Asmund W. Born

The employee in the sign of love

In this article we explore the language of passion, which has evolved to be a significant element in the descriptions of late modern job life. Niklas Luhman’s theory of social communication systems frames the analysis. It allows us to make a clear distinction between semantics and systems and enables us to track the empirical developments in semantics and reflect upon their communicative consequences. The article is divided into three parts. Part one is a semantic analysis of the past 25 years of human resource management (HRM) discourse in the Danish public sector, where we note the development from a bureaucratic description of the work relation towards a passionate one. Part two employs Luhmann’s theory of symbolically generalized media in order to systematize the development of semantics. Step by step, we examine whether the characteristics of communication in the code of love can be recognized in actual HRM semantics and, if so, in which form. The third part of the article explores the reasons why public organizations have opened themselves up, first, to the HRM discourse and, second, to a codification of love. We contend that it is due to a significant shift in the temporality of public organizations, where the new ideal of change‐driven organizations promotes a logic of enthusiasm and capacity for change that is not reconcilable with legal and bureaucratic coding. The article finally discusses some of the consequences, among which we especially point to the privatization of organizational inclusion and exclusion accompanying the semantic turn towards passion.

Dialogued‐based activation – a new “dispositif”?

Purpose – The so‐called individual action plan (IAP) has become a major policy instrument in providing active welfare for social benefit claimants, and as such it has attracted quite a research interest. The purpose of this paper is to maintain that research hitherto has been founded in a too narrow notion of the IAP, arguing instead that IAP represents a new societal rationality, in relation to which the scope of research questions should be broadened.Design/methodology/approach – The paper explores the basic dynamics and internal features of the IAP dialogue theoretically and ideal typically. It is furthermore argued that IAP‐like arrangements have extended far beyond the domain of social policy; IAP‐like dialogues are practiced in all corners of society in the form of HRM conversations, supervision, coaching etc. Relating to Foucault it is therefore argued that IAP represents a new dispositif.Findings – The paper states that the emerging dispositif demands that the individual constitutes herself as a c...

Legal Regulation and Communicative Couplings

From 1989 to 1991 we studied the relationship between legal regulation and decisions about acceptable risk at off-shore installations in the North Sea. The study focused on the interaction between authorities and private actors, when they develop subsidiary rules, discuss projects, and execute audits. This article discusses the case of regulation within the framework of communicative systems theory; the problem is how to couple differentiated, closed functional systems (e.g., law and economy). Applying empirical data we attempt to create a more complex understanding of the communicative processes, on the basis of which we can elaborate upon the coupling between systems, and the potential effects of law. The point of the article is that the coupling itself may develop into a new independent system (the discursive system). If this is correct and fairly generalizable, legal regulation contributes to the differentiation of society into closed systems. At the practical level the differentiation will have consequences for both regulation and democracy.

Privilegering af perspektiver - en refleksion over begrebskonstruktionerne inklusion / eksklusion og intergrering /marginalisering i den sociologiske iagttagelse

Priviligizing perspectives: Reflection on the construction of the concepts of inclusion/exclusion and integration/marginalization in sociological perception Social “inclusion” and “exclusion” are “new” concepts which have emerged from “old” concepts such as inequality, poverty and marginalisation, and the purpose of this article is to examine and discuss the practical potentials and the intellectual limitations accompanying the use of conceptual dichotomies such as inclusion/exclusion and integration/marginalisation. It is argued that the concepts are hea¬vily dependent on political discourse, and that the concepts reduce sociology to be a provider of instrumental know¬ledge about efficient forms of social integration as a “with-in” society techni¬cal question. As such, the concepts screen out questions of social integrati¬on that are closely interrelated with the societal forms of solidarity and the soci¬al factors constituting a society. Furthermore, it is argued that the dichotomic and asymmetrical character of the concepts support a process in which certain perspectives are “privile¬ged”, while others are excluded, a pro¬cess in which the technical perspective is strengthened while a critical discus¬sion about solidarity is counter-indica¬ted. It is concluded that a dismantling of the stronghold of the dichotomies might imply Bourdieuian og Luhmannian in¬spired analyses in order to raise research questions which are contra-intui¬ti¬ve and oriented towards unhegemonic knowledge.