I och med motstånd

Förändringsaktörers handlingsutrymme och strategier i jämställdhets- och mångfaldsarbete

Abstract

The aim of this article is to describe and discuss the relationship between power, resistance and strategies in gender equality and diversity work. We do this with the support of experiences from change agents and with the support of the common knowledge and analytical processes the researchers and change agents have developed together in the research project. The article is based on a study of 47 civil servants (28 women and 19 men), who participated as employees engaged in gender equality and diversity work within their organisations. The research team designed a series of workshops which enabled reflective conversations and made visible and portrayed situations of resistance in order to elucidate and elaborate strategies addressing resistance. The research team and participants developed a model to sort and analyse resistance and its relation to various change strategies. Three power technologies are deployed for the analysis: repressive, pastoral and regulatory. The model works as a means to place the strategies in relation to change and power. Firstly, the model helps clarifying the ability of the change agents to switch between strategies in addressing resistance. Here, the model contributes to conceptualising knowledge and abilities that the narratives of the change agents express but which they had not thought of, formulated or taken for granted. Finally, we believe that the study provides support to oppose the assumption that their striving may serve no purpose, which both our participants and previous research express. What we highlight is the change agents’ dual positions, in maintaining relations of power in an effort to change them.