ABSTRACT
This edited collection grapples with questions of skill and labour, in the context of a climate-changing world. Written from a Global North perspective – where much of the responsibility for addressing climate change should lie – the collection explores the challenges of transitioning carbon-intensive sectors, while also confronting the increasingly urgent imperative of adapting to more frequent severe weather events.
As outlined in this introductory chapter, the emphasis here is on grounded, empirical accounts of work. We make the case that important insights on the creative and adaptive capacities of workers emerge when starting from the perspective of lived experience. The chapter provides a framework and overarching research agenda that shapes this book’s structure. The book’s first section, “Skills and Training” moves beyond a narrow focus on formal educational and training pathways to explore the diverse ways people acquire and deploy skills, with important implications for the work of climate mitigation and adaptation. These chapters emphasise informal learning, embodied knowledge and how skills are transferred across domains, including households, energy systems, design and manufacturing sectors, and construction. The book’s second section, “Industrial Transformation,” offers analyses of the challenges facing key carbon-intensive industries, alongside contributions from legal scholars examining pragmatic mechanisms for worker-led action on climate change. Together, the two parts demonstrate not only how climate mitigation and adaptation will reshape the landscape of work in profound ways, but also the skill, care and creativity with which workers are equipped to address these challenges. Fully grasping the scope and potential of these capacities, however, requires a fundamental shift in how we understand and value labour of all kinds. It demands an approach that deeply engages with people and skills both within and beyond existing labour markets, and connects such insights with the starkly uneven ways climate change and the dynamics of transition are unfolding across geographies.
