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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.
List of contents
PART 1 Contextualizing IE in the Nordics; 1 Introduction: conditions for doing institutional ethnography in the Nordics; 2 In the name of the welfare state: investigating ruling relations in a Nordic context; 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; 4 Complementing theories: institutional ethnography and organisation theory in institutional analysis; 5 Actor network theory and institutional ethnography: studying dilemmas in Nordic deinstitutionalization practices by combining a material focus with everyday experiences; 6 Institutional ethnography and feminist studies of technoscience: the politics of observing Nordic care; 7 Making sense of normalcy: bridging the gap between Foucault and Goffman; 8 Exploring "whiteness" as ideology and work knowledge: thinking with institutional ethnography; PART 3 Application of institutional ethnography in Nordic countries; 9 Institutional ethnography as a feminist approach for social work research; 10 Making gendering visible: institutional ethnography's contribution to Nordic sociology of gender in family relations; 11 Collaboration and trust: expanding the concept of ruling relations; 12 Institutional paradoxes in Norwegian labour activation; 13 The transition of care work: from a comprehensive to a co-created welfare state; 14 The potential of Institutional Ethnography in Norwegian development research and practice: exploring child marriage in Nepal; PART 4 The transformative potential of IE in the Nordics; 15 Challenging behaviour and mental workload at residential homes for people with cognitive disorders; 16 Resisting the ruling relations: discovering everyday resistance with Institutional Ethnography; Wrapping it all up: future prospects of IE in the Nordics
About the author
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.
Summary
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.
Report
"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
