Introduction to NJWLS 2019-2

Abstract

This issue presents six new articles dealing with central issues in working life research in the Nordic countries. The articles all center around questions related to (the lack of) competencies and skills that are in demand in organizations and in relation to the labor market in general. They illuminate how skills – and skills gaps – are produced in complex dynamics of agency and structure, action and discourse, reflexive and deliberative subjective processes, and objective restraints, how labor market policies and organizational regulations affect working life, and how these policies in turn are counteracted. When I read the six articles, I was struck by the contradictory and often paradoxical nature of working life. The nuanced empirical studies of the six articles in this issue brings this out in fascinating detail. Let me just walk readers through the themes discussed (...)