Citation

Bruhn A. Pol. Pract. Health Saf. 2009; 7(2): 31-50.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2009, Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (Great Britain))

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This paper discusses the development of occupational culture, identity and practice among Swedish inspectors, focusing on their collective occupational knowledge - their 'professional representations'. Working conditions and state policy and regulation for occupational safety and health have gone through several important changes in recent decades. These changes have forced the Swedish inspection authority to develop its organisation and adapt its aims, strategies and methods of inspection work to the new situation. As a consequence of several far-reaching organisational changes in a rather short time, a cultural gap has developed among inspectors: between a male-dominated group of experienced technicians and a female-dominated group of newly recruited academics (often with qualifications in the behavioural sciences). On the basis of a re-reading of data from three research and evaluation projects about inspection and the inspectorate, I describe important differences in representations between these two groups and discuss how, and under what circumstances, they may be able to develop towards occupational unity and uniformity in inspection practice.