Norm Systems in Transition Changes in Health-Related Values among Male Smelters at an Industrial Plant in Northern Sweden

Abstract

Epidemiological studies have demonstrated an excess mortality caused by cancer and cardiovascular diseases among the workers employed at a smeltery in Northern Sweden. The aim of this paper is to elucidate the attitudes of the smelter workers to their working environment and to their health and to examine how these attitudes have changed over time. Moreover, in the analysis, we have sought explanations in the norm systems surrounding the workers and the changes in these. Interviews were carried out with 40 employees and previous employees at the smeltery. The interviewees were strategically chosen to reflect the development process of these norms within the company from its inception in the 1920s and onwards. We have attempted to describe the differences in behavioural patterns and norm expectations which characterize different periods in the history of the smeltery using four ideal type categories; the heroic man, the working-class man, the independent man and the anomic man. The workers' reactions to the norm systems have shifted gradually from conformity to indifference. The degree of individuality during these decades could be shown as a u-shaped curve.