In YA dystopias, adolescent girls are repeatedly used as breeders of the new generation and must go to the extremes to protect their offspring from an oppressive society. The motif of the adolescent mother is used both to highlight the vulnerability of the young mothers and the challenges that they face when they bring a vulnerable child into their dystopian worlds. It illustrates inequalities in the distribution of power between the adult generation and adolescents. It is one of several tools that authors of YA dystopias use to problematise adults’ oppression of adolescents in real-life societies through the lens of extreme power abuse in dystopian, future worlds. Through an analysis of Amy Ewing's The Lone City trilogy (2014–2016) and Jennie Melamed's Gather the Daughters (2017), the chapter illustrates in what ways the young mothers are oppressed, how they respond to this oppression, and how they rebel against it. An intersectional approach is applied, which clarifies that intersections between for example youth, motherhood, and gender affect both how the adolescent mothers are positioned in their dystopian society's matrix of domination and what possibilities they have to challenge their oppression for the sake of themselves and/or their child.

I ungdomsdystopin Eleriatrilogin (2012–2014) av den österrikiska författarinnan Ursula Poznanski gestaltas en värld som har råkat ut för en omfattande miljökatastrof. Detta har resulterat i en strikt uppdelning där de så kallade sfärsamhällena har skapat ett högteknologiskt samhälle som har gott om resurser, vilka dock kontrolleras starkt av de styrande, medan befolkningen i klansamhällen utanför de skyddande sfärerna lever under mycket svåra och fattiga förhållanden i den fördärvade miljön. I min presentation undersöker jag trilogins didaktiska potential i skolans värdegrundsarbete avseende miljöperspektiv, kulturmöten och maktrelationen mellan barn, ungdomar och vuxna. Jag argumenterar för att Poznanskis trilogi problematiserar hållbarhetsbegreppet genom att belysa hur en icke-hållbar miljö påverkar de sociala relationer som uppstår och begränsar möjligheterna till en försoning mellan de två samhällen som strider mot varandra i en kamp om naturresurser. Synliggörandet av hur ekologisk, ekonomisk och social hållbarhet går in i varandra gör Eleriatrilogin till ett effektivt verktyg för att aktualisera hållbarhetsfrågor i skolans värdegrundsarbete.

When J. K. Rowling announced that she has always seen Professor Albus Dumbledore as gay after the publication of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (2007), the previous silence on the topic of queer sexuality within the Harry Potter universe came to an end. However, as Jim Daems clarifies in “‘I Knew a Girl Once, whose Hair…’: Dumbledore and the Closet” (2012), many academics and fans were upset that Rowling did not represent Dumbledore’s sexuality in the book series. For a book series that explicitly and repeatedly explores and problematises race, gender, ethnicity, age, nationality and class, the silence regarding diverse sexualities is not only surprising but problematic, as it suggests that there is no room for queer characters in the Wizarding World. I argue that the silence on this topic in the seven Harry Potter novels and the eight movies that are based on them undermines some of the didactic potential of the series to address human rights and equality. By silencing a queer character’s sexuality, the explicit ideology about everyone’s equal rights to exist and thrive is counteracted by an implicit ideology about queers’ sexualities being too deviant to represent within books and movies.

The stage play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (2016) and the movies Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016) and Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018) were all published after Rowling’s announcement about Dumbledore’s sexuality. I argue that they are examples of silencing queer characters, since they do not explicitly represent Dumbledore as queer, and since Cursed Child portrays a relationship between Albus Potter and Scorpius Malfoy that is coded as romantic throughout the play, but ends up reaffirming heteronormativity when the boys discuss who will get a girlfriend first at the end of the narrative. In my paper I explore the consequences of the silencing of the queer for the overall didactic potential of the Harry Potter universe regarding human rights and equality, by defining explicit and implicit ideologies about sexuality in the Harry Potter novels, movies and Cursed Child. I also clarify in what ways Cursed Child and The Crimes of Grindelwald can be seen as examples of queerbaiting, expanding Emily Roach’s argument about Cursed Child in “Harry Potter and the Cursed Closet: Queerbaiting, Slash-Shipping and the Cursed Child” (2018) to the most recent addition in the Harry Potter franchise.

In the theatre performance Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (2016), Harry Potter's magical world is revisited from the perspective of an adult Harry, who has grown out of his rebellious youth and become a controlling and sometimes abusive parent. Many fans were outraged by Harry's treatment of his son Albus, a Slytherin, whose only friend is Draco Malfoy's son, Scorpius. I utilize cognitive script and schema theory to analyze the play manuscript's ideologies connected to age. I argue that the reactions against the non-sympathetic adult Harry can be conceptualized as a schema disruption of "the Harry Potter literary schema."

YA dystopias explore the relationship of power between adults and adolescents through hyperboles. The Hunger Games in Suzanne Collins trilogy (2008-2010) is just one example of extreme oppression of the young. The exaggerations encourage readers to question the division of power between adults and adolescents in real-life societies. Research on YA dystopias has predominately focused on the role of adolescents as political symbols who rebel against repression when exploring the age category (cf. Day et. al.). However, the motifs of the adolescent killer and the adolescent mother highlight a similar interplay that can deepen the understanding of the category. The rhetoric of the hyperbole incorporates an educational potential that can be utilised in the classroom. Through a case study of the adolescent killer Red in Christina Henry’s The Girl in Red (2019) and the adolescent mother Lyda Mertz in Julianna Baggott’s Pure trilogy (2012–2014) I exemplify how the motifs interrogate the relationship of power between adults and the young. By applying an intersectional approach, I illustrate how other power categories, such as race, (dis)ability and gender, are intertwined with the characters’ age and position them in a matrix of domination (Hill Collins). Maria Nikolajeva’s concept aetonormativity refers to how adults are positioned as normative and children/adolescents as non-normative. Consequently, children have less power than the adults. Clémentine Beauvais instead argues that children are “mighty” in children’s literature, since they may be able to affect the world long after the adult generation has died. Thus, they have a different kind of power than adults. I illustrate how these positions can instead be conceptualised as two motifs. At different points in the narrative, Red and Lyda are variously depicted as controlled adolescents and mighty adolescents. I exemplify how this can be brought to attention in the classroom through different tasks.

Since the publication of Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games in 2008, there has been a boom in literature about dystopias with authoritarian regimes, featuring adults who oppress children and adolescents. Dystopian literature for young adults asks important questions about the consequences of the adult generation’s inability to deal with challenges such as discrimination and dictatorial tendencies. It also illustrates how young people can be oppressed by adults in non-fictional societies by exaggerating the power inequalities between children, adolescents and adults.

Mothers and Murderers explores power relationships between adults and the young, using a corpus of around one hundred Anglophone and Swedish dystopian novels for young adult (YA) readers. It highlights the power relationships that come into play when dystopian regimes force young characters to become killers. It also illuminates the relationship of power between children, adolescents and adults by analysing the motif of the adolescent mother. In this dystopian literature, adolescent mothers must be prepared to do whatever it takes to protect their child, even while being oppressed by adults. This book analyses how the power category of age relates to other categories such as gender, race, (dis)ability and class.

The genre’s problematisation of adult oppression of the young incorporates an educational potential that can be harnessed in the classroom. By exaggerating actual age-related power inequalities, it can support students and teachers in questioning assumptions about what the young generation needs and what elements of society it needs protecting from.

Combining text analyses of the motifs in the corpus, case studies with in-depth analyses of these motifs, and suggestions for teaching plans, this book is aimed at readers who want to explore dystopian literature for young adults, as well as teachers and trainee teachers who want to actualise the educational potential of this genre in the classroom.

Introduction: Conceptions of Girlhood Now and Then: “Girls’ Literature” and Beyond

Knjiga Kritička pravna teorija: izvori, značajke i dosezi, dr. sc. Barbare Pisker nudi pregled osnovnih teoretskih ideja koje stoje iza koncepta kritičke pravne teorije. Kroz prizmu sociološ-kog pristupa autorica predstavlja i analizira tradiciju i sintezu kritičke pravne teorije s nagla-skom na bitnost u stvaranju integralne i kritičke teorije prava. Monografija jasno ukazuje na opći značaj koji je povijesno prisutan u kritičkoj teoriji te je u uskoj vezi s temeljnom premisom sociološkog pristupa, tj. kritičkoj refleksiji društva.

The present book makes an empirical and analytical contribution to our knowledge about victimhood, survivor narratives, and memorialisation in the contextof post-genocide Cambodia. It presents the reader with detailed and expressive narratives about the complex dynamics of survival in post-genocide Cambodia, and analyses these narratives about victimhood from the perspective of former members of the Khmer Rouge

The aim of this study is to analyze how and when the professional actors within the Swedish child welfare system portray successful cooperation and determine which discursive patterns are involved in the construction of this phenomenon. The empirical basis for this study is formed by 147 recorded interviews with institution-placed youths, their parents, and different occupational categories within the social services and the Swedish National Board of Institutional Care. Analytical findings with the following themes are presented: (1) coherent vision triad, (2) coherent rhetorically accepted triad, and (3) coherent exclusive triad. The personal interactive aspect of cooperation among professional actors in the care of children is important for successful collaboration. This aspect also appears to be significant for producing and reproducing joint collaboration identities. However, joint collaboration identities and the coherence triad can limit the sphere of cooperation to the entities involved in the care of youths and the juvenile or his/her parents are left out.

QUESTIONS: 1. WHY DO WE NEED education for a culture of peace and non-violence? 2. WHAT NEW KNOWLEDGE do we gain? 3. Is a culture of peace possible in a violent (unjust) world? 4. WHAT DOES the term “culture of remembrance” MEAN, which is a controversial phrase based on a vague mixing of individual and collective memory? 5. WHY ARE culture, multiculturalism, cultural policy, identity policy, preservation of national, ethnic, religious or cultural identity IMPORTANT? EXPLANATION OF THE TOPIC: Building of peace in today's conflicts requires a long-term commitment to establishing connections and relationships across all social levels: relationships that strengthen the resources of reconciliation within society and make effective use of contributions outside it. Peacebuilding is not just work to prevent a return to the conflict of once conflicting parties, but it focuses on the real causes not only of the just-ended war, but of all potential conflicts. In this sense, we can distinguish between a negative peace, that is, the absence of armed conflict and a positive peace that includes justice, equality and other fundamental social and political goods. In a narrower sense, peacebuilding is a process that facilitates the establishment of long-term peace and that seeks to prevent a recurrence of violence by focusing on the causes and consequences of conflict through reconciliation, institution building, political and economic transformation. (Catherine Morris; John Paul Lederach; Barnett et al., 2007; Maiese, 2003; HKO “Kruh sv. Ante”- Trauma centar)

This article aimed to provide new knowledge about ethical issues in doctoral supervision by analysing conflicts and roles that are assumed and acted out in supervision practice. This analysis was based on a literature review of various studies from the field of educational sciences, social pedagogy, doctoral supervision in theory and practice, and theories and practice of teaching and learning. The literature review identified several ethical issues relevant to doctoral supervision. These issues mostly arose from disappointed expectations, for instance, in the supervisor’s or doctoral student’s knowledge/competence, cultural viewpoint, roles, participation, language proficiency, and criticism/feedback. This analysis found that conflicts and the roles adopted and acted out during a supervision situation were not static – multiple roles could be assumed simultaneously, and the roles frequently changed. These changes provided opportunities to prevent or remedy ethical issues and conflicts in supervision. Changes could also lead to the creation and replication of a stable relationship between the doctoral student and supervisor. To prevent ethical issues and conflicts, the relationship between a doctoral student and a supervisor should be characterised by mutual respect, responsibility, integrity, and recognition. These components were needed to: (1) create the conditions for successful knowledge development in supervision, (2) complete a third-cycle education programme, (3) qualify the doctoral student to hold a doctoral degree, and (4) prevent ethical issues and conflicts connected with doctoral student supervision, through the constructive alignment of various elements in the third cycle programme. 

This article aimed to provide new knowledge about ethical issues in doctoral supervision by analysing conflicts and roles that are assumed and acted out in supervision practice. This analysis was based on a literature review of various studies from the field of educational sciences, social pedagogy, doctoral supervision in theory and practice, and theories and practice of teaching and learning. The literature review identified several ethical issues relevant to doctoral supervision. These issues mostly arose from disappointed expectations, for instance, in the supervisor’s or doctoral student’s knowledge/competence, cultural viewpoint, roles, participation, language proficiency, and criticism/feedback. This analysis found that conflicts and the roles adopted and acted out during a supervision situation were not static – multiple roles could be assumed simultaneously, and the roles frequently changed. These changes provided opportunities to prevent or remedy ethical issues and conflicts in supervision. Changes could also lead to the creation and replication of a stable relationship between the doctoral student and supervisor. To prevent ethical issues and conflicts, the relationship between a doctoral student and a supervisor should be characterised by mutual respect, responsibility, integrity, and recognition. These components were needed to: (1) create the conditions for successful knowledge development in supervision, (2) complete a third-cycle education programme, (3) qualify the doctoral student to hold a doctoral degree, and (4) prevent ethical issues and conflicts connected with doctoral student supervision, through the constructive alignment of various elements in the third-cycle programme. 

In this study, the stories told by the adolescents and the personnel in institutional care in Sweden are about everyday interactions that occur while the adolescents stay at the institution and how the personnel work with that category of clients. The analysis pays attention to details about war and post-war interactions and how a community’s moralisations can affect social pedagogical work with inclusion and integration into the community. From a Swedish perspective, it is easy to imagine that the war’s consequences are taking place ‘over there’, in a different country or another part of the world, at another time in place. It therefore becomes especially important to allow people with war experiences who are in Sweden to share and relate how the experiences are significant here and now. By allowing this sharing, knowledge is also created about how preconceptions, inequalities and discrimination can be faced and discouraged. This study shows how overlapping or parallel identifications of adolescents and personnel operate through a number of interactions where the individual claims or is assigned identity categories in various ways. Categories such as victim of war, student, homosexual, empathetic personnel, competent personnel and incompetent personnel are actualised in relation to the adolescents’ war experiences and institution placement. The interactive dynamic in the situation helps to create and re-create these categories. The study’s analysis observes individuals in a vulnerable and strenuous situation with the aim of highlighting their opinions, stories and terms. Adolescents with war experiences are at risk of being affected by stigmatisation and singled out in the community and for discrimination and unequal relationships because of their background and how it is treated in Sweden. Personnel who have been interviewed in the study note that the social climate impairs their work with inclusion and integration of that client category.

That people are forced to flee from war and disasters is a highly topical issue today. This chapter highlights young people who have experienced a war, taken refuge in Sweden, and been taken into care and placed in institutions. The aim is to develop knowledge about interactions that contribute to shaping the identities of young people during and after war. The empirical material analyzed consists of : 1) qualitatively oriented interviews with six boys in care (from Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria) – who experienced a war and were later placed in HVB homes (a form of residential care) in Sweden; 2) transcribed field notes from observation at HVB homes; and 3) documents in the form of media reports from the Internet concerning the relevant category of youth. The chapter presents the following three analytical themes: a) The war as a horror film; b) Flight as extortion and c) Interactions after war – anonymous and bureaucratized.

This study concerns young people who have experienced war, taken shelter in Sweden, and been placed in institutions. The purpose of the study is to identify and analyze power relations that contribute to the shaping of young people’s identities and repertoires of action via stigmatizations and social comparisons with different reference groups. The study’s empirical material includes qualitatively oriented interviews with six young people from Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan who have experienced war, followed by placement in institutional care in Sweden. Analytical findings with the following themes are presented: (1) concrete—physical exercise of power, (2) blackmail as an exercise of power, and (3) anonymous—bureaucratized exercise of power. The study demonstrates that narratives about war, escaping war, and postwar life in Sweden, constructing and reconstructing an image of a series of interactive rituals that are both influenced by and influence the power dynamic between the actors. This relationship, in turn, creates and recreates an interplay among the stigmatizing experiences of the youths, their social comparisons, and definitions of inequality. 

The fact that people are being forced to flee from war and disastersis a very current issue. This study concerns young peoplewho have experienced war, taken shelter in Sweden, and havebeen placed in institutions. The purpose of the study is to identifyand analyse power relations that contribute to the shaping ofyoung people’s identities and repertoires of action via stigmatisationsand social comparisons with different reference groups.Max Weber (1922/1968) analyses power as a direct action by anactor X that forces an actor Y to act according to X’s will, even ifthe action is contrary to Y’s interests or will. Weber draws attentionto two dimensions of power relations. The first dimension ismaintained through the practical implementation of pressure(s)or the threat thereof. The second dimension is maintained whenthose who are vulnerable give up or yield and accept the powerof the executor of the said pressure. The power of the executorof pressure often includes an order with content that is expectedto be followed by particular individuals or groups (Weber1922/1968). Randall Collins’ (2004, 2008) analysis of power, conflict,solidarity, resistance, and status is inspired by Weber’s perspective. Collins believes that in all social arenas, the exercise ofpower is always met with resistance from other people, thus generatingnew conflicts. For Collins, ‘conflict and solidarity are twosides of the same coin’. Mobilisation against an enemy often leadsto solidarity among individuals and groups, and vice versa. Thestudy’s empirical material includes qualitatively oriented interviews with six young people in institutional care from Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria who have experienced war followed by aplacement in institutional care in Sweden. During the interviewswith the young people, the following themes are discussed: 1) lifebefore the war began; 2) the atmosphere in the home town whenthe war began; 3) experiences during the war; 4) an ordinary dayduring the war; 5) fleeing to Sweden; 6) the efforts made by institutionalcare workers, social services, the Swedish MigrationAgency, legal representatives, school; 7) life at the institution; 8)help after arriving to Sweden and after; 9) processing trauma;10) differences among the young people; 11) explicit and implicitidentifications (refugee, immigrant, war victim, etc.); 12) futureprospects; 13) future help from various public authority staff. The preliminary analysis of power relations in young people’sstories reveals the following themes: a) power relations in war asa permanent state of society; b) power relations in schooling asan arena for war stories; c) power relations and the learning ofan existence characterised by war; d) power relations, normalisation,and neutralisation of states of war; e) power relations whenfleeing war as part of the war; f) power relations in Sweden (includingthe fight for the recognition of numerous identities, suchas a student, worker, husband, breadwinner, and homosexual).

This article explores the connections among the discursive nature of ideology, identity politics, forced displacement, and symbolic and actual war violence leading to genocide. The general framework of the article is the Bosnian War (1992–1995), waged against the country and its civilians. The analytical basis is a literature review of various studies from the domains of sociology of knowledge, war sociology, and social epistemology. It is based on the perspective of the genocide in Bosnia as a process that began in northwest and east Bosnia in 1992 and terminated in Srebrenica in 1995 (in the municipality Prijedor in northwest Bosnia in 1992, more than 3000 civilians were killed). Mass crimes and the policy of fear mongering were intended to create and recreate the collective belief that coexistence in Bosnia was impossible and that establishing “ethnically pure cultures” and “ethnically pure territories” should be accepted as a deterministic historical necessity. The results of our research indicate that crimes against civilians can be “normalized” only after a “new social order” has been established as a war order with the help of media propaganda. Genocide can be committed only if the perpetrators (and its advocates acting in the name of specific identity politics) believe that committing violence can be justified by a “higher cause.”

The purpose of this article is to analyse institutionalised paralogisms, social and economic inequalities, and frustrating consequences arising from decades of symbolic and real war and post-war violence against the population of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The historic background of this paper is the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1992–1995), as presented in the reports of the United Nations and documents produced during international and national trials concerning war crimes. The analytical basis is a literature review of various studies from the domains of social epistemology, war sociology, sociology of knowledge, criminology, and pedagogy of emancipation and lifelong learning. Immanent antinomies, contradictions, and political, legal, and criminal perpetually institutionalise and reproduce the identitary references to war vocabulary. For this reason, creation of publicly responsible programs is necessary to evaluate the prescriptive impact of the domination of cultural and identity differences between peoples in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The genocide of Bosnian Bosniaks in the war against the Bosnian–Herzegovinian multicultural society urges the creation of a completely different description, prescription, logic of naming, and explanation strategy to achieve transitional change. The article criticized globalisation as a form of new colonisation and natural-science quantative emphasis. In the spirit of the analysed scientific literature, future scientific analyses should focus on the criminal, social, economic, ecological, anti-educational, sociopathological, and anomic consequences of the (catastrophic) impact of decades of symbolic and real war and post-war violence against the population of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The war in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1992–1995) is the historic background of this paper, as produced inthe reports of the United Nations and documents presented during international and national trialsconcerning war crimes committed during period. A literature review forms the analytical basis andcontains various studies from the domains of war sociology, social epistemology, pedagogy ofemancipation and lifelong learning, and sociology of knowledge. The aim of the paper is to analyse: 1)the negative/dark sides of social capital in the Bosnian–Herzegovinian post-genocide society thatemerged because of decades of symbolic and real war and post-war violence against the people in Bosniaand Herzegovina; and 2) the possibility of social development in the direction of a positive/lighter side ofsocial capital, in the sense of legitimising progressive politics of social development based on thefollowing foundations: a) learning peace, coexistence, and reconciliation; b) acknowledgment thatgenocide was carried out during the war and actively denied after the war; c) condemnation of genocide(both during the war and the post-war period); and d) active work to recognise the status of and obtaincompensation for the victims of the genocide (at the social, organisational/institutional, and individuallevels).

The aim of the paper is to analyse: 1) the negative/dark sides of social capital in the Bosnian–Herzegovinian post-genocide society that emerged because of decades of symbolic and real war and post-war violence against the people in Bosnia and Herzegovina; and 2) the possibility of social development in the direction of a positive/lighter side of social capital, in the sense of legitimising progressive politics of social development based on the following foundations: a) learning peace, coexistence, and reconciliation; b) acknowledgment that genocide was carried out during the war and actively denied after the war; c) condemnation of genocide (both during the war and the post-war period); and d) active work to recognise the status of and obtain compensation for the victims of the genocide (at the social, organisational/institutional, and individual levels).

The purpose of this article is to analyse institutionalised paralogisms, social and economic inequalities, and frustrating consequences arising from decades of symbolic and real war and post-war violence against the population of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The historic background of this paper is the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1992–1995), as presented in the reports of the United Nations and documents produced during international and national trials concerning war crimes. The analytical basis is a literature review of various studies from the domains of war sociology, criminology, and sociology of knowledge. Immanent antinomies, contradictions, and political, legal, and criminal perpetually institutionalise and reproduce the identitary references to war vocabulary. For this reason, creation of publicly responsible programs is necessary to evaluate the prescriptive impact of the domination of cultural and identity differences between peoples in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The genocide of Bosnian Bosniaks in the war against the Bosnian–Herzegovinian multicultural society urges the creation of a completely different description, prescription, logic of naming, and explanation strategy to achieve transitional change. The article criticized globalisation as a form of new colonisation and natural-science quantative emphasis. In the spirit of the analysed scientific literature, future scientific analyses should focus on the criminal, social, economic, ecological, anti-educational, sociopathological, and anomic consequences of the (catastrophic) impact of decades of symbolic and real war and post-war violence against the population of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The purpose of this article is to analyse institutionalised paralogisms, social and economic inequalities, and frustrating consequences arising from decades of symbolic and real war and post-war violence against the population of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The historic background of this paper is the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1992–1995), as presented in the reports of the United Nations and documents produced during international and national trials concerning war crimes. The analytical basis is a literature review of various studies from the domains of social epistemology, war sociology, and sociology of knowledge. Immanent antinomies, contradictions, and political, legal, and criminal perpetually institutionalise and reproduce the identitary references to war vocabulary. For this reason, creation of publicly responsible programs is necessary to evaluate the prescriptive impact of the domination of cultural and identity differences between peoples in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The genocide of Bosnian Bosniaks in the war against the Bosnian–Herzegovinian multicultural society urges the creation of a completely different description, prescription, logic of naming, and explanation strategy to achieve transitional change. The article criticized globalisation as a form of new colonisation and natural-science quantative emphasis. In the spirit of the analysed scientific literature, future scientific analyses should focus on the criminal, social, economic, ecological, anti-educational, sociopathological, and anomic consequences of the (catastrophic) impact of decades of symbolic and real war and post-war violence against the population of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The aim of this article is to critically analyse intellectual conditions for education pertaining to the empirical and normative knowledge dimensions that can oppose the ideologies of neo-fascism. The analytical basis is a literature review of various studies from the domains of sociology of knowledge, war sociology, social epistemology, and critical pedagogy. The article explains the social need for better-quality public education pertaining to the meaning of political, media, and religious use and misuse of “identitarian concepts” and “identitarian terminology.” The privileged strategies of the political application of referential systems and mechanisms of ‘differentiating’ serve as the epistemic foundation to teach the concepts, terminology, taxonomies, and classifications used to separate people into “ours” and “theirs.” The genocide of Bosnian Bosniaks in the war against the Bosnian-Herzegovinian multicultural society conveys the need to create peaceful emancipatory identity politics and for a new pedagogy of emancipation of many of the oppressed and disenfranchised who are difficult to explicitly name. Conceptual problems, related to certain obvious paradoxes intrinsic in the politics of the collective representation of citizens after genocide, are linked to these processes.

The purpose of this article is to provide a new understanding of the essence of the including educational space as a pedagogical phenomenon presents different approaches of scientists to the characteristics of the concept of educational space, and the importance of interpersonal interaction in the educational space, and presents the authors’ interpretation of its essence. The analytical basis is a literature review of various studies from the domains of symbolic interactionism, social constructivism, ethnomethodology, the sociology of knowledge, education, pedagogy and social pedagogy. Empirical sequences in the reviewed literature that exemplify inclusive educational space are from the context of the organisational and practical work of compulsory and upper-secondary schools with newly arrived students and students who use alcohol and narcotics, and from the context of the organisational and practical work of universities related to the education of future play-actors. The importance of the role of the creative educational spaceas a leading requirement of preparation of the students for future communicative interaction in professional communication is revealed, and the structural characteristics of its content and functional load are provided. The inclusive educational space and the professionals' inclusive approach demands how schools practically and organizationally organise work with students in the educational space and what support and room for manoeuvre professional actors in the school and university receive in their practical work with students, both in relation to the expected normative right and deviant acting in the educational space and in relation to laws and governing documents that to a certain extent govern practical work in these educational spaces. The study contributes to the development of knowledge regarding: 1) dealing with social interaction and including educational space combining: a) experiences of students in educational space, b) experiences of professional actors in educational space, and c) the development of integration and social pedagogical recognition in educational space; 2) the significance of these social interactions and including educational space in the creation and recreation of the students' and professional' identities; and 3) alternative social pedagogical approaches to analysing the including educational space in compulsory, upper-secondary and post-secondary education. 

The purpose of this article is to provide a new understanding of the essence of the including educational space as a pedagogical phenomenon presents different approaches of scientists to the characteristics of the concept of educational space, and the importance of interpersonal interaction in the educational space, and presents the authors’ interpretation of its essence. The analytical basis is a literature review of various studies from the domains of symbolic interactionism, social constructivism, ethnomethodology, the sociology of knowledge, education, pedagogy and social pedagogy. Empirical sequences in the reviewed literature that exemplify inclusive educational space are from the context of the organisational and practical work of compulsory and upper-secondary schools with newly arrived students and students who use alcohol and narcotics, and from the context of the organisational and practical work of universities related to the education of future play-actors. The importance of the role of the creative educational space as a leading requirement of preparation of the students for future communicative interaction in professional communication is revealed, and the structural characteristics of its content and functional load are provided. The inclusive educational space and the professionals' inclusive approach demands how schools practically and organizationally organise work with students in the educational space and what support and room for manoeuvre professional actors in the school and university receive in their practical work with students, both in relation to the expected normative right and deviant acting in the educational space and in relation to laws and governing documents that to a certain extent govern practical work in these educational spaces. The study contributes to the development of knowledge regarding: 1) dealing with social interaction and including educational space combining: a) experiences of students in educational space, b) experiences of professional actors in educational space, and c) the development of integration and social pedagogical recognition in educational space; 2) the significance of these social interactions and including educational space in the creation and recreation of the students' and professional' identities; and 3) alternative social pedagogical approaches to analysing the including educational space in compulsory, upper-secondary and post-secondary education. 

The purpose of this article is to provide a new understanding of the essence of inclusive educational spaces as a pedagogical phenomenon that presents different scientific approaches to the concept of educational space, and the importance of interpersonal interactions in educational spaces, and also presents the authors’ interpretations of their essence. The analytical basis is a literature review of various studies from the domains of symbolic interactionism, social constructivism, ethnomethodology, the sociology of knowledge, education, pedagogy and social pedagogy. Empirical sequences in the reviewed literature that exemplify inclusive educational spaces are derived from the organisational and practical work of compulsory and upper-secondary schools related to newly arrived students and students who use alcohol and narcotics, and from the context of the organisational and practical work of universities related to the education of future actors. The importance of recognizing the role of creative educational spaces as a leading requirement for the preparation of students for future communicative interactions in professional communication is revealed, and the structural characteristics of these spaces’ content and functional load are provided. Inclusive educational spaces and professionals’ inclusive approach demand that schools practically and collaboratively organise work with students in the educational space, show support for them and give them room to manoeuvre to ensure that professional actors in the school and university thrive in their practical work with students, both in relation to the expected normative right and deviant acting in the educational space and in relation to laws and governing documents that, to a certain extent, govern practical work in these educational spaces. The study contributes to the development of knowledge regarding (1) dealing with social interaction and inclusive educational spaces combining (a) the experiences of students in educational space, (b) the experiences of professional actors in educational space, and (c) the development of integration and social pedagogical recognition in educational space; (2) the significance of these social interactions and inclusive educational spaces in the creation and recreation of students’ and professionals’ identities; and (3) alternative social pedagogical approaches to analysing inclusive educational spaces in compulsory, upper-secondary and post-secondary education.

In the Swedish debate on social pedagogy, immigration issues have got a lot of attention, and social pedagogy has been seen a relevant theoretical framework for educational programs promoting social integration of immigrants. The practical function of social pedagogy is seen to deal with all kinds of social and psychosocial needs in all phases of life span in all kinds of educational and care institutions. It is about social-pedagogical know-how seeing to be relevant for working with people in different, sometimes very difficult life situations. This study purpose was to provide new understanding about: 1) institution personnel narratives about the day-to-day work of taking care of young people who experienced a war, fled to Sweden and were cared for and placed in institutions; and 2) interactive patterns contributing to constructing the category ‘social pedagogue’. The material was gathered through interviews with personnel who work with these young people at residential or care homes. Analytical findings with the following themes are presented: (1) “Empathy, collaboration and inclusion”, (2) “Stigma and inclusion”, and (3) “(In)competence of personnel and inclusion”. Analysis of the study’s empirical material reveals major variations in what is expected of a social pedagogue working in institutional care in Sweden with unaccompanied young refugees who have experiences of war. A common denominator is that the mission of and context in which the social pedagogue operates appear flexible enough to enable an individual to play the role in a variety of ways. Only when the individual social pedagogue adopts an active, assertive, independent, personal and relatively strong posture will there be a chance of being important to other professional categories and for the client. In practice, therefore, only when the individual social pedagogue transcends the expectations of the conventional role will there be a chance to be appreciated by other collaborators.

The general perspective on social pedagogy and research emphasises the importance of recognising the various identities that are actualised and re-actualised during interpersonal interactions in the various social contexts in which the individual acts or is expected to act. The purpose of the present study was to provide a new understanding of: (1) narratives by staff at institutions regarding the day-to-day work of caring for youths who, having experienced war, fled to Sweden and were taken into care and placed in institutions; and (2) interactive patterns contributing to constructing and reconstructing the inclusion of the clients and the obstacles to inclusion during practical social pedagogy. Analytical findings with the following themes are presented: (1) empathy, collaboration and inclusion; (2) stigma and inclusion; and (3) (in)competence of personnel and inclusion. This study demonstrates that recognition, or the lack thereof, of young peoples’ various identities may affect their opportunities for inclusion in the new society. Both the recognition and loss of identity that occur in various contexts in which young people act or are expected to act contribute to the success of integration and can be an obstacle to it.

The study purpose was to provide new understanding about: 1) institution personnel narratives about the day-to-day work of taking care of young people who experienced a war, fled to Sweden and were cared for and placed in institutions; and 2) interactive patterns contributing to constructing the category ‘social pedagogue’. The material was gathered through interviews with personnel who work with these young people at residential or care homes. The social pedagogic perspective in social sciences stresses including the individual in the community, which gives the individual confirmation of an identity through community participation. Successful interaction between individuals is fundamental for achieving community integration of unaccompanied children and young people in Sweden. Analysis of the study’s empirical material reveals major variations in what is expected of a social pedagogue working in institutional care in Sweden with unaccompanied young refugees who have experiences of war. A common denominator is that the mission of and context in which the social pedagogue operates appear flexible enough to enable an individual to play the role in a variety of ways. Only when the individual social pedagogue adopts an active, assertive, independent, personal and relatively strong posture will there be a chance of being important to other professional categories and for the client. From a Swedish perspective, it is easy to imagine that the war’s consequences are taking place ‘over there’, in a different country or another part of the world, at another time in place. It therefore becomes especially important to allow people with war experiences who are in Sweden to share and relate how the experiences are significant here and now. By allowing this sharing, knowledge is also created about how preconceptions, inequalities and discrimination can be faced and discouraged.

This study presents new knowledge arising from teachers’ verbal accounts of successes and obstacles inthe organizational and practical work of upper-secondary schools with newly arrived students. The ethnographic material is based on 33 teacher interviews and 11 fair copies of field notes from observations inupper-secondary school contexts. Analysis of the empirical data was conducted within the framing of socialconstructivist theories and previous research. The analysis reveals several dimensions contributing to the construction and reconstruction of successes and obstacles in the teachers’ accounts. Teachers areconstructed as actors with a power advantage relative to the “newly arrived student.” They set the agenda forstudent behavior, with an inclusive approach that is crucial to achieving success and counteracting obstacles. The approach imposes demands on how upper-secondary schools organize their work with newly arrived students and plays a role in determining supports and room for maneuvering that teachers have. The construction of normatively right (morally right) and deviant (morally wrong) action in the verbal interactive dynamic contributes to the creation and re-creation of both the recognition and exclusion of teachers and newly arrived students in and from the school context. This interactive dynamic implicitly highlights how actors with higher status in the school context (teachers) can use verbal means (language) as an interactive assertion of power to mark the position of actors with lower status in the school context (newly arrived students). The power to define and redefine the actor with lower status in the school context is conveyed, acted out, and exercised by teachers using verbal accounts. These interactions provide the space to control and oppress newly arrived students who, in that situation, occasionally are also engaged in a struggle for recognition in the school context. Previous research draws attention to the importance of raising awareness of teachers’ professional role in relation to power aspects and language used in interpersonal interactions in the school context.

The aim of this study is to contribute new knowledge about interactions of power and social pedagogical recognition in narratives of students who use alcohol and drugs in an upper-secondary school context. In this context, the student narratives create and re-create a series of images of varied treatment by professional actors (e.g., teachers, student coordinators, counsellors). The reproduced power interactions in narratives describing the practices of professional actors are significant for student learning, teaching, nurturing, inclusion, change, discipline, and identity creation. In these interactions of power, professional actors are portrayed as significant power-wielding others or as rejected power-wielding others, two verbal portrayals that contribute to the verbal production of four analytical categories: 1) social pedagogical identity, which in previous studies has been classified as social identity (e.g., alcohol and drug user, ethnic identity, victim identity), and pedagogical identity (e.g., pupil identity, teacher identity, desired successful pupil identity, desired successful teacher identity, invisible student identity); 2) social pedagogical interactions of power related to verbal representations of situational images, control, monitoring, invisibility, discipline, prejudice, devaluation, victimhood, and the other; 3) varied descriptions, narratives, representations, and reproduction of social and pedagogical aspects of learning, teaching, nurturing, inclusion, change, and discipline; and 4) varied constructions, reconstructions, productions, and reproductions of learning, teaching, nurturing, inclusion, change, and discipline in the social and pedagogical sense. The social pedagogical recognition of the “other party” in the pupil–professional actor relationship is especially important for achieving the aims of including pupils who use alcohol and drugs in a learning context and enacting positive change through the creation and re-creation of social pedagogical identities (e.g., successful pupil identity) in the upper-secondary school context. 

This study concerns young people who have experienced war, taken shelter in Sweden, and been placed in institutions. The purpose of the study is to identify and analyze power relations that contribute to the shaping of young people’s identities and repertoires of action via stigmatizations and social comparisons with different reference groups. The study’s empirical material includes qualitatively oriented interviews with six young people from Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan who have experienced war followed by placement in institutional care in Sweden. Analytical findings with the following themes are presented: (1) power relations and war, (2) power relations and escape from war, and (3) power relations and post war. The study demonstrates that narratives about war, escaping war, and postwar life in Sweden construct and reconstruct an image of a series of interactive rituals that are both influenced by and influence the power dynamic between the actors. This relationship in turn creates and recreates an interplay among the stigmatizing experiences of the youths, their social comparisons, and definitions of inequality.

This study concerns young people who have experienced war, taken shelter in Sweden, and been placed in institutions. The purpose of the study is to identify and analyze power relations that contribute to the shaping of young people’s identities and repertoires of action via stigmatizations and social comparisons with different reference groups. The study’s empirical material includes qualitatively oriented interviews with six young people from Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan who have experienced war followed by placement in institutional care in Sweden. Analytical findings with the following themes are presented: (1) power relations and war, (2) power relations and escape from war, and (3) power relations and post war. The narratives on war and flight recounted by unaccompanied refugee minors describe the exercise of power in practice, in which wartime interactions (based on the exercise of power) are compared and related to peaceful interactions (in which there is no exercise of power). In this context, the interactive creation of contrasts and comparisons in relation to other actors reveals various categories of actor: victim, perpetrator, and hero.

In this study, we focus on the experiences and stories told by: 1) young people who have experienced war, fled to Sweden, and been taken into care and placed in special youth homes, and 2) young people who have experienced drug- and crime-related problems. In addition, we focus on the accounts of members of staff at the institutions working with these young people. Employees at special youth homes in Sweden who work daily with youths who have undergone war, drug, and crime-related problems are engaged in several different identifications alternately or at the same time, such as their work-related identity, gender identity, or ethnic identity. The current article underlines how these intersecting and corresponding identifications operate through a range of interactions in which the individual claims or is appointed identity categories in various ways. Therefore, the study shows when, how, and by whom identities are portrayed and how it occurs in relation to institutional care placement. When analysig these ethnographic exmaples, we integrate the social pedagical perspective with interactionism by focusing on the accounts, language, action, and gesticulations of the narrator. The purpose of this study is thus to expand on previous theory regarding ethnomethodlogy and interactions by integrating a social pedagogical perspective to the exmaples.

The purpose of this ethnographic study is to analyse the collaborative work among intelligence and operative personnel from different border authorities in Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia. The aim of this article is to illustrate and discuss how transnational/interorganisational police identities and trust come into being through officers sharing a construction of specific significant ‘other’ – in this case that of ‘Russian spies/crooks’. Cross border collaboration among police organisations is made difficult as police officers tend to be suspicious of outsiders and colleagues that they have not yet worked with. In this study, we explore how trust among a specific group of officers was however built by contrasting themselves against not (just) criminals but an enemy that could be found among them or have an influence over their colleagues, namely Russia or Russian spies. We refer to this category as ‘normdissolving Russian’. This category included concepts such as being a spy, a criminal and a potential military threat, and became a sort of ‘Other’ that reinforced their own in-group bonds. Intelligence and operative personnel present in the analysed collaborative sequences create their professional identities by contrasting themselves with these categories. Drawing on ritual theory as well as symbolic interactionism this article discusses how an in-group feeling and idea of a higher moral order was created and recreated during their collaborative work. Morality is thus created and recreated in the encounter with people that are associated with being the ‘enemy’, present in the situation both in physical and invisible form. 

The risks and insecurities emphasised in contemporary societies have given rise to diverse forms of policing, such as transnational, intelligence- and operative-based police collaborations. The purpose of this ethnographic study is to analyse the collaborative work among intelligence and operative personnel from different border authorities in Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia. The focus of this study is how the collaboration activities created an in-group mentality among the participating officers which was contrasted with another category, that of the “norm-dissolving Russian”. This category included concepts such as being a spy, a criminal and a potential military threat, and became a sort of "Other" that reinforced their own in-group bonds. Intelligence and operative personnel present in the analysed collaborative sequences create their professional identities by contrasting themselves with these categories. They build up a kind of group feeling and present a particular moral order that is created and re-created during their collaborative work. The norm-stable and the threatening norm-dissolving moralities are created within the interaction – especially when meeting work groups that differ from their own normative code. Morality is thus created and re-created in the encounter with people that are associated with being the “enemy”, present in the situation both in physical and invisible form.

Ethnographic studies are characterised by the researchers’ active pursuit to create a variation in the empirical material, which is necessary to discern and subsequently analyse social phenomena. For example, the researcher poses open questions that cannot be answered with a Yes or No answer during interviews and/or communicates with informants during fieldwork in order to stimulate narratives. Another way of creating variation in the empirical material is the collection and analysis of different types of qualitative empirical data, such as interviews, observations, documents, photos, videos, media reports, and blog communications. This study considers the analytical connections between social pedagogy, ethnographic methods, and interactionism with regards to human interaction through language, action, gesticulations, and documents influenced by a ethnomethodological perspective on human oral narratives. The analysis mainly relates to the discursive traditions within sociology and social pedagogy in which descriptions are regarded as both experience-based and narrative. The analysis is aided by empirical elements focused on the context of practical social and pedagogical work. Accounts of unaccompanied young refugees and young persons with drug- and crime-related problems are viewed as meaning-creating activities to be used in the development and improvement of social pedagogical activities important for including the individual in the community. The text accounts for the general analytical basis of ethnographic studies, with an emphasis on the various symbols used in interpersonal interactions, how individuals present themselves, and how individuals create and maintain their identities in the analysed contexts.

Health and learning are intrinsically linked and have a reciprocal relationship. Healthy students generate better learning outcomes and good learning outcomes in turn generate healthy students. The health of students is traditionally viewed as the concern of the student health staff and not as a central part of the teacher profession.  It is however stipulated by the Swedish National Agency for Education and The Agency of Health and Welfare that the teaching profession also entails health promotion. 

The teacher and the relationship between the teacher and the student have proven crucial to student mental health. This is also noted by The Swedish Education Agency and The Agency of Health and Welfare which state that “student health work is conducted in all school environments especially the classroom where the teacher plays a key part”. In spite of the fundamental role the teacher plays regarding student health, there are no clear guidelines on a state level regarding teachers’ work with student health and it is a responsibility not traditionally associated with teaching. 

In Sweden, school health work is regulated by the Education Act, which states that the work should focus on health promotion and risk prevention. On a municipal and school level there are Student Health Plans which are local documents that interpret national directives and thus guide the school’s work with student health. This study aims to examine how the role of the teacher is presented in such Student Health Plans.

Thirty-seven student health plans ranging from four to 32 pages were collected from municipalities and high school across Sweden. These texts are analyzed using discourse analysis. Dominant and less dominant ways to depict health promotion and the teacher's role in the work were detected. The initial analysis shows that the role of the teacher is mentioned in different ways; that is, the interpretation and specification of what the health promoting work should imply for the teacher vary depending on the municipality and school. The teacher is rarely mentioned in connection to health promoting work but often in relation to remediating or rectifying actions. When the teacher is mentioned in terms of health promotion it is in general and imprecise terms. Moreover, the role of the teacher is recurrently defined in relation to other, quite new professions in school with indeterminate functions, such as ‘student consultant’ and ‘student assistant’. 

Mental health issues among children and youth have increased the past decades in many Nordic and European countries. The part of the school in the work to promote health and prevent risks has been stressed by international and national organizations, but little is known of how it is interpreted and operationalized in relation to the teachers. This study contributes to widen our understanding of how the global and national discourse comes into play, that is, how it is (re)constructed and negotiated, in local School Health Plans. 

The purpose of this study was to provide new understanding of teachers’ and immigrant students’ collaboration and identity work in a school context. Linguistic discourse analysis of immigrant student presentations of teachers’ different roles in a school context was based on empirical sequences from interviews in previously published qualitative analyses. The analysis was carried out with the help of linguistic discourse and previous research on the phenomena of ‘individual needs’, ‘dilemmas’, and ‘cooperation’. Analytical findings with the following themes are presented: (1) discursive presentation of disinterested and disrespected teachers, and (2) discursive presentation of active and strategic teachers. The discursive presentations of disinterested and disrespected teachers, and active and strategic teachers, painting a rhetorically charged picture of major challenges involved in teachers’ practical work with immigrant students. Implicit in these linguistic discursive representations is the portrayal of school teachers as both incompetent and competent actors, and students as competent actors. In this way, representations concerning school practice become a fundamental dimension in the creation and re-creation of students’ personal identities and teachers’ professional identities. Immigrant students occasionally create an interactive distance from categories upon which they depend in different ways and that are linked to the school context. Their identities are brought to the fore and preserved through both the distinction in relation to others and interactions with others (i.e., teachers, other students, and parents). The study provides an indication that recognition of identities is an important dimension for successful collaboration and learning in the school context.