Kläderna gör arbetaren : -En kvalitativ studie över arbetskläders symboliska värde

Syftet med denna kvalitativa studie är att undersöka hur olika anställda på en given industri – kollektivarbetare och tjänstemän - reflekterar över sina arbetskläder och vilket symboliskt värde kläderna har i deras kontext, samt hur detta påverkar deras egen identitet. Frågeställnigarna arbetet utgår ifrån är: Vilket symboliskt värde har arbetskläder för de anställda på den givna industrin? Och, hur påverkar arbetsklädernas symboliska värde den enskilde individens identitet?Uppsatsens empiri grundar sig på samtalsintervjuer med tre anställda från en industri, och där empirin tolkas utifrån sociologiska teoretiska modeller såsom den symboliska interaktionismen, det dramaturgiska perspektivet, begrepp från sociologen Pierre Bourdieu, och idéhistorikern Michel Foucaults redogörelse över den moderna disciplinen.De slutsatser som kan dras utifrån analysen av empirin, är att på denna industri så finns det en social hierarki - oberoende av överordnande chefspositioner - som upprätthålls genom arbetskläders symboliska värde. Arbetsklädernas symboliska värde består i att de uttrycker en distinktion och identifikation mellan olika typer av kapital och definierar och markerar de olika positioner som finns inom detta fält. Individers identitetskapande påverkas av de roller individerna spelar, och när arbetskläder har ett särskilt symboliskt värde så kan det påverka individens egen identitet. Detta skulle kunna förklara varför den intervjuade tjänstemannens privata syn och uppfattning om kläder, korrelerade med vad hans arbetskläder uttrycker. Dock är det svårare med de två intervjuade kollektivarbetarna, eftersom deras habitus tycks överensstämma med deras arbetskläders symboliska roll/innebörd. Varav det är problematiskt att se vad som är orsak och verkan - om deras identitet beror på deras habitus eller om deras identitet formas av de roller de spelar genom arbetskläderna.

Svensklärares arbete : om villkor för gymnasieskolans svenskämne

The aim of this didactic study is to understand the terms of work, education and teaching of Swedish in a period round 2000. The research questions focus on how teachers at upper secondary school in conversations describe and construct their work, values in society and school, structures of power and relation to time. With the help of tools related to story and storytelling, and by connecting the empirical material to a late modern society, I caninterpret and understand the description of their work. With the help of Pierre Bourdieu’s theory I can see how values, power and relation to time are expressed in different ways when teachers of Swedish talk about their work and education.The results show that when teacher talk about work in school is it related to ideals in a global economy. Decentralization and individualization get new meanings when those words are placed in school environment and activity. Effectiveness, flexibility and individualization are words related to economy and they seem to have an effect on education and subjects of Swedish. I can also understand teachers’ work when it is related to power and values on the educational field. I can see how a diffuse power acts on the field and how harmony is a dominant value and a term that influences teachers’ work. New terms also form new identities related to teaching. New terms form new subjects of Swedish that in time and practice will form newhabitus connected to subjects. I call it ämneskonceptionella habitus.

Vilhelm Ekelund och det litterära fältet 1897-1949

Vilhelm Ekelunds och det litterära fältet 1897-1949 [Vilhelm Ekelund and the literary field 1897-1949] The theoretical background of this study is Pierre Bourdieu’s sociological approach to literature. I use his theory concerning the importance of cultural (and other forms of symbolic) capital for the individual artist – and his description of the literary field as a place characterized by continuous conflict between different categories of participants. In the article, I argue that as a young poet, Ekelund held a position in the field that was with the intellectual group as opposed to the group of commercial authors – and among the young avant-garde as opposed to among the consecrated and well-established writers. However, this position changed somewhat during the years Ekelund spent in exile (1908-1921), and it continued to change after his return to Sweden. His reputation as a thoroughly intellectual writer was accentuated and, as time passed, he himself became a consecrated artist with certain privileges – e.g. grants and awards – to defend.

Motståndets betydelse : Ett bidrag till aktör-strukturdebatten

The significance of inhibition: a contribution to the agency-structure debate A central problem in social theory today is how to integrate agency and structure. The vital question is how to explain social reality by proceeding from both the notion of people doing things which affect the social relationships in which they are embedded (agency) and the idea of the social context moulding social activity (structure). Sociologists as Pierre Bourdieu, Anthony Giddens and Jürgen Habermas call attention to social practices as the ”missing link” between agency and structure. In accentuating social practices, the aim is to explain how people in their daily encounters actively contribute to the production and reproduction of social structures. This article puts forth the posthumous contribution of George Herbert Mead to the agency-structure debate. I argue that his social pragmatist theory gives us a compound and thorough– but not fully recognized – explanation of the dynamics and the course of events in structurally framed encounters. By especially emphasizing the importance Mead ascribes to the inhibited social act, I examine how his theory deepens the understanding of social practices as a bridge between agency and structure.

Om kategorisering og symbolskmagtudøvelse i det sociale arbejde : Myten om de ressourcestærke forældre til børn medneuro-psykiatriske diagnoser

On categorization and symbolic power in social work: The myth of the resourceful parents to children with neuro-psychiatric diagnoses Social workers often use the term resourceful about a certain group of parents to children with neuro-psychiatric diagnoses, e.g. autism spectrum disorder and ADHD. This paper discusses the consequences of this sort of stereotyping/categorization with particular regard to the collaboration between these parents and the social workers as they meet in the social services system, when the parents apply for help for their children. Drawing upon Pierre Bourdieu, it is suggested that the categorization resourceful is not only overly simplistic and a myth, but is straight out misguiding and complicates the interaction – in fact it represents an act of symbolic power. Based upon a six months long sociological field-work study it is shown, that even though social workers seem to acknowledge the difficult and grueling life-situation of the parents, they are first and foremost perceived as resourceful and knowledgeable but hence also as annoying, insufferable, demanding and basically unjustified, even though they have obvious legal rights. Parents and social workers alike described the collaboration as being conflictual and a struggle and the complex power-relations are discussed in the light of Bourdieu.