Ethnicizing employability. Governing the unemployed in Labour market Projects in sweden

Abstract

This research project aims to highlight the European Social Funds (ESF) task to increase the labour supply with “a particular focus on target groups with a foreign background”. My aim is to examine how this mission is formulated, practiced and made comprehensible in various empirical material related to labour market projects co-funded by the ESF.
More specific, my aim is to analyze how ethnicities (and other social categories) are constructed and problematized in relation to ideas about individual employability. Furthermore, I am interested in examining how different techniques are described as suitable (or not suitable) to address target groups with a foreign background, in order to make the individual employable according to certain norms. How, and what ethnicities are made problematic in relation to norms are also questions of interest.
Foucaults notions of power/knowledge relations and governmentality are central to my theoretical understanding of these questions.

Keywords

Employment/Recruitment, Ethnicity, Work, governmentality, employability

Publications

Vesterberg, V. (2016) Ethnicizing Employability. Governing the Unemployed in Labour market Projects in Sweden. Linköping: Linköping University

Vesterberg, V. (2016) ‘Exporing Misery Discourses: Problematized Roma in Labour Market Projects’ i European Journal for Research on the Education and Learning of Adults (RELA), 7(1): 25 – 40

Vesterberg, V. (2016) ‘Oanställningsbarhet och etnifierad annorlundahet’, i Sparrhof, G och Fejes, A. (red.) Anställningsbarhet. Perspektiv från utbildning och arbetsliv. Lund: Studentlitteratur.

Vesterberg, V (2015) Learning to be Swedish. Governing Migrants in Labour Market Projects, in Studies in Continuing Education, 37:3, 302-316.

Vesterberg, V (2013) ‘Ethnicized un/employability: Problematized Others and the Shaping of Advacned Liberal Subjects, in Ephemera. Theory & politics in organization. 13 (4): 737 – 757

Dahlstedt, M; Rundqvist, M; Vesterberg, V (2013) Medborgarskap: rättigheter, skyldigheter och medborgarideal i förändring, i Dahlstedt, M & Neergaard, A (2013) Migrationens och etnicitetens epok: Kritiska perspektiv i etnicitets- och migrationsstudier, Malmö: Liber

Dahlstedt, M; Rundqvist, M; Vesterberg, V (2011) Medborgarskap, etnicitet, migration. ThemES – Themes on Migration and Ethnic Studies, Remeso: Linköping

Engstrand, Å-K; Vesterberg, V (2011) Att få dom att förändras: Jobbcoaching för arbetslösa i socialfondsprojekt, Linköping University: Temagruppen integration i arbetslivet

Vesterberg, V (2011) Alla ska ju ut på praktik: Möjligheter, begränsningar och problem med praktik i arbetslivet som medel för integration, Linköping University: Temagruppen integration i arbetslivet

Vesterberg, V (2011) Har du chans till ett jobb? Invandrare och minoriteter nr 4, 2011, s. 17 ? 20

Vesterberg, V (2011) (O)likheter och egen makt: Om ett socialfondsprojekt för ökat arbetskraftsutbud, Linköping University: Temagruppen integration i arbetslivet

Engstrand, Å-K; Andersson, J; Vesterberg, V (2010) Bortom Lissabonstrategin: Om projektarbetares erfarenheter av inkluderingsarbete, Linköping University: Temagruppen integration i arbetslivet