Djursholm: A study of an executive community

SummaryThis project explores the community of Djursholm that is situated some 10 km north of Stockholm as an example of an ‘executive community’. A key argument of the project is that the ideals and norms of contemporary ‘executive behavior’ can no longer be sought within the world of professional bureaucracies only. Since August 2010 I have been conducting an ethnographic study of Djursholm. I have approached this community inductively where my theoretical ideas on the construction of executive values-in-use have informed my preliminary research questions. Based on my observations Djursholm appears to be a good environment to explore the phenomenon of executive community in terms of nurturing or resisting an executive culture expressed through such phenomena as responsibility, discipline, organization and order; not only because there is a relatively large number of executives living there but primarily because it appears to be a community that is intensely the subject to the ideology of management.

► The research analyzes the world of executives.
► It focuses on executives morals-in-use.
► The study is based on an executive community.
► The research relies on ethnographic data.