Eva Olsson

Everyday resistance in psychiatry through harbouring strategies

Abstract The purpose of this article is to study emotion management by focusing on emotion labour in relation to organisational resistance in psychiatry. Drawing on focus group interviews and individual interviews with 11 therapists in psychiatry, and on theories of emotion management and harbouring work (i.e. managing emotion work and renewing energy in a team), we argue that individual workers in psychiatry have to create strategies on their own. The main findings show that emotions are harboured alone and resistance strategies created in solitude can be characterised as everyday resistance and organisational misbehaviour, performed in deep backstage spaces such as the bathroom.

On gray dancing : Constructions of age-normality through choreography and temporal codes

Against the background of population aging, older peoples dance has attracted attention in research and its health promoting effects and social meanings have been brought to the fore. In this article we focus on the context and power dimensions of dance with an emphasis on the organizing of dance among older adults in terms of social discourses and age relationships. On the basis of qualitative interviews with 33 older dancers and 11 dance providers in Sweden, the study illustrates how dance is organized through social discourses on healthism and on the increasing group of older people as a powerful consumer group. The study highlights that older people and their social dance contexts are marked and subordinated in relation to younger age groups through non-verbal practices such as choreography and temporal codes. In short, dancing among older adults is not only a common health promoting and social activity, but also an arena in which age and age normality are negotiated and constructed.

Perception of time in relation to work and private life among Swedish social workers – the temporal clash between the organisation and the individual

ABSTRACT Time, or rather lack of time, is currently an issue to many involved in social work, in Sweden and elsewhere. Stress at work is presently one of the most common reasons social workers state for leaving their profession or their workplace. This article examines how time is perceived in relation to work and private life by employees in the social services. The investigation was conducted as a qualitative interview study with six social workers. An abductive approach was adopted in the analysis. The results indicate a general experience of lack of time and an individual perception of time among the interviewees. What they say about time indicates that they have a monochronic perspective on time. It is also shown that the respondents use different curbing strategies to recuperate. At work, strategies take the form of creating recovery arenas allowing for micropauses such as eating an apple or having a cup of coffee. After work, exercising or strolling in the woods are common strategies. In relation to the employer and the organisation individuals also assume responsibility for organisational shortcomings that they cannot influence.