To See Ourselves As Others See Us? Incorporating the Constraining Role of Socio-Cultural Practices in the Theorization of Micropolitical Resistance

In this paper, I explore micro-political resistance (defined as resistance at the level of meanings, identity or subjectivity) within the context of professional part-time working. Using Skeggs' (1997) notion of dialogical recognition, which refers to an individual's identification with negative portrayals of the social categories to which they belong, I argue that in transgressing dominant (and taken-for-granted) workplace norms, part-time professionals experience guilt and a sense that they may not be fulfilling their professional obligations. Based on a qualitative study of part-time working in the UK police service, I show how part-time professionals navigate these feelings by both drawing attention to the instrumental value of conforming to certain work-based norms, specifically long hours, and by refusing deployment to tasks and roles that they see as peripheral to their professional identities. It is through such refusals, I argue, that the micropolitical resistance I illustrate in this paper can be understood as effective because of its impact on how everyday routines are performed.