We have published the first issue of 2013
The first issue of 2013 has just been published. From this issue, we have changed our site of publication from CBS to Roskilde University. We have had 2 years' of excellent collaboration with CBS, but since it now has been made possible for us to publish at RUC, we find it a more natural place to be, given our field of research.
This new issue brings you a new feature: book-reviews. We start with these books:
• Jan Ch Karlsson: Organizational Misbehaviour in the Workplace. Narratives of Dignity and Resistance
• Stefan Tengblad: The Work of Managers—Towards a Practice Theory of Management
• Simpson, Slutskaya, Lewis & Höpfl (ed.): Dirty Work – Concepts and Identities
In six articles this issue deals with different aspects of Nordic working life:
One Hundred Years of Inertia. An Exposé of the Concept of the Psychosocial Work Environment in Swedish Policy and Research by Lena Abrahamsson and Jan Johansson presents how psychosocial work environment has been understood in research and policy over 100 years, with Sweden as the focal point
Experiences from implementation of lean production: standardization versus self-management: A Swedish case study by Margareta Oudhuis and Stefan Tengblad write about Lean production as a challenge for the Nordic working life tradition.
Engaged or Not? A Comparative Study on Factors Inducing Work Engagement in Call Center and Service Sector Work by Armi Mustosmäki, Timo Anttila and Tomi Oinas investigate new-Taylorization in the service sector and consequences for job quality and work engagement , with a focus on call centers in Finland.
Work Environment Dialogue in a Swedish Municipality - Strengths and Limits of the Nordic Work Environment Model by Kaj Frick studies how the Nordic Work Environment Model functions in the municipal sector.
Work and Labor in Slow-Progressive Sectors of the Economy by Matti Vuorensyrjä examines working conditions in those sectors where productivity is fixed, transfering Baumol's work to the working life.
Labor Market Institutions, Mobility, and Dualization in the Nordic Countries by Jørgen Svalund examines how the Employment Protection Legislation is affecting mobility and labor market segmentation.
Helge Hvid
Chief Editor
Nordic Journal of Working Life Studies
www.nordicwl.dk
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Call for Streams!
Call for Keynote speakers!
Threats and Possibilities
Facing Nordic Working Life
The 7th Nordic Working Life Conference, Göteborg, Sweden, June 11-13 2014
The “Nordic model” and Nordic working life is often seen as unitary and grounded in very similar social democratic welfare state models. During the past decades the Nordic states, management and work organizations have encountered challenges and undergone changes. The Nordic working life research community has now shown a common interest to meet and discuss Nordic working life. In 2011 time was ripe for the first issue of the new Nordic Journal of Working Life Studies and in 2012 the Nordic Working Life Conference was reinstalled after a break of some 10 years. The Nordic Working Life Conference and the Nordic Journal of Working Life Studies offer a grand possibility of mutual inspiration and cooperation. By arranging the conference we wish to make a forum to meet fellow researchers and to discuss Threats and Possibilities Facing Nordic Working Life.
Call for Streams, we want your insights
As a first step to find relevant problems and research areas to dig into and to discuss in the 7th Nordic Working Life Conference 2014 we invite YOU, who are researching Nordic working life, to suggest “Streams” for our next conference in Göteborg 2014. An interesting stream will gather fellow Nordic working life researchers to share and discuss relating research questions. Streams must include Nordic working life research. E-mail your suggestion of an interesting stream to the organization committee This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Deadline May 31th 2013, but you can send it today
Call for Keynote speakers, we want to share your experiences
The organization committee also wants to use crowd-sourcing to find interesting keynote speakers preferably from the Nordic countries but not necessarily. Do you have suggestions of interesting keynote speakers and their subject; e-mail the suggestion and a motivation to the organisation committee at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Deadline May 15th2013.
NWLC & FALF in cooperation
The 7th Nordic Working Life Conference 2014 in Göteborg is a joint venture between the Swedish working life research organisation Forum för arbetslivsforskning FALF and Nordic Working Life Conference NWLC.
Organising committee:
Tommy Isidorsson, Associate Professor, University of Gothenburg, convener.
Margareta Oudhuis, Associate Professor, University College of Borås,
Kristina Håkansson, Associate Professor, University of Gothenburg
Bernt Schiller, Professor, University of Gothenburg
Conference contact e-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
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Tommy Isidorsson, Associate professor
Department of Sociology and Work Science,
University of Gothenburg, Box 720, SE 405 30 Göteborg, SWEDEN.
Phone:+46(0)317865501, Mobile:+46(0)709266371, Facsimile:+46(0)317864764,
Email:
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Visiting address: Skanstorget 18, Gothenburg
Internet address: http://www.socav.gu.se/english
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Special issue on Globalization and International Labor Solidarity
Trade union and working class struggles were early on based on ideas of international labor solidarity. International solidarity was understood as a necessary condition to organize, for instance to make strike actions effective. But splits in the labor movement since the first and second international and during the cold war changed concepts of unity and solidarity. In most countries trade unions were split by political, religious or cultural/national belonging. Growing employment in service, knowledge and administrative sectors has changed conditions of industrial unionism from a leading universal principle to organize unions to a rather exceptional reality. Differences in income, salaries and working conditions within nations and between North and South have been increasing during the last several decades of globalization making solidarity more urgent for labor but maybe also more difficult. The question is if the traditional concept of international labor solidarity needs to be redefined due to globalization, changes in employment or state-capital relations. Are present day solidarity questions transferred from union collectives to public welfare-state and legislation issues, nationally implementing ILO conventions or EU regulation on human rights and equal labor standards – or just considered a voluntary ethical choice for individual consumers and companies?
Internationally a discussion on possible labor reactions to neoliberal globalisation is going on, some with more optimistic views on international labor solidarity – others with more pessimistic views. A long period of deregulation, off-shoring, outsourcing, increased inequality, unemployment and lost union battles have changed conditions for labor. The current crisis causes unemployment globally and governments cut in social welfare with austerity programs. How is working life and unions affected in the North and the South, in different regions and countries to this increase in insecurity, and decrease in union influence on collective agreement, labor contracts and labor market regulation? Will eventually a revitalization of labor struggle and international solidarity come as a result of neoliberal economic policies or is labor losing ground. There have been a strong social movement labor agenda in Latin America and currently against EU austerity policies in Southern Europe. Companies have put corporate social responsibility (CSR) on their agenda. How are labor, NGOs and unions reacting and co-operating in the age of global labor market flexibility and insecurity?
This special issue on Globalization and international labor solidarity welcomes article contributions and literature reviews in all fields of labor and working life studies – history, sociology, international development, economy, political science, business studies, industrial relations etc. Below is some examples of possible themes and case-studies for articles:
- Analyses of international trade union co-operation in historical perspective, on rank and file or top organizational level.
- Union-NGO co-operation. International campaigns and solidarity movements. E.g. Clean Clothes Campaign, Asian Living Wage Alliance.
- CSR and labor solidarity. Voluntary company regulation of labor rights and employment relations (Global Compact, Nordic and EU models of CSR). Social enterprises.
- Migrant labor and trade union solidarity. Multicultural workforce, competition for work, casualization and informalization of labor.
- Women and international solidarity. Role in campaigning and organizing against discrimination.
- Labor solidarity and state regulation or de-regulation of employment relations. E.g. fair labor standards, minimum wages, new rules for social and environmental accountability.
- Different labor reactions and strategies to globalisation. E.g. union to union, European work councils, International solidarity networks, International Framework Agreements.
It will be possible to submit abstract for articles to get an editorial comment. The deadline for articles is 15. August 2013.
For this thematic issue the journal editors are assisted by associated professor Daniel Fleming, Roskilde University, professor Bernt Schiller, Goteborg University and associated professor Christer Thörnqvist, Linköping University
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