Fossil free steelmaking in Sweden Transformation of an industry

Purpose and goal:

The project seeks to examine the shifts in thinking, organizational changes and engagement of internal change agents that have resulted in commercial scale adoption of hydrogen reduction processes in steel manufacturing and other measures to decarbonize the industry. A key question is what could be learned from the steel industry transformation in nurturing and driving other transformative change processes.

The project aims to map and analyze the key factors involved in enabling and facilitating the innovation journey of fossil free steel production in Sweden. Expected results and effects:

The project findings will be presented in a report providing an easily accessible account for the overall changes in Sweden’s steel industry focusing the past decade, including accounts for central actors, key events and acupuncture points, as well as struggles and unexpected turns. The report should conclude on lessons learned in light of other transformative change processes.

Approach and implementation:

Evidence gathering will make use of ethnographic methods, and in particular informant interviews, as well as analysis of written documents. “Informants” are typically individuals with inside knowledge and may have been active participants in the developments being studied.

Interviews will use a semi-structured format organized according to the themes defined by the analytical framework following the developmental timeline. Written documentation will also be examined to supplement and substantiate the data gathered via interviews.