Hertig av ovisshet – aspekter på yrkeskunnande

Abstract

The Duke of Uncertainty – Aspects of Professional Skill is a dissertation whose
title is a literary metaphor designed to draw attention to encounters with unforeseen problems and dilemmas at work.

The first part of the dissertation presents the skill and technology traditionthat has developed over the last twenty years through explorative case studies.These have covered the skills of various occupational groups, such as process operators in the paper-and-pulp and chemical industries, managers and systems engineers working on real time applications in specialized knowledge intensive firms as well as doctors and nurses.

The theoretical perspective is the epistemology of skill focusing on the phenomenon of tacit knowledge. This has its roots in Wittgenstein’s philosophy of language as developed by the philosophers Allan Janik and Kjell S. Johannessen.

The methodological framework develops indirect analogical thinking which
is a prerequisite for knowledge based on experience, through exemplification.

The empirical part of the work shows knowledge of familiarity among members
of an occupational group with low formal training but extensive practical
experience, namely assistant nurses. A comparative analysis is undertaken in relation to previous case studies in the field of skill and technology aimed at occupational groups with high formal educational qualifications.

A particular aspect to which attention is drawn is the rhythm in work that
unites occupational groups regardless of educational background. Occupational
skill is treated as a capacity developed to find rhythm in action when confronted
with situations that are hard to handle. The dissertation considers aspects that
can be tried out in other occupational arenas and paves the way for identifying
phenomena in working life that hinder the development of rhythm in work.
The dissertation contributes to the setting-up of undergraduate level training
for groups of people who have not previously had access to higher education,
and aims to introduce new aspects into the development of analogical thinking.