Abstract
Energy transitions have continuously impacted steel production processes, with shifts from charcoal to coking coal and from oil to natural gas. Concerned about how the steel industry still is dominated by ‘the past’ of such fossil fuels, a ‘Breakthrough Agenda vision’ has been articulated to stimulate ‘a cascade of tipping points’ (Systemiq 2023). As metaphors, tipping points and breakthroughs produce and affirm uncertainty, yet, elicit expectations of a positive break with the past to be pursued, with hopes to disrupt market majority and transform the steel industry via ‘the future’ of hydrogen. By turning to literature on the sociology of expectations, this chapter traces such future-making in the conflation of industrial and climate policy expectations within the Swedish steel industry. As a complement to existing knowledge about rational-decision making, the chapter explains how metaphors and expectations also contribute to the realization of transformations – in this case the emergence of ‘zero carbon’ steel production.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Sustainable Energy Development Technology and Investment |
| Editors | Kimarie Engerman, Elizabeth A. Keenan, Dimitry Kurochkin, Elena V. Shabily |
| Publisher | Lexington Books |
| Chapter | 2 |
| Pages | 47-68 |
| Number of pages | 21 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 9781666965827 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9781666965810 |
| Publication status | Published - 15 Aug 2024 |
Publication series
| Name | Environment and Society |
|---|
Research Groups and Themes
- SIMBE
- MGMT Strategy International Management and Business and Entrepreneurship
Keywords
- Decarbonisation of industry
- steel production
- climate change
- breakthrough technology
- tipping point
- metaphors
- expectations
- Swedish steel
- HYBRIT
- SSAB
- hydrogen
Access to Document
- Full-text PDF (accepted manuscript)
This is the accepted author manuscript (AAM). The final published version (Version of Record) can be found on the publisher's website. The copyright of any third-party content, such as images, remains with the copyright holder.