In the 1970s, the work conditions in mechanised mass production industries were heavily criticised by trade unions in Scandinavia. The working conditions and the work environment of blue-collar workers did not at all match the general standard of living offered by the welfare society. Reforms were considered necessary and better scientific bases for such reforms were called for.
I had just completed my PhD and was part of a research team with professors Bertil Gardell and Marianne Frankenhaeuser at Stockholm University and the Karolinska Institute. The special expertise of our group was a combination of the social psychology and psychophysiology of stress. This is how I came to coordinate the study of workers at a sawmill in the north of Sweden, just south of the Arctic Circle. Since the data collection took place in 1974, it is interesting to consider both the level of knowledge and the quality of work environments prevailing at the time.
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