The purpose of this bachelor thesis is to examine how identity manifests itself in night workers narrations of their experiences with night work. Through examining this we aim to find a greater understanding of how night work might influence identity formation. To achieve this narrative analysis was applied to seven semi-structured interviews conducted with night workers. The analysis was based on a theoretical framework consisting of symbolic interactionism as well as theory related to both individual and collective identity. The analysis showed that the participants had many positive experiences with night work, including health benefits and better working conditions in comparison to both their own previous experiences with daytime work and their colleagues working daytime. It also revealed that their night work at times was perceived as being called into question by their surroundings, for example by the general discourse regarding night work, labor unions, employers and day time colleagues. This sometimes caused a need to defend both oneself and one’s decisions but also night workers as a group. Identity as a night worker manifested itself both as a sense of community among night workers and a distance between night workers and different non-night workers. Also, identity formation as a night worker appeared to be dependent on contextual factors such as the general discourse surrounding night work, research and norms.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:umu-209084 |
| Date | January 2023 |
| Creators | Sönne, Linnea, Viklund Elstad, Rebecka |
| Publisher | Umeå universitet, Sociologiska institutionen |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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