Renegotiating Symbolic Capital, Status, and Knowledge: Polish Physicians in Sweden

Boström, Katarzyna Wolanik; Öhlander, Magnus

doi:10.1057/9781137524492_3

Cited by 10 publications

(23 citation statements)

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“…The knowledge required of doctors is not only medical, but also technical, managerial, and cultural (Williams & Baláz, 2008, p. 1924. With physicians' increasing international mobility, mainly from the global South and former Eastern Europe to the West (see, for example, Connell, 2008Connell, , 2014Bradby, 2014), sharing professional knowledge demands translation between different settings and cultural contexts (see, for example, Ackers & Gill, 2008;Czarniawska & Sevòn, 2005;Öhlander, Wolanik Boström & Pettersson, 2016;Williams, 2006;Wolanik Boström & Öhlander, 2015b). The notion of medical universalism also hides the social labour involved in moving between different contexts of practice (Harris, 2014;Wolanik Boström & Öhlander, 2015a).…”

Section: Research Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A major inspiration in this respect has been a case study by Williams and Baláz (2008) that combines doctors' international mobility, learning, and knowledge sharing. It discusses how Slovakian doctors, returning from their stays in Western countries, reflected on their learning process and on how their new knowledge is valued and validated upon returning to their workplace (see also Pettersson, Wolanik Boström, & Öhlander, 2015;Wolanik Boström & Öhlander, 2015a, 2015b. My article undertakes an implicit dialogue with Williams and Baláz's work, though with a focus on Western physicians returning from the global South, with postcolonial implications to this direction of mobility.…”

Section: Research Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As Nowicka (2014) states, skills should be regarded not as fixed personal attributes but as geographically and historically specific. The process of translation, negotiation, and finally validation of skills is affected not only by migration regimes and national policies, but also by cultural and social factors such as organisational norms, routines, styles of communication, material and embodied practices-even in the seemingly "transnational" profession of physicians (see Harris, 2014;Nowicka 2014;Pettersson et al, 2015;Wolanik Boström & Öhlander, 2015b). In this process, professional status and hierarchies are also negotiated.…”

Section: Theoretical Perspectivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…I consider an assignment as a means to acquire and negotiate different forms of capital in a specific context, using Bourdieu's (1988) concepts as appropriated by Erel (2010) and Wolanik Boström and Öhlander (2015b) for migration and mobility studies. Also, the notion of "white capital" (Lundström, 2014;Lundström & Twine, 2011) is relevant in this study.…”

Section: Theoretical Perspectivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Some doctors remembered their terror of having too little competence for the medical or administrative challenges that they had faced, which can be conceptualized as an initial "deskilling" (which, interestingly enough, is a phenomenon mostly described among highly skilled non-Western migrants moving to the West, see, for example, Connell 2008;McNeil-Walsh, 2008, Nowicka, 2014Wolanik Boström & Öhlander, 2015b). However, this initial confusion was soon followed by a period of intensive learning and "reskilling."…”

Section: Challenges Of Working and Learning In The Global Southmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Section: Research Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Research Overviewmentioning

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confidence: 99%

Section: Theoretical Perspectivesmentioning

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Section: Challenges Of Working and Learning In The Global Southmentioning

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A 20 dollar note: ‘success stories’ of Swedish business actors with Iranian origin

Leivestad

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2020

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This article examines the career narratives of entrepreneurs with migrant background in the Swedish business sector. Statistics show that the proportion of individuals with a migrant background who reach so-called top-positions in Swedish society is in general low. Migrants with Iranian background is an exception as many of them have reached high positions as professionals in business corporations and themselves established high-profile businesses in Sweden. Based on in-depth interviews with entrepreneurs and managers with Iranian origin, we will in this article look at how their background is made relevant when reflecting upon professional success and failure. The article is concerned with their exceptional professional achievements and, in particular, the individuals' positioning in relation to their 'society of migration', their society of origin, and the social networks are embedded in as migrants with an Iranian origin. The article shows how narratives of success tend to emphasize the struggles of a 'lonely fighter' while at the same time dismiss discrimination as an explanatory factor. The entrepreneurs' success stories nevertheless focus on how one's career path as innovators and 'agents of social change' is intimately linked with a migrant past and experience.

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Researching high-skilled migrants between social stratification and methodological nationalism

Schäfer

2023

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Methodological nationalism as a critique of container-based and nation-state-focused theory and empirical research is currently strongly anchored within migration studies, where it was initially developed. While this has led to extensive literature and critical engagement with methodological nationalism, and ways to circumvent the national trap in many (sub-)disciplines, it has not much penetrated theories of social stratification. This conceptual paper will address this gap by discussing the social positioning of high-skilled migrants in contemporary stratified societies. This exemplary discussion will bring together a critical perspective of methodological nationalism on class and milieu theory. It will also confront the critique of methodological nationalism with the question of the origin of social power and dominance, which are the foundation of stratification theories. This article will specifically draw on Pierre Bourdieu's concept of social space and its derivative. Emphasis will also be given to Michael Vester's development of social milieu to highlight blind spots according to the critique of methodological nationalism. This paper shows that these theories have not grasped high-skilled migration thoroughly. It also outlines that migrant theories and their critique of methodological nationalism inadequately address the source of symbolic hierarchy and the formation of social stratification. Thus, both theoretical strands would benefit from a deeper conversation with each other.

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Renegotiating Symbolic Capital, Status, and Knowledge: Polish Physicians in Sweden

Cited by 10 publications

References 10 publications

Special Issue: Complexity, Routines, and Reflexivity in Professional Work

Special Issue: Complexity, Routines, and Reflexivity in Professional Work

A 20 dollar note: ‘success stories’ of Swedish business actors with Iranian origin

Researching high-skilled migrants between social stratification and methodological nationalism

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