net. We argue that the conception and regulation of working from home is shifting from an individual flexibility, to a ‘collective flexibility’ available to a wide array of workers, collectively negotiated and governed by increased regulation. While industrial instruments were varied to accommodate public health requirements and the need of organisations and employees to work from home, these shifts were temporary. We argue that working from home provisions should rightly be regulated as a collective entitlement. We therefore consider possible ways forward in regulating this form of working, drawing from international developments. We raise these issues to extend debates around how working from home can be regulated to benefit employers and employees as we move towards COVID-normal.

COVID-normal workplaces: Should working from home be a ‘collective flexibility’?

The COVID-19 pandemic created a working from home experiment for the public sector. This paper examines what might happen next as countries move towards a COVID-normal environment. Since the academic literature on public sector agencies and working from home since the onset of the pandemic is scant, we focus on the non-peer-reviewed literature as our evidence base. This paper identifies the main issues public sector agencies need to consider as new ways of working emerge. The key facets are emerging preferences for hybrid working, productivity and remote working, and impacts of working from home on employees, especially gender equality. We highlight a range of emerging challenges, including how to maintain productivity, the need to redevelop employee value propositions to attract and retain employees in this changing landscape, and the risks of proximity bias. We conclude by identifying questions to be addressed in subsequent research.

The future of working from home in the public sector: What does the evidence tell us?

Crises and interventions often generate opportunities for profitable business activities. This can have a significant effect on the outcomes of interventions. This article explores how economic interests can create crises and how the nature of interventions may be shaped by business interests. It looks further at the macroeconomic consequences of crises, the possibilities of corruption and neo-imperialism. Reference is made to examples of crises and interventions that illustrate these political economic concerns.

Alicia Pearce

Papers

Green-collar' jobs: employment impacts of climate change policies

COVID-normal workplaces: Should working from home be a ‘collective flexibility’?

The future of working from home in the public sector: What does the evidence tell us?

Crises, interventions and profits: a political economic perspective