1st Edition
Institutional Ethnography in the Nordic Region
Developed in response to the theoretically driven mainstream sociology, institutional ethnography starts from people’s everyday experiences, and works from there to discover how the social is organized. Starting from experience is a central step in challenging taken-for-granted assumptions and relations of power, whilst responding critically to the neoliberal cost-benefit ideology that has come to permeate welfare institutions and the research sector. This book explicates the Nordic response to institutional ethnography, showing how it has been adapted and interpreted within the theoretical and methodological landscape of social scientific research in the region, as well as the institutional particularities of the Nordic welfare state. Addressing the main topics of concern in the Nordic context, together with the way in which research is undertaken, the authors show how institutional ethnography is combined with different theories and methodologies in order to address particular problematics, as well as examining its standing in relation to contemporary research policy and university reforms. With both theoretical and empirical chapters, this book will appeal to scholars and students of sociology, professional studies and anthropology with interests in research methods and the Nordic region.
PART 1 Contextualizing IE in the Nordics
1 Introduction: conditions for doing institutional ethnography in the Nordics
REBECCA W. B. LUND AND ANN CHRISTIN E. NILSEN
2 In the name of the welfare state: investigating ruling relations in a Nordic context
KARIN WIDERBERG
PART 2 Conversations between IE and other theories
3 From translation of ideas to translocal relations: shifting heuristics from Scandinavian Neo-Institutional Theory to institutional ethnography
KJETIL G. LUNDBERG AND HOGNE LERØY SATAØEN
4 Complementing theories: institutional ethnography and organisation theory in institutional analysis
CATHRINE TALLERAAS
5 Actor network theory and institutional ethnography: studying dilemmas in Nordic deinstitutionalization practices by combining a material focus with everyday experiences
ANN-TORILL TØRRISPLASS AND JANNE PAULSEN BREIMO
6 Institutional ethnography and feminist studies of technoscience: the politics of observing Nordic care
RI IKKA HOMANEN
7 Making sense of normalcy: bridging the gap between Foucault and Goffman
ANN CHRISTIN E. NILSEN
8 Exploring “whiteness” as ideology and work knowledge: thinking with institutional ethnography
REBECCA W. B. LUND
PART 3 Application of institutional ethnography in Nordic countries
9 Institutional ethnography as a feminist approach for social work research
MARJO KURONEN
10 Making gendering visible: institutional ethnography’s contribution to Nordic sociology of gender in family relations
MAY-LINDA MAGNUSSEN
11 Collaboration and trust: expanding the concept of ruling relations
SIRI YDE AKSNES AND NINA OLSVOLD
12 Institutional paradoxes in Norwegian labour activation
HELLE CATHRINE HANSEN
13 The transition of care work: from a comprehensive to a co-created welfare state
GURO WISTH ØYDGARD
14 The potential of institutional ethnography in Norwegian development research and practice: exploring child marriage in Nepal
NAOMI CURWEN, HANNE HAALAND AND HEGE WALLEVIK
PART 4 The transformative potential of IE in the Nordics
15 Challenging behaviour and mental workload at residential homes for people with cognitive disorders
KJELD HØGSBRO
16 Resisting the ruling relations: discovering everyday resistance with institutional ethnography
MAJKEN JUL SØRENSEN, ANN CHRISTIN E. NILSEN AND REBECCA W. B. LUND
Wrapping it all up: future prospects of IE in the Nordics
ANN CHRISTIN E. NILSEN AND REBECCA W. B. LUND
Biography
Rebecca W. B. Lund is an Academy of Finland postdoctoral researcher in Gender Studies at the University of Tampere, Finland.
Ann Christin E. Nilsen is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the Department of Sociology and Social Work, University of Agder, Norway.
"This book offers a very fascinating collection of chapters that represent Nordic research in the Institutional Ethnography (IE) tradition. It provides a very impressive view of the network of scholars involved in such research, and also of the range and quality of their work." - Marjorie DeVault, The Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University, USA
