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Sociologisk Forsknings digitala arkiv

This article analyses an episode of collective resignation. Carried out mainly by specialist nurses, this is a proliferating form of worker protest in Sweden that poses a challenge to austerity policy and emerges in a specific industrial-relations context. Mobilizing for collective resignation, activist nurses navigate terrains of neoliberal governance, marketization and flexible labour-market dynamics. The collective resignation is also a form of action underpinned by a discourse of gender equality. Our analysis, which attends to the co-emergence of gendering and subject formation in the narratives of a group of activists and to the use of gender-equality rhetoric in framing collective action, shows how opportunities for collective action arise that also restrain the exercise of agency. In this case, subject formation included contrasting nursing to tropes of archetypical militant workers and negotiating tensions between care and collective action. This involved reproducing and challenging established forms of gendering.

The present thesis is an exploration of normalization processes and the problem of appropriation in labor conflict. More specifically, it analyses the way contemporary labor conflicts in nursing relate to, and thereby help to illuminate, changes in modes of gender normalization under neoliberalism, and how nurse labor conflict thereby sheds light on wider patterns of labor strife. Analysis shows how a “virtue script” bound up with long-lasting patterns of gender normalization in nursing becomes tangled with forms of abstract labor related to “new public management” reform. Although the restructuring of work threatens public professionals’ autonomy, at the same time, it provides opportunities for resistance through collective action. What is more, this restructuring process facilitates the appropriation by nurses and, by implication, other public workers, of the discourses and ideals that belonged to the ethos of the Keynesian welfare state. However, this is a contradictory process, since the discourses and ideals thus appropriated inhere in modes of labor exploitation and normalization. Analysis indicates that although appropriation risks to reinforce gendered and exploitative ideas about work, the strategy can be a lever of collective mobilization, and one of its possible outcomes is the radical transformation of the entities it takes possession of. This interview study is mainly based on four journal articles, attending to different aspects of an act of collective resignation taken by registered nurses at a Swedish hospital ward. This is an emerging form of collective action and the thesis provides one of the first analyses of this new grassroots and workplace-based phenomenon, which may be considered its particular empirical contribution. On the other hand, the chapters of the cover essay unfold a sustained argument on normalization and appropriation, thereby elaborating theoretical themes broached in the articles. The focal point of this discussion is a certain concept of form, deployed in Marxist and feminist theory, a concept pointing to the identity of thought-forms and practically enacted forms. Further, these forms migrate: they are evoked in practices wherein “the mind is not active as sentient” (Hegel), later to be projected by the mind onto different entities. The results of the discussion thus question common approaches to normalization. In particular, it is untenable to oppose a tacit and internal mode of control where individuals are induced to comply by attaching to identifications (by becoming/being made into subjects) to an overt and external mode reliant on sheer coercion. This matter–form dichotomy should be dissolved, and modes of coercion should be understood to leave subjective imprints—not at the level of identity but at the level of thought’s infrastructure, that is, form. Föreliggande avhandling utforskar normaliseringsprocesser och problem rörande appropriering i samband med arbetskonflikter. Avhandlingen analyserar hur sam-tida arbetskonflikter i sjuksköterskeprofessionen relaterar till och sålunda belyser förändrad genusnormalisering i en nyliberal tid, samt hur dessa konflikter belyser övergripande konfliktmönster i arbetslivet. Analysen påvisar hur en ”dygdighets-norm” kopplad till långlivade modaliteter av genusnormalisering sammanvävs med en form av abstrakt arbete relaterad till sentida NPM-reformer. Men medan denna omstruktureringsprocess urholkar den autonomi som professioner i offentlig sektor länge innehaft medför den också möjligheter till kollektiva motståndshandlingar. Vidare möjliggör denna nyliberala omstrukturering sjuksköterskors—liksom andra offentliga professioners—appropriering av diskurser och ideal som var centrala i den tidigare, keynesianska, välfärdsstaten; men detta är en motsägelsefull process då dessa diskurser och ideal är sprungna ur, och präglade av, historier av utsugning och normalisering. Analysen visar att medan appropriering visserligen riskerar att reproducera former av normalisering underlättar denna strategi mobilisering och kan i förlängningen omvandla övertagna diskurser och ideal. Denna intervjustudie är huvudsakligen baserad på fyra artiklar: de analyserar olika aspekter av en kollektiv uppsägningsaktion bland sjuksköterskor vid en sjukhus-avdelning. Detta är en framväxande typ av aktion i Sverige och avhandlingen är en av de första studierna av denna gräsrots- och arbetsplatsbaserade kampform, vilket kan ses som dess empiriska forskningsbidrag. I kappan förs, å andra sidan, en kon-tinuerlig teoretisk diskussion kring normalisering och appropriering som utvecklar teman som lyfts i de enskilda artiklarna. Diskussionen kretsar kring ett visst form-begrepp, som härrör ur marxistisk och feministisk teori och som påvisar en identitet mellan tankeform och praktiskt artikulerad form. Dessa former migrerar; de uttrycks omedvetet i praktiker där individens fokus är annorstädes och projiceras sedan på andra praktiker. I diskussionen ifrågasätts sålunda vedertagna förståelser av norma-lisering: det är teoretiskt ofruktbart att ställa omedvetna, interna, former av kontroll där lydnad eller konformitet uppnås via internaliseringen av påbjudna identiteter mot medvetna, externa, eller tvingande, former av kontroll. En häri latent dikotomi om materia respektive form bör upplösas i syfte att synliggöra hur ett slags kontroll över arbete lämnar subjektiverande avtryck, inte genom att påbjuda identifikationer utan genom att forma vad som kan beskrivas som tänkandets minsta beståndsdelar. Vid tidpunkten för disputationen var följande delarbeten opublicerade: delarbete 2 och 4 inskickat.At the time of the doctoral defence the following papers were unpublished: paper 2 and 4 submitted.

The overall aim of this thesis is to contribute to the knowledge on how formal education gives cognitive support to informal learning at work. The ambition is to combine different theoretical perspectives on learning. Formal learning, mostly within institutions for education, is usually seen from a cognitive or constructivist perspective, and informal learning from situational or socio-cultural perspectives. Combining these perspectives, this thesis is based on a case study of how a formal training program for Swedish military personnel, going on a peacekeeping mission in Kosovo, gives cognitive support to their informal, experiential learning during the mission. The case study has an ethnographic research design where 17 military leaders at different levels are interviewed, observed and “shadowed” during three field periods during training in Sweden and during work in Kosovo. The empirical material and the different theoretical perspectives on learning are used to construct a perspective-integrating conceptual model of how the formal training, through different learning resources, helps the leaders to develop a subjective understanding of their coming work. This understanding is then used by the leaders to mentally frame the specific experiences and actions they encounter at work. This mental framing is also prevalent in their reflections in and on their work, and their informal learning at work can be shown to be heavily influenced by the understanding the leaders developed during formal training. However, most of this understanding cannot be related to formal learning resources, but to learning resources the military leaders themselves bring to the training in the way of their earlier experiences, their military professional orientation, and their internal discussions in free time. The main conclusions are that 1) contrary to prevailing dogma, different perspectives on learning can be brought together, and 2) if formal education is going to give cognitive support to learning at work, it needs to address the question of how the conceptual structure of the training content can be integrated with the often private concepts the workers themselves have of their work.

The overall aim of this thesis is to contribute to the knowledge on how formal education gives cognitive support to informal learning at work. The ambition is to combine different theoretical perspectives on learning. Formal learning, mostly within institutions for education, is usually seen from a cognitive or constructivist perspective, and informal learning from situational or socio-cultural perspectives. Combining these perspectives, this thesis is based on a case study of how a formal training program for Swedish military personnel, going on a peacekeeping mission in Kosovo, gives cognitive support to their informal, experiential learning during the mission. The case study has an ethnographic research design where 17 military leaders at different levels are interviewed, observed and “shadowed” during three field periods during training in Sweden and during work in Kosovo. The empirical material and the different theoretical perspectives on learning are used to construct a perspective-integrating conceptual model of how the formal training, through different learning resources, helps the leaders to develop a subjective understanding of their coming work. This understanding is then used by the leaders to mentally frame the specific experiences and actions they encounter at work. This mental framing is also prevalent in their reflections in and on their work, and their informal learning at work can be shown to be heavily influenced by the understanding the leaders developed during formal training. However, most of this understanding cannot be related to formal learning resources, but to learning resources the military leaders themselves bring to the training in the way of their earlier experiences, their military professional orientation, and their internal discussions in free time. The main conclusions are that 1) contrary to prevailing dogma, different perspectives on learning can be brought together, and 2) if formal education is going to give cognitive support to learning at work, it needs to address the question of how the conceptual structure of the training content can be integrated with the often private concepts the workers themselves have of their work.

The study explores collective action in Sweden between 1980 to 1995 using time-series data from the European Protest and Coercion Database. In spite of severe hardship during the crisis of the early 1990s, Swedish strike-rates declined. However, contention merely shifted from workplaces into the streets; there was indeed a protest movement against austerity, as shown by a series of large demonstrations, and some riots, between 1989 and 1993. Further analysis indicates this movement faded as it was increasingly chanelled into the electoral campaign of the labor pary; having won the 1994 election, the organised labor movement no longer had an interest in sustaining the protest movement against austerity.

Denna rapport sammanfattar en studie som genomförts vid P4 i Skövde, där forskargruppen följt 414. Skkomp från augusti 2010 till juni 2011. Utbildningen av 414. skyttekompaniet aktualiserar frågor rörande rollspelet mellan solda­ter och officerare, utbildningens utformning, samt frågor om yrkeskunnande och yrkesidenti­tet. Mer konkret identifierar studien följande områden för Försvarsmakten att fokusera: begreppen ”soldat” och ”officer” i det nya personalförsörjningssyste­met, och vad det innebär att vara professionell i Försvarsmakten. soldaten och kompetensutveckling av dessa. grpC tänkta roll och kompetensutveckling av dessa. hur man på förbanden kan involvera GrpC i ”chain of command”? hur kan Försvarsmakten i handling visa att soldaterna är viktiga”. kring erfarenhetsresonemanget/trappan i syfte att stärka officerarna samt att utveckla professionen totalt sett. hur utbildning skall genomföras när PRIO-org är intagen? Vidare pekar studien ut frågor kring hur man lokalt hanterar att alla anställda soldater inte kan ingå i en insats (givet att t ex FS-organisationen skiljer sig numerärt från förbandets grund­organisation), samt hur ett förband vidmakt­håller förmågor över tiden. I rapporten beskrivs även ett fenomen som handlar om ett informationsglapp mellan kompa­niets ordinarie ledningsstruktur (kompanichef och plutonchefer) och de som genomför olika utbildningsmoment, d v s när den som genomför en trupputbildning inte har ett direkt chefsansvar.