This paper discusses narratives from young unemployed working class men and women, living in a small Swedish town located outside the emerging economic regions. Like in many other European countries the rate of unemployment among youth is disproportionally high in Sweden. The empirical work the study is based on consists of a sample of in-depth interviews with men and women in the ages of 19-24, conducted during 2014. The main research question of the study is about how young unemployed people experience and reflect upon their own situation. Industrial societies have turned post-industrialand this is reflected in the social structure of the communities that for decades used to be dominated by industries and smaller factories. The labor market has undergone major structural changes during the last four decades. Since the cultural and social identity of the working class traditionally has been closely connected to an intergenerational continuity where foundational elements are defined by work and a belonging to the local community, the situation of unemployment means that the identities as well as the community are forced to be reimagined. The narratives from the young men and women in our study can be seen to reflect social and cultural changes that have taken place on a structural level concerning the labor market, the education system and alsothe changed conditions for the formation of social identities. We make use of Margaret Archers concepts contextual discontinuity and contextual incongruity in understanding and discussing these tendencies.

AbstractPurposeThe purpose of this study was to investigate how young women and men perceive the Internet as a phenomenon and what role and meaning they ascribe to the Internet as an arena for defining themselves and for shaping their identity.Methodology/approachThe empirical data consist of narratives written by Swedish adolescents. Using content analysis the analysis was carried out in three steps: (1) finding categories and themes, (2) calculation of statistical differences in category frequencies, (3) a theoretically informed interpretation of central themes, using Bourdieu's concept of different forms of capital, and Giddens' concept of "pure relations."FindingsThe narratives exemplify how computer literacy and technological competence can be converted into social, cultural, and symbolic capital. Gender differences occur both in statistical differences between category frequencies in girls' and boys' narratives and in the interpretation of central themes. But there are also several examples that show more complex and contradictory tendencies, exceeding or transformative of gender differences and hierarchy.Originality/valueThis study considers adolescents' own perspectives on an arena of great importance. The analyses have been performed both qualitatively and quantitatively, which gives a nuanced picture of young people's self-defining experiences on the Internet.

The centre of Child and Youth Studies at University West works strategically with other regional research environments and institutions that study children, youths and young adults. The goal of our research centre is to spread knowledge about the social conditions under which children and young people live, thereby strengthening their position in society. Collaboration with external research environments is one of the ways that our research domain works to reach that goal. Partnerships are formed through a model that strives to create good conditions for both our research and that of our partners. This model is grounded in a dialogue between research partners who work together to select areas of interest and formulate hypotheses. These research projects are financed equally by the university and our partners. The following report is the result of one of  these research partnerships.Advanced industrial society has been replaced by a society based upon knowledge and information where industrial work/manufacturing becomes less common. Västervik is one of the small towns in Sweden whose main industries have closed down or severely decreased their workforce during the last few decades of great structural change. The groups in the job market that have been most affected by these changes are young men and women, something which is evident in the high unemployment rates among the young population. The purpose of this study was to investigate young people’s own experiences and thoughts regarding their own situation as jobseekers in the municipality of Västervik. How do they see themselves and the situation they find themselves in? The narratives were collected in the form of 18 in-depth interviews with young men and women between the ages of 19-25, all them registered at the job center in Västervik. In the report different aspects of their situation are discussed, such as: the young people’s relation to their hometown, their thoughts on the meaning and value of work, the role of education, the economic, social and emotional consequences of unemployment, and their experiences of taking part in various programs for unemployed. The narratives we have encountered can be seen as having some general validity in the sense that many of their experiences are probably shared by other unemployed young people in other locations in Sweden, but Västervik is also a specific town with a specific history and specific conditions.The young men and women have an ambivalent relationship to their hometown. On the one hand they want to start a life in the same location, but on the other, the future there is seen as very uncertain. Many of those interviewed would like to have the kind of industrial jobs that their parents have and grandparents experienced, but which are nowadays less and less common. The norm of a fulltime job is strong among the young men and women – something which strengthens the image of the evident dissonance between their seemingly traditional dreams and intentions and the structures of possibilities the municipality and community suggest for them. Connected to this are the ways the young people must relate to the postindustrial demands of employability – which means the ability to enterprise and market oneself on a competitive market. These demands presuppose abilities that are more likely to be socialized and practiced in certain social environments rather than in others, and the majority of the young men and women interviewed have a background in aworking class environment where these values and approaches are far from selfevident.The socioeconomic marginalization that these young people experienceresults in much curtailed possibilities for a period of youthful experimentation aswell as for an expected adulthood. Being unemployed means one has difficulty ingaining the status of an adult, but due to economic shortages, there are also limits to how much they can take part in this experimental lifestyle that characterizes youth. The young men and women’s situation can thereby be seen as a grey zone; they are neither young nor adults in the normative sense. In some of the narratives the young people express critical thoughts with regard to the social conditions that their difficult situation can be related to. By extension, expressing these thoughts and stating their opinion can be strengthening and mobilizing for them, both as individuals and as a group. Insights may be gained about unemployment as a shared experience rather than as a personal failure

This paper discusses narratives from young working class men, living in a small Swedish town located outside the emerging economic regions. Like in many other European countries the rate of unemployment among youth is disproportionally high in Sweden. From a broad material of in-depth interviews with unemployed young people the issue of masculinity in relation to work is an emerging, though not always specified or articulated, theme. Industrial societies has turned post-industrial. The labor market has undergone major structural changes during the last four decades and since working class masculinity traditionally has been closely connected to wage labor and to the ability to provide for oneself as well as for others - being the main breadwinner of the family - masculinity is forced to be re-imagined. In the ongoing construction of identity and young masculinity, nostalgic images of a recently lost way of life where employment meant hard labor but also a durable and respected position in the community, are retold. Parallel to these narratives and sometimes in opposition to them, there are also wishes and dreams of alternative ways of relating one's own role, identity and masculinity to a different set of work ethics where neither wage labor nor traditional masculinity need to form it´s stable categories.

Kapitlet fokuserar på internet som en kontext för identitetsskapande där ungdomar tillåts experimentera med och kommunicera delar av sin identitet både i grupp och individuellt.

Bokens kapitel tar avstamp i en rad olika kontexter där ungdomars identitetsskapande sker och bygger på forskning utförd inom olika discipliner som belyser ungdomars lärande, utveckling och livsvillkor. I boken finns en rad exempel på ungdomars syn på skapandet av en identitet, liksom aktiverande övningar, forskarreportage och förslag på fördjupande läsning efter varje kapitel.Denna inspirations- och metodbok är användbar inom alla de utbildningsområden som behandlar frågor om ungdomar och identitet, t.ex. lärarutbildning, speciallärar- och specialpedagogprogram, socionom- och socialpedagogprogram samt kurser inom barn- och ungdomsvetenskap, psykologi och sociologi och olika metod- och examensarbeteskurser inom lärarprogrammen.

Many Roma people in Sweden are on the margins of society and face problems of social exclusion, institutional discrimination, low education, unemployment, and poor health. The aim is to describe how a group of Roma people, in West Sweden, understand health, well-being, and quality of life within the Roma context, and how they cope with their life-situation. Data consisted of qualitative interviews. The data were analyzed qualitatively using a phenomenological hermeneutic approach. The respondents mainly understood the concept of Health as "being healthy" and "feeling good". Elements that were crucial part of the respondents' health perception were being employed, having an education, social support from family and friends, freedom and security, and the extent of involvement in society. The results indicate that the respondents perceive their health and life situation as good, despite of their marginalized situation and discrimination.

The focus of this presentation is on work integrated learning in higher education that takes place in a cultural context different to that which the student is accustomed to. In higher education internationalization is often stated as a central vision both in relation to education and research. This is commonly expressed in policy documents in statements such as working for an open and border crossing university and having a distinct international perspective in all forms of higher education. The research project “Work integrated learning from the perspective of internationalization” is designed to highlight some of the conditions that surround such visions by examining learning in international settings from students' experiences of practice-related activities abroad. This involves activities that are directly work-oriented or field work carried out within the framework of a university course and / or a bachelor thesis. In the project we are thereby examining students' situated learning and thus highlight the contextual practice community they can access in an international environment. This includes both specific and more general aspects of learning in which different aspects are highlighted. Specific training related to special education programs focus on the development of professional identity while generally learning affects students from all programs in which learning outcomes such as wider perspectives and critical thinking are included.Our research focus is of exploratory nature where the approach is to examine students’ experiences of practice-related learning from the perspective of internationalization. This is being researched from three relating aspects. • Emotional and identity transformational aspects of learning. What does it mean to be in a relatively unknown social environment and there be faced with work-related tasks? What kind of interpretations and understandings of the situations occur? • Communicative aspects of students' practice-oriented learning – the importance of language and cultural codes. • Comparative aspects of students’ learning – the importance of comparisons for perspective taking and development of knowledge.Previous researched has been done on students’ practice-related learning in the field of work integrated learning. The forms of practice-oriented learning are of various kinds. It may be learning through the use of practical training related to establishing a profession-specific knowledge and identity. Other forms are the use of direct working connections or cultural settings outside the university through project work in course moments and / or for a bachelor thesis. What is common to these various forms is an endeavor of higher education to make the arena and cultural settings outside the university to a direct part in students’ learning. Given that the internationalization of higher education has increased, it is important also to examine students’ learning in various international contexts. The relevance of this can be found in theories of learning particularly those focusing on the contextual meaning from the idea that learning originates from the experience of interaction with the environment. Social aspects such as the relational and dialogic qualities are central already in the work of Vygotsky (1962) but according to Cooper (2008), it is only recently that this has been researched from an international perspective.

Method

The study is based on qualitative interviews with post graduate students who have completed internship or field work abroad. We have conducted in depth interviews using a guide with thematic questions focusing on emotional, communicative and comparative aspects of work integrated learning abroad. When processing the raw information the interviews were digitally-recorded and transcribed verbatim. The sample includes 12 in depth interviews, three students from each four different departments (social work, teacher, health promoter, cultural studies and engineering) at a smaller Swedish university. Another category of material is the interviewed student’s written reports from their field work. A content-analysis is performed on all parts of the material according to the three mentioned aspects. The analysis is abductive, which means that it uses theoretical concepts in making sense of the material, but is also sensitive to the participants' own ways of conceptualizing their experiences and learning. Common as well as unique features in the students' stories will be presented and discussed and considered in regard to the students' personal, institutional and cultural contexts.

Expected Outcomes

Preliminary analysis suggest in line with previous studies that the interviewed students' experiences of practice-related learning in a different cultural context show linkage with the phenomenon of sojourning which means taking up temporary residence in another culture. The previous, more linear psychological explanatory model of "adapting" the self in a new country to study or work does not suffice to explain the students' various experiences and learning in their field of study/professional development or on a more general. Our primary analysis of the material rather indicate that these processes are best understood as a complex web of shifting links between mastery of communication, social interaction and personal development. It is the management of this web which gives the result of cross-cultural adaptation and renegotiation of the "identity". As previous studies in the field have shown, personal, educational and psychological factors are as important as organizational and social-cultural factors for influencing the learning outcome (Qing et al 2010). And when it comes to identity formation practice related learning abroad also shows deeply personal transformative possibilities (Ryanand & Viete 2009).

References

Cooper, G. (2008) "Assessing International Learning Experiences: A Multi-Institutional Collaboration". In: Phi Kappa Phi Forum/ Vol. 88 Qing, G., Schweisfurthb, M. & Daya, C. (2010) "Learning and growing in a 'Foreign' Context: Intercultural Experiences of International Students" In: A Journal of Comparative & International Education. Vol.40, No. 1. Ryan, J. & Viete, R. (2009) “Respectful interactions: learning with international students in the English-speaking academy”. In: Teaching in Higher Education, Vol. 14, No. 3 Vygotsky, L. (1962) Thought and language. Cambridge: MA: M IT press