New photos from Stockholm discovered in my computer. I just added some of them in the photo gallery below. Many of the are shot by Kenneth Abrahamsson (then at FAS, the Council for Working life and Social research, who supported the conference). You will find photos from plenary and paper sessions, from the reception in the City Hall and from the book launch in front of Hilding Linnqvists beautiful and colorful painting in the Aula Magna. The picture selected here is from the book launch. Hope to see many of you at Rutgers soon. /Åke Sandberg
Both keynote talks are now uploaded. Why not leave a comment?
Here is Joan Greenbaum‘s powerpoint presentation for those who like to remember the talk, because as we all know, the trick is not in the slides, but all in the talking. Her talk was about Political Economy of mobile technologies in everyday work and life
And here is a revised version of Michel Freyssenet’s talk on The intellectual division of labour: a stake in the current crisis? As the talk was compact and complex in its structure we think it will be useful and interesting reading also for those who participated in the session. Come to this site within a few days to read about
Why not leave a comment below?At the opening plenary session there was, as is often the case in plenary sessions, only only a few minutes left for questions, answers and discussion, so may we suggest that you use the possibility to leave a comment upon the presentations here in the blog, perhaps on how the ilpc tradition may be related to the ideas of the keynote speakers, or any other issue. Would be interesting to try a virtual Q&A session, both for those of you in Stockholm and those who could not. Environmentally friendly and egalitarian!
Dear Colleagues,
Conference participants have been trying to download papers they found especially interesting, after listening to presentations and after meeting authors. However they say that often they do not find the paper on the ilpc home page. So as a courtesy to your colleagues and as an act of mutual support we are asking you to upload your paper. Thank you very much, merci, danke, gracias. Tack så mycket. 
Also if you have interesting or fun photos, or stories och experiences to tell, from the confrence, please mail to me, and I will try and publish on this blog. My own photos are few and of course cover only the few sessions I could participate in. So come back to the blog, we hope to publish more.
We were glad to meet you all during the conference, we hope we will keep in touch, and here are the email adresses of my colleagues: lotta.stern [at] sociology.su.se and fredrik.movitz [at] sociology.su.se and mine is ake.sandberg [at] sociology.su.se
Take care / Åke
Colleagues, After a major conference – first some rest, good idea that easter is soon. Then – What to do next? As for me, I have a few thougts. First, in mid-April the manuscript to my edited volume Absolut managment will be delivered to the publisher sns förlag in Stockholm – they now seek an international publisher as a partner. Then I have time and am open to new projects and co-operations.
One of the things I plan over the next few ears is a research network and book project: Another world of work is possible. Or Those who changed the world of work. In short I want colleagues help to gather cases of workplaces and production concept that are both good work / decent work and productive activities. And the cases should be accompanied by analyses of the preconditions under which such an interesting combination of human and economic goals was possible. Preconditions that may have to do with country, sector, position in production networks and in the international division of labour, the relation between control and productivity etc. The good work in one workplace should be seen in the context of how that affects other workplaces in the company and in the production network.
The inspiration is to do something radically different from the well know book The machine that changed the world (1991) from the IMVP, the International motor vehicle programme at the MIT. They collected good examples, cases and overviews of what came to be known as ‘lean production‘. But they used the cases in an unscientific way (empirically, methodologically and theoretically, see chapters in Enriching Production). They used the cases as a way of legitimizing their propaganda for a type of production tystem that was not at all as humane as they stated. They said it was about enhancing worker autonomy and qualifications, but it was mainly about profits and control.
One background to a book like the one I propose, yes even a section in the book might be cases and analyses of lean production and of the IMVP project and book. Analyses of lean production, its fundamental ideas, application and modification and its effects, negative but also positive are welcome, as a supplement to the ‘good examples’ that shall be the core of the book. Over the years there is a long tradition of reports about lean in ILPC. That is a good fundament for this book project. Also this year there was a special stream about lean.
We shall collect cases in a serious way, and present them in a transparent and honest way, and I am sure that in so doing we will be able to show that another world of work is possible.
I hope many of you in the ilpc network will consider participating in such a project, and that you let me know your interest, cases you think of and also ideas of how to modify and develop the project and its framework of analysis. Perhaps we could have some papers or even a stream at the next ilpc at Rutgers?
Do not hesitate to contact me about the above project idea, or something else. You will reach me at ake.sandberg [at] sociology.su.se and at www.akesandberg.se. You may download Enriching Production at freyssenet.com or here
Cheers / Åke
Paul Thompson at ilpc2012 book launch
Keynote at ilpc2012 opening Joan Greenbaum
Michel Freyssenet, key note speaker, and Tommaso Pardi
Aula Magna in morning sun before ilpc2012 opening
Volvo Uddevalla symposium Ingemar Göransson speaking
Volvo symposium: Walking Lennart Nilsson. Seated Hikari Nohara, Åke Sandberg, Anders Boglind, Martin Kuhlmann, Michel Freyssenet. Not in picture: Ingemar Göransson
Carin Håkansta presenting paper in worklife research symposium
Attentive audience at a seminar
At the reception in the Golden Hall reception
Åke Sandberg (one of the organizers) in Stockholm City Hall supporting the torch of Stockholm’s patron St Erik (photo staged by Kenneth Abrahamsson, FAS)
Stadshuset, the ‘Blue Hall’ from upstairs outside the Golden Hall
Reception at the City Hall, Professors Paul Thompson, Chris Smith and Mrs Margaretha Björk, President of Stockholm City Council
Joan Greenbaum, key note speaker, Ernst Hollander, Åke Sandberg (left) leaving the reception in the City Hall
Ilpc book launch – Are bad jobs inevitable – seen from above
Participants at the book launch
Chris Warhurst and Fredrik Movitz (one of the conference organizers) with books and wine
Eric Verdier, Beatrice Appay and Åke Sandberg (left) – in front of colourful painting by Hilding Linnqvist: ‘Evening in Arcachon, in Aula foyer’
Words of welcome to ilpc2013 from Heather McKay from Rutgers Universiyt, in front of Hilding Linnqvists wall painting
Joan Greenbaum and Egil Skorstad at conference dinner
While editing this gallery and adding new photos all captions and longer descriptions disappeared, and the layout of the page was all mixed up. Anyone who knows wordpress editing, please contact ‘webmaster’ ake.sandberg2@gmail.com on how to move around pictures and make a nice layout. – The captions I just managed!
A talk like this could have been an additional element in our closing Plenary panel on ‘the Scandinavian Model in international perspective’, hadn’t Stefan Löfven just been elected new leader of the Swedish Social Democratic party – which 
meant he had quite a lot to do after a period of crisis for the party. The panel had researchers, and labour market parties but no one from politics. Löfvens interesting talk ends up concluding that there is a need for a global compromise between labour and capital. So the Swedish model of ‘the middle way’ seems to be still alive. The talk was given at a seminar on ‘Decent capitalism‘ in Nov. 2011.
Stefan Löfven was a metal worker, became chairperson of the Metal Workers union and now leader ofthe Social democrats. He is interested in both industrial development and competitiveness and in workplace development and education and research. Ever since the closing of the Arbetslivsinstitutet/ NIWL he has been arguing for the need for a new Working life research institute.
A beautiful morning walk, crispy early spring, sun is rising over the National City Park Djurgården, and the Frescati Campus. Pictures taken this morning on my way from the underground station via Aula Magna to the Sociology Department. See you all soon here. /Åke
