Värdet av kvinnlighet Om validering som omvandlande praktik i arbete

Sammanfattning: In the thesis I explore validation as a transformative practice in work by starting from four standpoints in the development of new practices for validation in Sweden. I explore the practices, i.e. what people do in work all the time, in their specific situation. In particular, attention is paid to how validation is about recognizing knowledge as competence in some official framework for recognition, which is constructed in the practices. The empirical basis in my study of the validation practices were the projects in: the Care Company, which was a private company in the field of care; the Technical Unit, which was a unit in public sector in the field of technique; the Industrial Company, which was a private company in the field of industry and technique; and the Geriatric Care, which was a municipal activity in the field of care. Interviews were carried out with the organisers of the arrangements, the accommodators of the education, participative women and men in the work situation, and participative women in the educational situation. The aim of the thesis is to understand, by describing and analyzing, the interwoven construction of gender, competence and validation. My general research questions are: how is validation of knowledge handled in working life?; how is competence constructed in the practices of validation?; and how is gender pervading the practices of validation? In particular I explore the following research questions: how are the validation practices shaped?; in which practices is it possible to recognize knowledge in validation?; which practices lead towards employed women's and men's participation in validation?; and how is femininity constructed as a competence in the practices of validation? By applying theories about working life I understand validation as concrete practices where competence and gender as differences in power is the result. Knowledge is transformed in work when people participate in validation. Competence is organised with material social relations as a basis and gender intertwines with the use of knowledge in the validation practices. Gender is studied on the level of social relations in terms of gendering hierarchies and divisions of labour but also at the level of subjectivity through the definitions of validation made by subjects. In particular I want to make validation visible as a practice for transformation of knowledge in work, from a gender and class perspective. The thesis has an empirical basis. I follow Dorothy Smith's feminist methodology, which means that the study starts from people's (women's) own ”voices” and definitions of validation in the concrete practices. Interviews were conducted, observations were undertaken, and documents were collected in two different overbridging projects. I have continuously analysed the material and have by an abductive approach identified themes, theories and drawn conclusions. To understand the practices, theories of gender, knowledge competence and validation in work are applied. In validation, human relations are rendered valuable, when service work is regarded as a part of the new idea that capitalism now comprises the whole life, so that tendencies of not measurable impact are also included. I discuss the participants' experience of validation in relation to earlier research. In the study I pay attention to the persistently male tendencies in the shaping of the validation practices, and I particularly look for opportunities open to women. At the same time as it is possible to make women's knowledge visible in validation, the work is also pervaded by traditional gender hierarchies, by the conduct of Scientific Management, and the introduction of new techniques to transform knowledge to competence. In the transformation it is the accommodators of the education, especially, who have developed reflexive practices of individual self-creation and group membership. Ideas about flexible management and development of work make space for participatory approaches in the validation. In the process new practices are shaped to transform knowledge as the participants support new ways of thinking, different methods and devices for motivation, mapping and information techniques in work. Validation does not serve every group in work in the same way and does not make it possible for every individual employee to develop their competence, in the value adding practices. In validation, the earlier relatively distinct separation between the fields of work and education becomes more blurred, and different understandings about gender are expressed in the validation practices. Validation in men's jobs is directed so that employees learn new knowledge, and validation in women's jobs is directed so that employees' prior knowledge is made visible. Men's jobs fit with the new public transformation of competence, whereas women's knowledge in caring cannot be developed in the validation process. People in work can validate specific knowledge that can challenge both gender and competence, but “the feminine” can not be transformed to general competence for the women in the practices of validation. The worth of femininity is both contradictory and complex.