Från värnplikt till frivillighet : Hur en ny reformidé mötte den etablerade praktiken i Försvarsmakten

• In the summer of 2009, the Swedish Parliament decided to suspend the century-oldpractice of military conscription, and introduce all-volunteer forces. One year later,1 July 2010, the Swedish Armed Forces became an organization "as any other", thatshould attract, recruit and try to maintain its employees. The process of this reformis the topic of this dissertation.Previous research has shown that reforms are quite difficult to conduct, as theyrarely go exactly as the reformers planned: planned changes are often accompaniedby unintended changes (Brunsson and Olsen, 1990). In order to describe all changesthat take place during attempts to reform, a translation model (Czarniawska andJoerges, 1996) has been used. The process of change was seen as a travel for thereform idea from its carriers to those who were to put it in practice in local units.Even if local practices are usually well-established, such practices are notunchangeable, especially if a new reform idea raises interest. The aim of the study isto contribute with increased understanding of reform processes by following theidea of voluntarism into an established practice of conscription.The process of reform has been studied in various places: in the headquarters,during the meetings between the top leadership and commanders of local units, andin the local units. Appropriate field study techniques were used: interviews, directobservation, shadowing and document analysis. Fieldwork started in 2010 andcontinued until 2015. The analysis of the collected field material followed theprinciple of abduction, i.e. an iterative interpretation of field material and previousresearch results, using the translation model as a frame of interpretation.The idea of reform has been inspired by an international trend of moving from massarmies staffed by conscripts to all-volunteer forces. It was then edited to fit theSwedish situation, and started its travel from idea-carriers to idea-users. On its wayit has been translated in quite a few ways. Sometimes it was seen as an attempt atmodernization, other times as an increase in cost-effectiveness, as a culturaltransformation, as an attempt at professionalization of services, or as entering thecompetition among employers in the labor market. Even translations that shared thesame label (for example, competition or cultural transformation) could beinterpreted in detail in quite different ways at different local units.Some attempts at integration of different translations failed; demands and expectationsin conflict with one another, or a translation of the reform idea was incompatiblewith the local practice. Such situations can be seen as paradoxical but, asLuhmann (1995) pointed out, a paradox is often perceived as paralyzing by the observers,while the actors feel mobilized to de-paradoxify them by appropriate actions.The study shows that the roles of idea-carriers and idea-users were not clearlyseparated: the same persons could engage in both activities, depending on thecontext. A suggestion for future studies could be to explore the activities, instead ofthe roles, which are flexible, and also pay attention to the new, digital "means oftransportation" – especially through the social media.

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