From Blue-Collar Garb to Jeans
These workers identify with the institution, while not always being seen as an integral part of the hospital. Although they definitely make a contribution to the good functioning of the establishment, they are a minority and are often stigmatized in this world dominated by “white-collar” employees. Cultivating their identity, they claim to belong to longstanding workers’ organizations. However, an erosion of the latter may be observed in recent years : trades are disappearing ; outsourcing is becoming more popular ; the figure of the worker activist has vanished ; and their work clothes have changed over time — the “young people” show up in jeans and only the “old folks” continue to wear the traditional blue-collar garb. Clothing is a good indicator of the games and issues involved with image, but also, more broadly, of social relationships in the world of work. Staring with an analysis of “work clothes” of hospital workers in Paris (AP-HP), Anne Monjaret attempts to determine whether or not these government employees, “blue collar workers,” conform to internal codes of technical and interpersonal behaviour, how they manage or fail to escape the social norms of the work group or institution, and how they ultimately resolve the tension between institutional norms and collective — here corporatist and individual — expressions.