Sorting people out: The uses of one-dimensional classificatory schemes in a multi-dimensional world |
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Authors: | A. Diedrich U. Eriksson-Zetterquist A. Styhre |
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Affiliation: | 1. Gothenburg Research Institute, School of Business, Economics and Law , University of Gothenburg , Gothenburg, Sweden andreas.diedrich@handels.gu.se;3. Gothenburg Research Institute, School of Business, Economics and Law , University of Gothenburg , Gothenburg, Sweden;4. Department of Business Administration, School of Business, Economics and Law , University of Gothenburg , Gothenburg, Sweden |
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Abstract: | This paper examines how people are classified as part of a labour market project aimed at establishing a process for recognizing prior learning among immigrants to Sweden in order to integrate them more quickly with the labour market and society. The paper suggests that, in Sweden, this work prioritizes procedural effectiveness over a more comprehensive understanding of the competence and qualifications of the immigrant worker. By exploring the process of classification in which cognitive structuring of the perceived world results in organizational, administrative and structural enactment, the study provides further insights into how practices of classification are a central part of organizational life. The concept of intersectionality contributes by showing how individuals are situated at the intersection of a variety of classificatory schemes, and together with classification, intersectionality points to how organizational categories are never given, but a result of bureaucratic power procedures strengthening, weakening and/or negotiating away categories used to sort people out. |
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Keywords: | classification intersectionality identity organizing competence |
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