Authors:Bertil Rolandsson, Anna Ilsøe Abstract: A crisis refers to some sort of disruption of established practices, routines, or procedures occurring whenever a risk has been realized (Battistelli & Galantino 2019; Beck 1986, 2006). For social actors exposed to crisis in the labor market, this means that they will have to navigate some sort of uncertainty, trying to respond to the consequences unfolding in their surroundings as well as in their own activities (Aven & Renn 2009, p. 1). As they navigate a crisis, they will have to assess further vulnerabilities and damages for their own businesses and the variety of societal values that they adhere to, seeking out opportunities to manage both risks and prospects (Bundy et al. 2017). Doing so nevertheless is difficult and leaves social actors with a variety of tensions that they must address. Historically, researchers have linked the Nordic labor markets with strong social partners (employers’ associations, trade unions, and the state), able and willing to tackle such tensions. Due to high coverage by collective agreements and supportive welfare state arrangements, they have been able both to contribute to institutional stability and support adaption and changes (Alsos & Dølvik 2021; Andersen et al. 2014; Campbell et al. 2006; Kjellberg 2023). In the wake of, for instance, the recent COVID-19 crisis and the ongoing digital transformation of work, research as well as policy and public debates have nevertheless indicated that we may face new types of critical challenges in today’s society. It is important to point out that these challenges display a great variation. For instance, current crises often seem to be global in scale – for example, climate change, digitalization, and the coronavirus pandemic – making it difficult for national-level actors to handle the consequences on their own (Beck 2006). Also, some of the crises seem to have the character of a chock occurring at a specific point in time (e.g., a financial crisis, the pandemic), whereas others have been here for years and will last far into the future (e.g., climate change), although they might change gears on the way and interact with other types of crises (Björck 2016; Enggaard et al. 2023). In addition, the nature of these challenges has to do with the strategic choices of the social partners, and whether they, as actors in the labor market, perceive the crisis as controllable, and perhaps something that could be exploited to strengthen their position in the Nordic society or not (Boin & ‘t Hart 2022; Boin et al. 2008). These are all different conditions that play a role for Nordic social partners’ ability and willingness to act. We may ask ourselves in what way today’s crises and linked developments affect the Nordic labor markets and the Nordic social dialogue. Are the institutional foundations for adaption to various crises still able to provide means and measures to address future challenges in the Nordic countries' In this special issue, we address these questions, contributing to research on the future of Nordic working life during times of uncertainties by exploring the meaning and the impact of different types of crises and responses. The coronavirus pandemic constitutes a prominent crisis theme throughout this special issue, but the articles also address issues often framed as labor market crises due to digitalization and the emergence of platform work. The articles display a great diversity of both theoretical assumptions and empirical materials. The texts draw on different types of historical, comparative, quantitative, or qualitative data, revealing that the way we approach or conceptualize what we mean by a crisis is not self-evident. The articles are sensitive to the contextual differences, and the fact that involved actors and organizations in the Nordic labor markets face a variety of different risks and have different views of the crises they encounter. Authors of the articles thereby also recognize that most of the actors involved in managing the different crises in the Nordic labor markets differ when it comes to the amount of risk they are willing to take as they strive with different aims (Battistelli & Galantino 2019) PubDate: 2023-07-13 DOI: 10.18291/njwls.138996 Issue No:Vol. 13 (2023)
Authors:Anna Ilsøe, Pelle Korsbæk Jørgensen Abstract: When the coronavirus spread globally in early 2020, many governments issued national lockdowns of schools, institutions, and businesses. As the epidemic turned into a pandemic, the health crisis also became a societal crisis, and many universities and research foundations issued COVID-19 grants to study the societal implications of the crisis. In this article, we discuss sociological research during the corona crisis and ask the questions: What role did sociology play in the pandemic – and how did the pandemic affect sociology' We argue that trends of a fast-track sociology can be observed, which has implications for methods, theory, analysis, and societal impact. Fast-track sociology is often faster, more interdisciplinary and dialogue-based, disseminates more preliminary results, and has potential of more societal impact. However, it also contains challenges if it is not interlinked with more critical and slower research processes, which are core to the sociological profession. PubDate: 2023-07-13 DOI: 10.18291/njwls.138997 Issue No:Vol. 13 (2023)
Authors:Malin Espersson, Alina Lidén, Ulrika Westrup Abstract: This article aims to explore what working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic means for workplace relationships. This study is based on semi-structured interviews with Swedish knowledge workers. Three approaches are identified as regards how employees maintain their workplace relationships when working from home: (1) being selective as regards social interactions, (2) being compliant and resistant during digital meetings, and (3) having less spontaneity and creativity when in the digital space. Further, our findings also point to the prioritization of the individual’s interests and needs over those of the collective. The study indicates the importance of understanding the dynamics of the workplace relationships when working remotely. PubDate: 2023-05-06 DOI: 10.18291/njwls.137244 Issue No:Vol. 13 (2023)
Authors:Sissel C. Trygstad, Rolf K. Andersen, Anne Mette Ødegård Abstract: A central feature of the Nordic model of labor relations, namely, the collaboration between social parties at the workplace, has proven to be particularly effective during crises. This is the backdrop for our study of the experiences from Trade Union Representatives (TU-reps) during the corona pandemic. With a survey aimed at TU-reps from the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO), which represents just under half of the total unionized employees, we asked how the pandemic affected their participation and influence at the workplaces. Referring to the pandemic as a game changer, we discuss signs of change in TU-reps’ possibilities for participation and influence under such difficult circumstances. According to theTU-reps, interaction between the social parties intensified during the pandemic. Formal participation between the parties stands out to be crucial for enabling dialog and can therefore be labeled as the backbone of the Nordic model in times of crisis. PubDate: 2023-02-28 DOI: 10.18291/njwls.136268 Issue No:Vol. 13 (2023)
Authors:Trine P. Larsen, Anna Ilsøe Abstract: Has the Corona crisis triggered changes to Nordic social protection' We address this question by examining how Denmark, Finland, Norway, Finland, Iceland, and Sweden reacted to the crisis, which in many ways resembles a Litmus-test for Nordic social protection. Analytically, we draw on historical institutionalism, welfare, and segmentation literature. We find that although the Nordic relief packages aim to create an encompassing safety net, the reforms expose and sometimes reinforce institutionally embedded cracks in the Nordic systems around the nexus of standard and non-standard work, leading to potential layers of institutionally embedded inequalities. The Nordic countries have expanded and adjusted their existing social protection, portraying strong elements of path dependency, but with examples of novel initiatives. Their mix of universal and targeted measures appears to reflect so-called ‘expanded universalism’, where targeted measures supplement the ‘ordinary’ Nordic social protection to cover the most crisis ridden, but not necessarily the poorest, groups. PubDate: 2022-12-13 DOI: 10.18291/njwls.135099 Issue No:Vol. 13 (2022)
Authors:Alexis Rydell, Elin Storman Abstract: This article focuses on the restructurings that took place within the hospitality sector during the economic downturn caused by the pandemic. The aim of this article is to examine how STW (short-time work) schemes and redundancies affected the psychosocial work environment. The data material consists primarily of 36 interviews with employees and managers from three hotels in Sweden that implemented STW schemes, where some employees were also made redundant. The results show that during the rather long period of government restrictions, radical shifts in hotel occupancy rates, and implemented STW schemes, the work environment changed in terms of employees’ perceptions of job (in)security; workload and work extension; time and financial structures; and workplace relations. Further, the results illustrate how hotel employees’ perceptions of the psychosocial work environment shifted over the course of the pandemic. PubDate: 2022-11-26 DOI: 10.18291/njwls.134827 Issue No:Vol. 13 (2022)
Authors:Jonas Hulgård Kristiansen, Trine Pernille Larsen, Anna Ilsøe Abstract: This paper presents a novel approach for studying differences and similarities among platform workers, by taking into account the wider labor market position of platform workers. Analytically, we seek inspiration from literature on labor market segmentation (SLM) and multiple jobholding (MJH) to nuance the often-dichotomized view of labor markets characterized by SLM theory. By using survey data from a set of additional questions tied to the Danish LFS, we apply latent class analysis models to discover patterns of labor market divisions among platform workers in Denmark. We identify three major groups of platform workers, and while all of them have multiple income sources, they have very different labor market positions in the traditional labor market. We categorize them as ‘established workers’, ‘transitional workers’, and ‘new labor market entrants’. These divisions point to marked differences among platform workers, implying that platform work is characterized by varying blends of labor market hybridity. PubDate: 2022-08-05 DOI: 10.18291/njwls.133721 Issue No:Vol. 13 (2022)
Authors:Tuomo Alasoini, Arja Ala-Laurinaho, Marja Känsälä Abstract: Our qualitative study in two Finnish companies examines the view presented as part of the ‘employment crisis’ debate that digitalization is leading to a significant substitution of the work of drivers of heavy road vehicles. The main effects of digitalization thus far on the drivers’ work have been automation of individual vehicle functions, speeding up the communication among them and between them and their supervisors, and more intensive control of work performance. The study does not find support for the claim about labor substitution in the foreseeable future, but, instead, indications of a widening digital divide between drivers and supervisors, leaving drivers as bystanders in learning processes associated with digitalization. Although the results cannot be generalized without reservation to different types of companies or business and labor market environments, the findings of the trends in the drivers’ work and labor market position probably have broader relevance. PubDate: 2022-04-22 DOI: 10.18291/njwls.132379 Issue No:Vol. 13 (2022)
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