Erika Andersson Cederholm

My research focuses on relations and interactions in the working life and in organizations where the boundaries between work and leisure, formal and informal relationships, and the commercial and the non-profit spheres are blurred. I am interested in how symbolic boundaries between economic and non-economic social spheres are negotiated, and how this relates to social, structural and cultural contexts. I am particularly interested in how market-oriented or professional relationships both intersect with, and are being separated from, personal and intimate life spheres. For instance, my research includes studies of lifestyle-oriented businesses in the tourism and hospitality sector, commercial enterprising emerging from leisure interests, and artistic and creative work. I have also studied the meeting industry and business events and, and its´ significance in working life and society today. 

Together with Carina Sjöholm I am doing research on hunting tourism in Sweden, in a project financed by the Wildlife fund at the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency. In this project, we study the conditions for a socially sustainable hunting tourism in Sweden. We particularly highlight and problematize the intersection between an emerging market for hunting tourism and a hunting tradition formed around local hunting teams.

In another project, I work with Malin Espersson and Mikael Bergmasth in a study on sustainable working conditions in the creative sector, with a focus on the digital games industry. This is a project financed by the Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare (Forte). The aim of the study is to gain knowledge of the working conditions and working culture in the Swedish digital games industry. Through interviews with game developers, we study how game developers experience and negotiate work and working conditions, and the meaning of creative work.  

Another of my research interests concerns the expansion of administrative activities in today’s working life. In a recent book entitled Hidden Attractions of Administration: The Peculiar Appeal of Meetings and Documents co-authored with Malin Åkerström, Katarina Jacobsson and David Wästerfors, we examine the inner dynamics of people-processing organizations — those formally working for clients, patients, or students. Based on ethnographic work we shed light on how administrative activities such as meetings and paperwork can be viewed as a simultaneous burden and attraction.