Reorganization of the Public Sector: Changing Gender and Ethnic Relations

Abstract

This project aims at describing and analysing the reorganization of the Swedish public sector from ethnic, gender and age perspectives. The Swedish public sector is in a process of transformation. The current changes are often in line with the international New Public Management trend. As the welfare services in Sweden are an obligation to the 290 municipalities, empirical studies have to be conducted on the local level. Improved democracy in terms of freedom of choice to the citizens, increased diversity in services available, lower costs for the local community, and development of new markets are often the aspired goals from the promoters of the changes. These new markets are expected to encourage local entrepreneurs and especially former employees. As women are overrepresented among the employees, the new strategies are expected to be very positive for women and, due to an assumed demand from the clients, for ‘ethnic specialists’. This means that the reorganization might entail new possibilities for entrepreneurs with a business profile different from ‘the mainstream entrepreneur’ but to this point we find a domination of large organizations rather than small.

Keywords

Entrepreneurship, Ethnicity, Gender, Age, Public sector

Publications

Sköld B. (forthcoming). “Vad hände? Kvinnors företagande och de strukturella villkoren. En studie i spåren av den offentliga sektorns omvandling”, doktorsavhandling, Institutionen för ekonomisk och industriell utveckling, Linköping: Linköpings universitet.

Högberg L. & Sundin E. (2014). “Innovative practices in work, organization and regional development – problems and prospects. Introduction to the special issue”, Vol. 18, No. 4, P. 3-8. Scandinavian Journal of Public Administration. http://ojs.ub.gu.se/ojs/index.php/sjpa/article/view/3051

Högberg L, Schölin T, Ram M & Jones T (2014). “Categorising and labelling entrepreneurs ?Business support organisations constructing the Other through prefixes of ethnicity and immigrantship”, International Small Business Journal. doi:10.1177/0266242614555877

Högberg L (2013) “Entrepreneurs who care: Identity work as discursive positioning in relation to ?entrepreneurship? and ?diversity? in home-help service to ?elderly immigrants?”, 8th International Conference in Critical Management Studies (the Critical Entrepreneurship Studies track), Manchester 10-12 July 2013.

Sköld, B. (2013). “Strukturerna och företagandet: en longitudinell studie av kvinnors och mäns företagande i spåren av den offentliga sektorns omvandling”. Licentiate thesis, Linköping: Linköping University.

Sundin, E. (2011) “Entrepreneurship and the reorganization of the public sector: A gendered story”. Economic and Industrial Democracy, 32(4), 631-653.

Sundin, E. & M. Tillmar (2011) “Kvinnors företagande i spåren av den offentliga sektorns omvandling”. In E. Blomberg, G. Hedlund & M. Wottle (Eds.), Kvinnors företagande – mål eller medel? Stockholm: SNS Förlag.

Sundin, E. & Tillmar, M. (2010) “Masculinisation of the public sector: local level studies of public sector outsourcing in elder care”. International Journal of Gender and Entrepreneurship, 2, 1, 49-67. Institutional perspectives on gender and entrepreneurship. Guest editors: Helene Ahl and Teresa Nelson.

Sundin, E. & M. Tillmar (2010) “Uppföljning av ‘Eget val’ inom hemtjänsten i Linköpings kommun?Utförarperspektiv”, Helix Working Papers. Linköping: Linköping University.

Sundin, E. & M. Tillmar (2010) “Är det något särskilt med offentlig sektor?”, Nordiske Organisasjonsstudier, 12(4), 3-17.

Sundin, E., M. Tillmar & M. Renstig (2010) “Varför ska kvinnor starta företag inom vård och omsorg?” Stockholm: Tillväxtverket.