Exclusion and Inclusion Through a Discourse of Equality

Blue-collar steel industry workers have traditionally been engaged in hard, physical, manual labour, but with the transformation of Industry 4.0, the need for manual human labour is reduced. In this article we explore the consequences of this transformation for the constructions of discursive positioning of the blue-collar worker. Analysing the material from 89 interviews from five steel companies in Sweden we analyse the the linguistic constructions of concept: what the blue-collar worker is and might become in Industry 4.0, and the consequences this concept has for the blue-collar worker as object: who the blue-collar worker is, and who (s)he is not. This shows that blue-collar workers are constructed as skilled and equal to white-collar workers, but also as deskilled and standardized. Furthermore, inclusion into this equal and standardized workforce is constructed as being based on abilities and experiences that are only shared by a fragment of the population; the young, well-versed, socially skilled, and fast learners, with permanent contracts. The study contributes with an understanding of how social polarization is taking place in contemporary industry and points to the need for management, labour unions and to take the constructions of social inclusion and exclusion in daily interactions in the workplace seriously, in order for the development towards an innovative, human-centric Industry 5.0 to become just and fair. Keywords: blue-collar workers; Industry 4.0; upskilling; deskilling; equality