Occupations are a basic unit for categorizing people: One of the first questions we ask a new acquaintance is, "What do you do?" Occupations are closely related to social identity. Nonetheless, occupational identity has been questioned by researchers who claim that the concept is now outdated. This article explores whether people express occupational identity. Using quantitative data, we analyze how people talk about their occupations in self-presentations. The findings suggest that occupation still defines social identityespecially for incumbents with a defined education, in a high-status occupation or a profession, or in an occupation with a strong cultural framing.
Institutionen för Sociologi och arbetsvetenskap, Göteborgs universitet
Notions of Class and Gender in the Employment Service Job DescriptionsThis article examines whether job descriptions emphasize different characteristics and competences depending on the occupations' social class and gender relations . The study is partly a replication of a similar analysis conducted by Gesser in the 1970s . The purpose is to examine the prevalence of stereotypes in occupational descriptions provided by the Swedish state, and if the descriptions contribute to class and gender labeling of occupations and, by extension, its practitioners . Previous research has shown that career guiding materials are characterized by notions of the appropriate practitioner's class and gender . In this study we depart from the concept of doxa and argue that stereotypical images of occupations are based on common sense that remains unquestioned . The study draws on a quantitative content analysis of 420 job descriptions analyzed by various statistical methods . The overall results show that there are systematic differences . In general, social class seems to have greater impact than gender on what kind of competences that are emphasized in the descriptions . Social skills are emphasized in female dominated occupations, while physical abilities are highlighted in male-dominated occupations . To some extent, these results are uncontroversial, as it also portraits abilities necessary to do the work in different kind of occupations .
Wage formation in Sweden has been decentralized, and the introduction of individual performance-based pay has increased employer discretion. This article explores practices of local-level wage determination and argues that existing analyses still have too much focus on the formal (regulatory) institutions toexplain what that is going on under the surface. Drawing on interviews with HR, managers, employees and union representatives from both public and private sector organizations, the study concludes that individual and differentiated wagesetting is delimited locally by small budgets and the actors' cultural-cognitive and normative expectations. Even though there have been radical changes in collective agreements and policies, we find strong elements of path dependency in local wage determination practices.
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