An unfamiliar face can be seen around the anthropology department and buried in library tomes. Visiting scholar Birgitta Edelman-Holmberg is busy at work studying the American railroad switching system and how railroad workers follow or break safety rules.
Edelman-Holmberg, who is completing her Ph.D. in anthropology, is visiting UMass Boston under a Swedish Council for Work Life Research grant. She hopes to compare the American system against Swedish data for a cross-cultural perspective. "I have an insider knowledge of the Swedish system, how it works," said Edelman-Holmberg, who worked as a Stockholm railroad switcher for two years. She said so far the American system seems more rigid than Swedish railways, which rely more on group pressure to ensure workers complete the necessary safety steps.
She plans to interview Anthropology Professor Frederick Gamst and use his first-hand knowledge of the American railway system.
"He really has everything in his research files and at his fingertips," she said. "He has been so helpful... There are so many misunderstandings you can get from text. To be able to discuss it is very, very important."
Edelman-Holmberg hopes to share her knowledge of Sweden while learning about American culture. She will be available for informal seminars. "I would like to share what I know from Sweden and give people a chance to question me," she said. Gamst hopes many professors take her up on the opportunity. "The study of work is not just a topic for anthropology," he said. "Sociologists do it. Economists do it."
Edelman-Holmberg expects the Swedish railroad to show interest in the results of her work. But she doesn't expect rapid change. "It's a part of a slow process where people start to talk about work in different ways," she said. "It's all about people, after all."
Edelman-Holmberg's book, Shunters at Work: Creating a World in a Railway Yard, was published in 1997. She will remain at UMass Boston through the end of the academic year.