Institutional Ethnography in the Nordic Region

Rebecca W. B. Lund is an Academy of Finland postdoctoral researcher in Gender Studies at the University of Tampere, Finland. Ann Christin E. Nilsen is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the Department of Sociology and Social Work, University of Agder, Norway.

PART 1 Contextualizing IE in the Nordics; 1 Introduction: conditions for doing institutional ethnography in the Nordics; 2 In the name of the welfare state: investigating ruling relations in a Nordic context; PART 2 Conversations between IE and other theories; 3 From translation of ideas to translocal relations: shifting heuristics from Scandinavian Neo-Institutional Theory to institutional ethnography; 4 Complementing theories: institutional ethnography and organisation theory in institutional analysis; 5 Actor network theory and institutional ethnography: studying dilemmas in Nordic deinstitutionalization practices by combining a material focus with everyday experiences; 6 Institutional ethnography and feminist studies of technoscience: the politics of observing Nordic care; 7 Making sense of normalcy: bridging the gap between Foucault and Goffman; 8 Exploring “whiteness” as ideology and work knowledge: thinking with institutional ethnography; PART 3 Application of institutional ethnography in Nordic countries; 9 Institutional ethnography as a feminist approach for social work research; 10 Making gendering visible: institutional ethnography’s contribution to Nordic sociology of gender in family relations; 11 Collaboration and trust: expanding the concept of ruling relations; 12 Institutional paradoxes in Norwegian labour activation; 13 The transition of care work: from a comprehensive to a co-created welfare state; 14 The potential of Institutional Ethnography in Norwegian development research and practice: exploring child marriage in Nepal; PART 4 The transformative potential of IE in the Nordics; 15 Challenging behaviour and mental workload at residential homes for people with cognitive disorders; 16 Resisting the ruling relations: discovering everyday resistance with Institutional Ethnography; Wrapping it all up: future prospects of IE in the Nordics