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What if all kinds of work were considered ‘real jobs,’ and everyone who worked had a job?: Using imaginary thinking in the context of Swedish municipal activation services
Mid Sweden University, Faculty of Human Sciences, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences.ORCID iD: 0009-0006-3481-1620
Mid Sweden University, Faculty of Human Sciences, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences.ORCID iD: 0000-0001-9328-1128
Mid Sweden University, Faculty of Human Sciences, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-5337-3287
2025 (English)In: Economic and Industrial Democracy, ISSN 0143-831X, E-ISSN 1461-7099Article in journal (Refereed) Epub ahead of print
Abstract [en]

This article explores active labor market policies through a utopian lens, focusing on Swedish municipal activation services. Users of such services participated in visionary workshops and were invited to dream about what could be different in their (working) lives. In the analysis of the participants’ dreams, a tension between the internalization of and resistance to employability narratives, market logics, and capitalist structures emerges. By examining these dynamics, the article demonstrates how utopian thinking, rooted in experiences from the margins of the labor market, can inspire critiques of current labor systems and help in envisioning possible futures.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
SAGE Publications , 2025.
Keywords [en]
Active labor market policies, critical theory, future of work, marginalized labor experiences, sustainable welfare
National Category
Sociology
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:miun:diva-54023DOI: 10.1177/0143831x251326205ISI: 001444900800001Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-105000327171OAI: oai:DiVA.org:miun-54023DiVA, id: diva2:1944791
Projects
Lokala arbetsmarknadsprogram – Utmaningar av och för en inkluderande arbetsmarknad
Funder
Forte, Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare, 2021-01550Available from: 2025-03-17 Created: 2025-03-17 Last updated: 2025-04-01Bibliographically approved

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Östling, MajaNyhlén, SaraGiritli Nygren, Katarina

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CiteExportLink to record
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Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
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  • vancouver
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  • de-DE
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  • nn-NB
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More languages
Output format
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  • asciidoc
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