Roland Paulsen’s sociology challenges systems presented as self-evident: that talent is fixed, that wage labor is always the solution, that organizational obedience is neutral, and that anxiety should primarily be managed within the individual. This chapter draws on *De-talented*, *The Work Society*, *We Just Obey*, *What If*, and research on meaningless work. Ten exercises distinguish between private adaptation and social change.
*Avbegåvad*: When Assessments Stifle Development
In *Avbegåvad*, Paulsen examines how the notion of fixed talent permeates science, schools, diagnoses, and selection processes. Assessments can describe performance in a specific situation, but they gain greater power when they become narratives about a person’s limitations. This can lead to opportunities being withdrawn before new abilities have had a chance to develop.
Talent-deprivation can be understood as a social process: expectations are lowered, training is neglected, people are weeded out, and the subsequent outcome is used as proof of the initial assessment. The point is not that everyone can become anything. It is to distinguish a current performance from a final judgment and to examine which environments make learning possible.
Trace how an assessment became a barrier
Purpose: To distinguish the measurement of performance from the social process that limits further development.
Choose an assessment that has influenced the opportunities you or an organization provides.
Write down exactly what was measured, when, and under what conditions.
Trace how the result was translated into expectations, placement, or access.
Note what training and feedback were subsequently provided—or not provided.
Design a new assessment opportunity with modified support conditions and clear criteria.
Afterward: A new attempt should provide new insights into learning, not merely repeat the same situation with increased pressure.
Limitations and when the exercise should not be done: Do not dismiss professional assessments or support needs. Use the exercise to prevent the result from becoming a defining aspect of the person’s identity.
Gather Evidence of Development
Purpose: To replace a fixed self-assessment with a concrete and time-based picture of how ability is built.
Choose a skill that you usually describe as something you have or lack.
Gather three past examples of change through practice, instruction, or a change in environment.
Identify the specific stage where your development is currently stalled.
Ask for specific feedback on a completed action, not on you as a person.
Plan three short practice sessions and compare the process, not just the final result.
Afterward: The document should outline the conditions for development and help you choose your next instructional approach or environment.
Limitations and when the exercise should not be done: The exercise does not promise unlimited change and should not replace accommodations for long-term disabilities.
The Working Society and the Moral Distinction of Work
In *The Working Society*, Paulsen examines why wage labor retains a special moral status even as productivity has increased and not all work is perceived as meaningful. Livelihood, rights, identity, and social legitimacy are tied to work. Therefore, the question of the quantity and content of work becomes more difficult to address than the question of whether more people can be brought into the workforce.
A sociological critique of work is not a contempt for work. It distinguishes necessary, meaningful, and collective work from employment that primarily demonstrates a willingness to work or maintains social status. It also brings unpaid care and reproductive work into the spotlight.
Distinguish necessary work from the norm of work
Purpose: To analyze which tasks create real value and which primarily uphold the notion of employment.
Choose a week at a workplace or in your own daily life.
List tasks that meet material, social, or care-related needs.
Identify tasks that primarily involve reporting, waiting, or visible activity.
Ask who would notice if each task were to disappear, and in what way.
Formulate a proposal that reduces idle activity without shifting the burden to someone else.
Afterward: Criticism becomes practical when it shows what should be protected, what can be eliminated, and how resources can be better allocated.
Limitations and when not to do this exercise: Do not eliminate documentation, oversight, or preparedness required for security, rights, or long-term accountability.
Conduct a broader time audit
Purpose: To evaluate paid work, caregiving, recovery, citizenship, and relationships within the same timeframe.
Track your time over three representative days without evaluating it in the moment.
Categorize your time into paid work, household and caregiving, recovery, relationships, civic engagement, and idle waiting.
Note which activities confer status and which are taken for granted.
Identify a necessary activity that lacks sufficient time or recognition.
Propose a reallocation and specify which other people or institutions must be involved.
Afterward: The balance sheet shows which activities actually sustain life, not just which ones provide a salary.
Limitations and when not to do this exercise: Do not treat a partner’s or family member’s time as a free resource. The redistribution of care must be negotiated.
Idle work, obedience, and chains of responsibility
In his research on idle work, Paulsen examines paid working hours spent on private activities or on simulating productivity. Idle work can result from a lack of tasks, poor organization, withdrawal, or resistance. The same behavior can therefore have different meanings and different organizational causes.
In *We Just Obey*, we follow the work of employment counselors in a system where people can carry out tasks they themselves doubt and refer to rules or directives. Obedience does not absolve the actor of responsibility, but responsibility can be fragmented across goals, documentation requirements, managers, and political decisions. Change requires that the chain of responsibility be made visible.
Map out meaningless work
Purpose: To distinguish a lack of meaningful tasks from recovery, resistance, and outright simulation.
Choose a workflow you’re familiar with and define a one-week period.
Note periods without relevant tasks and periods with work that lacks a recipient.
Describe the organizational conditions that create this idleness.
Distinguish necessary readiness from unnecessary feigning of activity.
Formulate a question for the appropriate decision-making level regarding tasks, staffing, or metrics.
Afterward: Idle work is not just a reflection of an individual’s behavior; it provides insight into how the work is organized.
Limitations and when the exercise should not be conducted: Do not collect material that violates confidentiality or puts employees at risk. Issues related to working hours and labor law require caution.
Follow the chain of command
Purpose: To replace “I’m just following the rules” with a visible chain of decisions, mandates, and consequences.
Choose a recurring action that is carried out despite clear objections.
Write down who formally makes the decision, who interprets it, and who interacts with the person concerned.
Note which goals, metrics, and sanctions keep the action going.
Highlight where someone actually has room for interpretation and where it is lacking.
Formulate a deviation, feedback, or decision-making pathway that reaches the level where the rule can be changed.
Afterward: The accountability map makes it possible to direct criticism without placing all the blame on the most visible public official.
Limitations and when not to do this exercise: Do not encourage individuals to violate laws, safety requirements, or terms of employment. Use established channels and collective support.
What If: Anxiety in a Society That Promises Control
In “What If,” Paulsen places anxiety in a historical and cultural context. When people are expected to anticipate risks, make the right choices, and manage their lives, uncertainty easily becomes a personal failure. More information and greater control can then create new questions rather than ultimate security.
This does not mean that all anxiety is social in nature or that treatment is unnecessary. Sociology complements clinical knowledge by asking which threats, demands, and institutions produce a state of constant readiness. An action can be directed outward toward an actual circumstance while the person simultaneously seeks care or support for their suffering.
Distinguish between possible, probable, and controllable
Purpose: To break down the confusion between the fact that something might happen and the belief that you must control it.
Write a recurring worry in a single, concrete sentence.
Distinguish between what is possible and what you have evidence is likely.
Divide what is within your control among yourself, other people, and institutions.
Choose a reasonable protective action and set a limit on further control.
Decide what to do with the time and attention you’ve freed up.
Afterward: This exercise does not reduce actual risks but can clarify the division of responsibility and ensure that control remains proportionate.
Limitations and when the exercise should not be done: In cases of severe or prolonged anxiety, suicidal thoughts, or acute danger, seek professional help; this exercise is not a substitute for medical care.
Turn Your Anxiety Outward into Care
Purpose: To transform some of the preoccupied attention into a small action that improves our shared world.
Choose a concern that actually involves a social issue.
Identify a person, group, or institution that is already working on the issue.
Choose a small action: ask, participate, contribute, organize, or support.
Set a time limit for the action so that it doesn’t become a new obligation.
Evaluate whether the action increased genuine connection and capacity for action.
Afterward: Outward-focused care does not mean you have to solve the threat. It brings a part of life back to relationships and collective action.
Limitations and when not to practice this: Do not take on more responsibility than you can handle, and do not use activism to avoid necessary recovery or treatment.
Resistance: From private retreat to collective change
Resistance can be open, covert, individual, or collective. Paulsen’s research shows that private withdrawal sometimes provides breathing room but can also leave the organization’s image of effectiveness intact. If the work is simulated, the system appears to function, and the problem becomes difficult to discuss.
Resistance for the sake of a good life must therefore be assessed based on what it changes, what risks it entails, and whether it can be understood by others. Sometimes setting boundaries or walking away is necessary. In other cases, private dissatisfaction can be transformed into a shared description of the problem, a union issue, or a concrete alternative.
Compare safe forms of resistance
Purpose: To choose a form that is proportionate to the problem, the power imbalance, and your own risk.
Describe the demand or policy you wish to oppose.
List possible forms: ask questions, document, abstain, speak up, organize, use representatives, or leave.
Assess the risk, potential impact, and need for support for each form.
Choose the least intrusive form that can yield new information or bring about change.
Decide in advance when to stop and seek more support.
Afterward: Resistance isn’t braver just because it’s riskier. The strategy should protect those with the least room to maneuver.
Limitations and when the exercise should not be conducted: Do not act alone in the face of threats, reprisals, or legal uncertainty. Contact the union, safety representatives, or other relevant experts.
Make a collective proposal for circumventing rules privately
Purpose: To transform an individual survival strategy into a factual discussion about the organization of work.
Choose a recurring workaround that several people use to make their daily work manageable.
Describe what organizational problem the workaround solves.
Find out if others recognize the problem without eliciting sensitive personal revelations.
Formulate an alternative that makes work more honest, more meaningful, or less stressful.
Submit the proposal through a shared and protected channel to the appropriate decision-making level.
Afterward: When a workaround becomes common knowledge, the problem can be addressed without singling out individuals as scapegoats.
Limitations and when not to use this exercise: Do not document rule violations in a way that exposes colleagues. Seek advice before sharing the material.