Spielräume oder „Spielwiesen“? Konflikte um die innergewerkschaftliche Repräsentation Jugendlicher, Frauen und ImmigrantInnen
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Philipps-Universität Marburg
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This thesis asks to what extent and under what conditions the representation of oppressed social groups in trade unions can contribute to reducing injustice among trade union members and to strengthening trade unions as a whole. As an example, the representation of young people, women and immigrants in the German trade union IG Metall from 1949 to 2020 was empirically investigated under the following questions: What forms of group representation existed in IG Metall and to what extent were they suitable for making IG Metall fairer? Which factors favoured or hindered a group representation of young people, women and immigrants that makes IG Metall fairer and stronger?
With recourse to grounded theory methodology, findings from literature work and an empirical study are closely interlinked in a newly emerging theory. The findings from the literature are gathered and systematically related to the research object. In particular, Iris Marion Young's concept on social groups and Niklas Luhmann's on decision-making premises are explained and adapted to trade unions. Empirical findings are generated from an examination of written sources from IG Metall using grounded theory methodology, with the minutes of nationwide IG Metall group conferences forming the main source. In this way, the conflicts over group representation within IG Metall, their causes, actors, arguments and strategies as well as consequences are illuminated.
The conclusion of the study is that group representation can make trade unions fairer and stronger. Whether this succeeds, however, depends on the conflictual negotiation processes around its design. In the conflicts observed in IG Metall, a balance was struck between how much scope young people, women and immigrants had, i.e. how much influence they had and how self-determined they could work. This constellation of conflicts results from three things:
If we look at the axes of oppression "age", "gender" and "racism", we see that trade unions organise both people who are oppressed along these axes (young people, women, immigrants) and people who are privileged (adults, men, Germans). Therefore, trade unions are designed to both counteract and reproduce patterns of oppression. The relationship between the two is negotiated within the union.
IG Metall had a centralised organisation with comparatively privileged social groups at its centre. This unmarked centre is changing, but proves to be dominated at its core by adult male German normal workers, i.e. by people privileged on all axes of oppression studied.
The oppressed social groups of young people, women and immigrants were constructed as "others" and were organisationally mapped in semi-autonomous structures with fixed membership criteria outside the centre of power. The size of their scope was influenced by their sources of power.
The image of "scopes or playgrounds" problematises the fact that the embedding of institutionalised group structures in IG Metall was marked by ongoing struggles to shape them. "Playground" (for young people) stands for a negative image, just like "biscuit recipe exchange" (for women) and "colourful folklore" (for immigrants), with which the members of oppressed social groups criticised the integration of their group structure into IG Metall as paternalistic marginalisation. All these negative images throw the activists back on the cliché of their group, but at the same time something positive resonates, namely that (with a not inconsiderable expenditure of resources) a protected space with opportunities for development is provided for the groups.
The thesis ends with policy recommendations for IG Metall and other trade unions and a catalogue of options for people who feel marginalised as group members in trade unions.
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Dates
Created: 2023Issued: 2023-11-15Updated: 2023-11-15
Faculty
Fachbereich Gesellschaftswissenschaften und Philosophie
Publisher
Philipps-Universität Marburg
Language
ger
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DoctoralThesis
Keywords
young peoplemigrantssocial groupMigrant*innenJugendlicheSoziale Gruppe
DFG-subjects
GerechtigkeitSozialwissenschaftenPolitische WissenschaftRepräsentation UnterdrückungIG Metall Gewerkschaft
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320
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Schwenger, Rosa: Spielräume oder „Spielwiesen“? Konflikte um die innergewerkschaftliche Repräsentation Jugendlicher, Frauen und ImmigrantInnen. : Philipps-Universität Marburg 2023-11-15. DOI: https://doi.org/10.17192/z2023.0662.
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This item has been published with the following license: In Copyright