Skip to main content

ETHNOS_APP

Home • Search • Journals • List 0

The ideal worker as real abstraction

Labour Conflict and Subjectivity in Nursing

Bibliographic Data

ID2373937
AuthorsMagnus Granberg (0000-0002-5065-8973, Mid Sweden University, corresponding author)
Year2015
Volume29
Issue5
Pages792-807
Publication date2015-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueWork Employment and Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0950-0170 • E-ISSN: 1469-8722
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0950017014563102
OpenAlexW2152342119
LanguageEN
Citations received8
References cited27

The article interrogates the significance of the ideal nurse as an ideal worker in a context of labour conflict, using interview material from a study of an episode of conflict ending in the collective resignation of a group of nurses from a Swedish hospital ward. It puts forward the thesis that this ideal worker is best understood as an abstraction that 'achieves practical truth', that is, as a hypostasized practice or a 'real abstraction'. Hence, this management ideology exceeds strictly discursive dimensions. The analysis points to an enactment at the level of work practice prior to any explicit articulation of this ideology. Analysis attends to positioning on collective action, the identity work this positioning entailed and the 'truth' of nursing summoned therein, pointing to the ubiquity of the ideal worker in nursing along with its practical enactment

Abstraction · Articulation (sociology · Context (archaeology · Epistemology · Ideal (ethics · Ideology · Political science · Sociology · Subjectivity · Emotional Labor in Professions · Law · Management and Organizational Studies · Medicine · Nursing · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Psychology · Social Work Education and Practice

  • Applauded ‘nightingales’ voicing discontent. Exploring labour unrest in health and social care in Europe before and since the Covid-19 pandemic

    Open Access•Kurt Vandaele•Transfer European Review of…•2021

  • Needs, creativity and care

    Open Access•Craig Reeves, Matthew Sinnicks•Organization•2023

  • Yes but No

    Open Access•Sami Torssonen•Redescriptions Political Thought…•2024

  • National heroes, disposable workers. How collective action in the health and social care sector during the pandemic negotiated with the self‐sacrificing worker ideal

    Open Access•Costanza Galanti•Gender Work and Organization•2022

  • Guilt, care, and the ideal worker

    Open Access•Camille Allard, Grace J Whitfield•Gender Work and Organization•2023

  • Sociology as science of liberation

    Open Access•Paul Gilfillan•International Review of Sociology•2025

  • Reactionary radicalism and the analysis of worker subjectivity in Marx's critique of political economy

    Open Access•Magnus Granberg•Capital & Class•2022

  • Script Adaptation

    Open Access•Nana Wesley Hansen•Work Employment and Society•2024

  • Manufacturing Consent

    M Burawoy•Manufacturing Consent•1982

  • Genders in Production

    Leslie Salzinger•Genders in Production•2003

  • Grundrisse

    Karl Marx•Readings in Economic Sociology•2002

  • Dialectics of the Ideal

    Evald Ilyenkov•Dialectics of the Ideal•2014

  • The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader

    David M Halperin, Henry Abelove•Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader•2012

  • Sampling and Choosing Cases in Qualitative Research

    Nick Emmel•Sampling and Choosing Cases in…•2013

  • On Difference and Capital

    J Bair•Signs: Journal of Women in…•2010

  • Dialectics of the Ideal (2009)

    Evald Ilyenkov•Historical Materialism•2012

  • Femininity at Work

    Open Access•J Hearn•European Societies•2013

  • Gender and New Public Management

    Open Access•Robyn Thomas, Annette Davies•Gender Work and Organization•2002

  • A Stain on the White Uniform — The Discursive Construction of Nurses' Industrial Action in the Media

    Open Access•Elina Henttonen, Kirsi LaPointe et al.•Gender Work and Organization•2011

  • In Our Hands is Placed a Power

    Steven Colatrella•Socialism and Democracy•2011

  • Positioning

    Open Access•B Davies, Rom Harré•Journal for the Theory of Social…•1990

  • Recent Advances in Positioning Theory

    Open Access•Rom Harré, F M Moghaddam et al.•Theory & Psychology•2009

  • Disputes as Complex Social Events

    Rom Harré, Nikki Slocum•Common Knowledge•2003

  • Migration, nursing, institutional discrimination and emotional/affective labour

    Adina Batnitzky, L Mcdowell•Social & Cultural Geography•2011

  • Good Women and Good Nurses' Conflicting Identities in the Victorian Nurses Strikes, 1985-86

    Open Access•J Bessant•Labour History•1992

  • Identity work and the 'unemployed' worker

    Open Access•Kathleen Riach, Wendy Loretto•Work Employment and Society•2009

  • Power and Subjectivity at Work

    Open Access•David Knights, Hugh Willmott•Sociology•1989

  • Positive feedback in collective mobilization

    Open Access•Michael Biggs•Theory and Society•2003

Unique citing works8
Citations per year1,6
Citation span2021 - 2025 (5)
Citation velocityrecent
Highly citedNo
Citation typesNeutral: 8

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub
Ethnos_APP • Open Source Project • MIT License • Frontend v2.0.0 • Privacy and Cookies • API Documentation: api.ethnos.app/docs • API Source Code: GitHub • DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17049435 • Frontend Source Code: GitHub • DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17050053 • cruz.rio.br • Expectantes Misericordiae