Héctor I. Rodríguez Pastrana
MODULO DE PRODUCCIÓN
This paper has focused on a particular aspect of employability studies which has been scarce in both theoretical discussions and empirical investigation – namely, ethnicized un/employability. The first aim of this paper has been to suggest some tools for analysing ethnicized un/employability. A focus on the continuum between those deemed unemployable and normative ideals of what constitutes an employable individual enables us to nuance the analysis more than would be possible if the focus were on only one of the two positions. This contrasting analysis has been carried out through the elaboration of two concepts: problematized Others and advanced liberal subjects, and discussing these concepts along with governmentality and constructivist theories of ethnicity. One way of framing the activity of transforming problematized Others into advanced liberal subjects is to understand such practices as learning activities. Such processes of re-socialization have as an objective that the target groups should internalize specific norms regarding what is seen as constituting an employable individual in a given time and place.
The second aim of this paper has been to use these analytical tools in discussing an empirical case. As we have seen, the construction of ethnicized Otherness becomes crucial in the government of unemployed Somalis. Somalis are, in many aspects, constructed as a group that is the direct opposite of the ideal citizen of advanced liberal societies. ‘They’ are constructed as patriarchal – in contrast to ‘us’ who are gender equal; ‘they’ are constructed as illegal and idle due to the habit of chewing khat; ‘they’ are described as distracted and unmotivated to engage in labour. Although ‘their’ culture is seen as a potential resource regarding entrepreneurialism, this aspect is seen as hindered from flourishing by the Koran’s prohibition of interest.
5 An umbrella term that I have used to capture such positions in this context is ‘employability experts’.
The project to work with unemployed from a Somali background is permeated by discourses of Otherness. The participants are being Othered – seen as ‘different’ in terms of ethnicity. Nevertheless, the objective of these learning activities (to internalize prevailing norms of advanced liberal societies) may be the same for all participants engaged in employability training of different sorts. However, in order to reach this goal of producing employable subjects, the techniques used and problematizations made may differ across groups. Those regarded as ‘ethnically different’ often have other starting points than indigenous unemployed. The path to employability looks slightly different for different types of problematized groups, be they youths, the disabled, women, drug addicts or people with a foreign background. Regarding unemployed Somalis, I have pointed out the idea of gender equality and democracy, which in the project operates both as markers of Swedishness for ‘us’ and Otherness and difference for ‘them’. This is one nexus that would be of interest for further exploration. We should keep in mind that different kinds of problematizations intersect and build up numerous potential target groups with complex relations to each other. The nuances, differences and intersections of employability training targeting problematized Others are clearly in need of more rigorous empirical investigation.
references
Alvesson, M., T. Bridgman and H. Willmott (eds.) (2009) The Oxford handbook of critical
management studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Ashcraft, K. L. (2009) ‘Gender and diversity. Other ways to “make a difference”’, in M. Alvesson, T. Bridgman and H. Willmott (eds.) (2009) The Oxford handbook of critical
management studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Barratt, E. (2008) ‘The later Foucault in organization and management studies’, Human
Relations, 61(4): 515.
Berglund, G. and A. Fejes (eds.) (2009) Anställningsbarhet. Perspektiv från utbildning och
arbetsliv. Lund: Studentlitteratur.
Boden, R. and M. Nedeva (2010) ‘Employing discourse: Universities and graduate “employability”’, Journal of Education Policy, 25(1): 37–54.
Brown, P., A. Hesketh and S. Williams (2004) The mismanagement of talent. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Brubaker, R. (2006) Ethnicity without groups. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Bröckling, U., S. Krasmann and T. Lemke (eds.) (2011) Governmentality. London:
Routledge.
Carlbaum, S. (2011) ‘Reforming education: Gendered constructions of future workers’, in A. Sjölander Egan and J. Payne Gunnarsson (eds.) Tracking discourse. Lund: Nordic Academic Press.
Carlbaum, S. (2012) Blir du anställningsbar lille/a vän? Umeå: Statsvetenskapliga institutionen, Umeå University.
Carlson, B., K. Magnusson and S. Rönnqvist (2012) Somalier på arbetsmarknaden. Stockholm: Fritzes.
Castles, S. and M. J. Miller (2009) The age of migration [4th edition]. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
COM (2005) ‘A common agenda for integration: Framework for the integration of third- country nationals in the European Union’, Brussels, European Commission.
COM (2010) ‘EUROPE 2020: A strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth’, Brussels, European Commission.
Conley, G. T. and G. Topa (2002) ‘Socio-economic distance and spatial patterns in unemployment’, Journal of Applied Econometrics, 17(4): 303-327.
Dahlstedt, M. (2009a) Aktiveringens politik. Malmö: Liber.
Dahlstedt, M. (2009b) ‘Parental governmentality: involving “immigrant parents” in Swedish schools’, British Journal of Sociology of Education, 30(2): 193-205.
Dean, M. (1998) ‘Administering asceticism. Reworking the ethical life of the unemployed’, in M. Dean and B. Hindess (eds.) Governing Australia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Dean, M. (2010) Governmentality [2nd edition]. London: Sage.
Doyle, M. (2003) ‘Discourses on employability and empowerment: Foundation degrees and “third way” discursive repertoires’, Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of
Education, 24(3): 275-288.
EC (2006) ‘Council Regulation laying down general provisions on the European Regional Development Fund, the European Social Fund and the Cohesion Fund and repealing Regulation’, European Commission, No. 1260/1999.
ESF (2007) ‘National structural fund programme for regional competitiveness and employment (ESF) 2007-2013’, CCI number 2007SE052PO001.
ESF (2010) ‘Somalis go into business’. [http://www.esf.se/sv/Projektbank/Behallare-for- projekt/Sydsverige/Somalier-startar-foretag/]
ESF (2013) ‘Somalis are entrepreneurs’. [http://www.esf.se/sv/english/Articles-about- our-projects/Somalis-are-entrepreneurs/]
Fejes, A. (2010) ‘Discourse on employability: Constituting the responsible citizen’,
Studies in Continuing Education, 32(2): 89-102.
Fejes, A. and K. Nicoll (eds.) (2008) Foucault and lifelong learning. London: Routledge. Fenton, S. (2010) Ethnicity. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Fogde, M. (2009) The work of job seeking. Örebro: Örebro University.
Foucault, M. (1979) Discipline and punish: The birth of the prison. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Foucault, M. (1983) ‘Afterword: The subject and power’, in L. H. Dreyfus and P. Rabinow (eds.) Beyond structuralism and hermeneutics [2nd edition]. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Foucault, M. (1991) ‘Questions of method’, in G. Burchell, C. Gordon and P. Miller (eds.)
The Foucault effect. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Foucault, M. (1994) ‘The subject and power’, in J. D. Faubion (ed.) Power. New York: The New Press.
Foucault, M. (1997) The essential works of Foucault: Ethics, subjectivity and truth. New York: The New Press.
Foucault, M. (2000) The essential works of Foucault. Power. New York: The New Press. Foucault, M. (2007) Security, territory, population. Lectures at the Collège de France
1977-1978. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Foucault, M. (2008) The birth of biopolitics. Lectures at the Collège de France 1978-1979. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Garsten, C. (2004) ‘”Be a gumby”: The political technologies of employability in the temporary staffing business’, in C. Garsten and K. Jacobsson (eds.) Learning to be
employable. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Garsten, C. and Jacobsson, K. (2004) ‘Conclusion: Discursive transformations and the nature of modern power’, in C. Garsten and K. Jacobsson, K (eds.) Learning to be
employable. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Garsten, C. and Jacobsson, K. (eds.) (2004) Learning to be employable. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Gil-White, F. J. (2001) ‘How thick is blood? The plot thickens…: if ethnic actors are primordialists, what remains of the circumstantialist / primordialist controversy?’,
Ethnic and Racial Studies, 22(5): 789-820.
Gordon, C. (1980) ‘Afterword’, in M. Foucault, Power/knowledge: Selected interviews & other
writings 1972-1977. New York: Pantheon Books.
Hall, S. (1991) ‘Ethnicity, identity and difference’, Radical America, 23(4): 9–20.
Hall, S. (1997) ‘The spectacle of the “other”’, in S. Hall (ed.) Representation. London: Sage. Holmqvist, M. (2009) ‘Disabled people and dirty work’, Disability and Society, 24(7):
869–882.
IOGT-NTO (2011) ‘Somalis are entrepreneurs’, Newsletter October 2011. [http://skane.iogt.se/files/2012/12/Nyhetsbrev-Okt-2011.pdf]
IOGT-NTO (n.d.) ‘Somalier startar företag’. [http://skane.iogt.se/esf-projektet/]
Jacobsson, K. (2004) ‘A European politics of employability: The political discourse on employability of the EU and the OECD’, in C. Garsten and K. Jacobsson (eds.)
Learning to be employable. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Johansson, T. and R. Klith (2008) ‘Caring fathers’, Men and Masculinities, 11(1): 42-62. Leslie, D. and S. Drinkwater (1998) ‘Staying on in fulltime education: reasons for higher
participation rates among ethnic minority males and females’, Economica, 66(261): 63-77.
Martiniello, M. (2010) ‘Processes of migration and integration: The case and concept of career in ethnic and migration studies’, lecture at Remeso Graduate School, 10 November 2010, Norrköping.
Martiniello M. and J. Rath (2010) ‘Introduction: Migration and ethnic studies in Europe’, in M. Martiniello and J. Rath (eds.) Studies in international migration and immigrant incorporation. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press IMISCOE textbooks.
Mattsson, K . (2001) (O)likhetens geografier. Uppsala: Uppsala University.
McDonald, C. and G. Marston (2005) ‘Workfare as welfare: governing unemployment in the advanced liberal state’, Critical Social Policy, 25(3): 374-401.
McKinlay, A. and K. Starkey (eds.) (1998) Foucault, management and organization theory. London: Sage.
Morley, L. (2001) ‘Producing new workers: Quality, equality and employability in higher education’, Quality in Higher Education, 7(2): 131-138.
Nielsen, J. (1999) ‘Employability and workability among Danish employees’, Experimental Aging Research: An international journal devoted to the scientific study of the aging process, 25(4): 393-397.
Nilsson, S. (2010) ‘Enhancing individual employability: The perspective of engineering graduates’, Education + Training, 45(6/7): 540-551.
Nkomo, S. (1992) ‘The emperor has no clothes: Rewriting “race in organizations”’,
Academy of Management Review, 17(3): 487-513.
Osman, A. (1999) The ‘Strangers’ among us: The social construction of identity in adult education. Linköping: Linköping University.
Osman, F. A. and M. Söderbäck (2011) ‘Perceptions of the use of khat among Somali immigrants living in Swedish society’, Scandinavian Journal of Public Health, 39(2): 212-219.
Pred, A. (2000) Even in Sweden. Berkley: University of California Press.
Rolfson, M. (n.d.) ‘Metod PM för aktörer som arbetar med arbetssökande somalier’. [http://skane.iogt.se/files/2012/12/Metod-PM-ESF-Projekt.pdf]
Rose, N. (1996) ‘Governing “advanced” liberal democracies’ in A. Barry, T. Osborne and N. Rose (eds.) Foucault and political reason. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Rose, N. (1998) Inventing our selves. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Rose, N. (1999) Powers of freedom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Rose, N. and P. Miller (1992) ‘Political power beyond the State: Problematics of government’, British Journal of Sociology, 43(2): 173-205.
Said, E. (1979) Orientalism. New York: Vintage Books.
Thedvall, R. (2004) ‘“Do it yourself”: Making up the self-employed individual in the Swedish public employment service’, in C. Garsten and K. Jacobsson (eds.) Learning to
be employable. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Thörnquist, A (2011) ‘Arbete och integration’, TIA-report 2011:6, REMESO. Linköping: Linköping University.
Wallin, C. (2012) Utvärdering av ESF-projektet ’Somalier startar företag – jobbsök’. [http://www.esf.se/PageFiles/2201245/Somalier_slutrapport%20final2.pdf]
Walters, W. (2012) Governmentality. London: Routledge.
Weinert, P., M. Baukens, P. Bollérot, M. Pineschi-Gapènne and U. Walwei (eds.) (2001)
Employability: From theory to practice. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers.
the author
Viktor Vesterberg is a Phd Candidate at the Institute for Research on Migration, Ethnicity and Society (REMESO) at the Department of Social and Welfare studies (ISV), Linköping University. Viktor has been working with the Thematic Group on Inclusion (TIA) from 2009-2011. TIA was a project within REMESO, co-financed by the European Social Fund. One of the tasks of TIA was to analyse projects related to labour market inclusion. His PhD project focuses on how different techniques for increased employability among ethnicized groups are conceptualized and practiced.
ISSN 1473-2866 (Online) ISSN 2052-1499 (Print) www.ephemerajournal.org volume 13(4): 759-783