Precarious leadership in troubled times: Preschool managers’ relational work and crisis management in ‘particularly vulnerable areas’ in Sweden

In recent years in Sweden, preschools in so-called ‘particularly vulnerable areas’ close to large cities have experienced several crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath, shootings and car fires due to gang violence in the vicinity. Leading and maintaining the preschool as a safe place for the children in its care in a crisis has become an important part of the preschool manager’s leadership role in vulnerable areas. With the support of Judith Butler’s philosophical thinking, the aim of this article is to investigate how precarity is folded into preschool managers’ everyday work in these areas when handling social crises or a sudden emergency. The article draws on Butler’s writings about precarity, characterized by a simultaneous maintenance of and resistance to social norms and strong power structures, as well as how this social condition can be understood in relation to preschool managers’ leadership in crisis situations. The empirical material consists of interviews with preschool managers working in preschools located in particularly vulnerable areas in Sweden. The article concludes that crisis preparedness includes social engagement with staff, children and their families. Precarity and vulnerability can be understood as part of the preschool manager’s daily work, sometimes as a prerequisite for cooperation, establishing relations and mutual exchange with other people in vulnerable situations.