Journal articles on the topic 'Folkbildning'

The position of sports in relation to the Nordic Bildung tradition (e.g. Folkbildning) has historically been contested. Mainly so because sports were associated with competition and elite thinking in ways that contrast popular educational ideals. The purpose of this study is therefore to analyze what distinguishes the contemporary sports movement in terms of Folkbildning in relation to the pedagogical dilemmas and perspectives expressed by actors within the sports movement. The background to the study is a project initiated by the Swedish Sports Confederation (RF) after internal discussions about Folkbildning in their study association SISU Idrottsutbildarna during 2020. Focus group interviews with 4-7 participants were conducted using Zoom and included seven of SISU’s 19 local districts (altogether 40 informants). All interviews were around one hour long and were recorded and transcribed. The informants were all active in the study association SISU. The results are presented through the following categories: Folkbildning as an association pedagogy and nursery school, Folkbildning as a pedagogical idea beyond the measurable and Folkbildning as a universal pedagogical method. Overall, the study concludes how perceptions of Folkbildning within the sports movement risks being reduced to a method for solving social problems. At the same time, a unique association pedagogy emerges in the material, permeated with holistic educational ideals and where the sports movement on a more comprehensive and societal level contributes to important educational insights.

The purpose of this article is to analyse three case study examples of musical folkbildning in Sweden. The first case study is from the establishment of the state-funded Framnäs Folk High Music School in the middle of the last century. The second case study, Hagström's music education, is from the same time but describes a music school run by a private company. The third case study concerns a contemporary expression of folkbildning, namely hip-hop. The theoretical framework that inspired this article stems from the work of Pierre Bourdieu. The double feature of folkbildning appears in terms of: elitist and democratic tendencies, high and low taste agendas, control and freedom.

Utbildning i Sverige ska skola demokratiska medborgare. Men det är inte självklart att eleverna har sociala och materiella resurser att delta i medborgaraktiviteter. I en pilotstudie visar Andreas Fejes hur man kan bredda diskussionen av vad medborgarskap och utbildning innebär.

Artikeln belyser samverkan mellan sammanslutningar bildade på etnisk grund och folkbildningens studieförbund i Sverige. Engagemang för social inkludering har fått en ökad betydelse för ”invandrarföreningar”. Samtidigt är dessa föreningar inte sällan utsatta för stigmatisering och försatta i en underordnad position. Med utgångspunkt i fältarbete i det mångetniska Stockholm pekar författarna på hur ”invandrarföreningar” har blivit till institutionaliserade samverkansaktörer i nya former av partnerskap (mellan till exempel stat och kommun, frivilligorganisationer och näringsliv) där de har tagit över en rad servicefunktioner i och med välfärdsstatens pågående omvandling. Exemplet samverkan kring folkbildning visar på ett starkt ojämlikt partnerskap mellan ”invandrarföreningar” och studieförbund. Några av de omständigheter som lyfts fram som problematiska är brist på dialog, kulturellt definierade hierarkier mellan ”svenskar” och ”invandrare” och en allt starkare anpassning i förhållande till marknadens krav och förväntningar. Sökord: Folkbildning, invandrarföreningar, partnerskap, inkludering, exkludering. ENGELSK ABSTRACT: Magnus Dahlstedt, Aleksandra Ålund, and Anna Ålund: Conditional Partnership: Democracy and Social Inclusion in Relations Between Institutions of Adult Education and Immigrant Associations The authors discuss the cooperation between immigrant associations and public institutions for adult education in Sweden. They emphasize the growing importance of activism for social inclusion among immigrant associations and the stigmatization and subordinate position of these same organizations. Based on empirical case studies from metropolitan Stockholm, the authors argue that these associations have become more or less institutionalized in terms of new partnerships (between state, municipality and volunteer organizations) and have taken over a number of service functions from the retreating welfare state. The authors argue that the partnership in the area of adult education is unequal. They examine problems of this partnership both in terms of lack of dialogue and culturally defi ned hierarchy and in terms of adjustment to market exigency. They do this on the backdrop of the changing institutional system of adult education and its role in the social inclusion of migrants. Key words: Adult education, immigrant organisations, partnership, inclusion, exclusion.

AbstractIn Sweden, workers’ education—Arbetarbildning—is part of the all-embracing popular adult education movement that assumed its organizational consolidation in the late 1800s. Popular education—Folkbildning—is a culturally determined practice of social communication with roots in the Reformation and the Enlightenment, playing a decisive role in the shaping of the Swedish labor movement in the late 1800s, the history of which is intertwined with democratization and the transformation of Sweden into a highly developed welfare society. The pedagogical and ideological configuration of labor education in Sweden is surveyed from a historical perspective through the lenses of the Workers’ Educational Association (ABF) and the labor movement's most powerful branches: the Social Democratic Party (SAP) and the Swedish Trade Union Confederation (LO). Workers’ education was utilized as a political strategy for a just and equitable society, via successive reforms, based on knowledge and initiated and supported by well-informed citizens.

(Inter)nationalist Popular Education: Security Policy, Nationalism and Advocacy in the Swedish Folk High Schools’ Action on Development Issues 1950-1969Folk High Schools in Sweden have a long history of engaging internationally, especially as regards courses on development studies (u-landslinjer) that emerged in the late sixties. The purpose of this article is to track some of the discourses about internationalisation, development and aid that preceded those courses, as well as to scrutinise ideas of the role of the Folk High School (folkhögskola) in the emerging field of development aid. Analysing material from Tidskrift för svenska folkhögskolan (Journal of the Swedish Folk High School) between 1950 and 1969, the study shows that the discourse on internationalism takes its starting point from an already established nationalism and nordism. National security also arises as an argument for engaging in development issues. The analysis also shows that there is a shift in the role of the Folk High School in the evolving development work; from “helping” to “advocating.” The results raise questions about how we can understand today’s Folk High School courses on global development against the background of the debates of the fifties and sixties.

Staten har formulerat fyra syften med folkbildningen. De statliga anslag vi studieförbund får, ska ge oss möjlighet att uppfylla dessa syften. En av folkbildningens framtida utmaningar är att vi på ett tydligare sätt måste kunna visa vad de statliga anslagen faktiskt leder till – vi måste ge folkbildningen ett ansikte.

This article investigates how bridging social capital can be created in the study associations’ activities. It is specifically bridging social capital that has positive effects on society because it boosts economic activity and shapes general trust. The study is built on interviews with study associations’ representatives and a developed conceptual model of bonding and bridging social capital where these categories are placed in two different dimensions. In the strongest definition of bonding social capital we find groups that are homogenous and who knows each other well. In the corresponding definition of bridging social capital we find groups that are heterogeneous and that know each other less well. A hybrid between these two can be groups that are homogenous, but know each other less well. A conclusion from the interview is that the study associations’ activities exist in all of these definitions. However, the creation of homogenous groups takes place more or less “natural”. The creation of heterogeneous groups, on the other hand, needs a force or a decision from the outside. Here the study association can play a major role.

Samhällsutvecklingen påverkar folkbildningen. Vi ställs inför både möjligheter och svårigheter i en tid av ständig förändring, då det livslånga lärandet spelar en viktigare roll än någonsin både för samhället och för individen. Därför måste kunskapsleverantören vara beredd till anpassning för att i hård konkurrens vara ett attraktivt val för den enskilde som söker ny kunskap.

This article is about how the Study Associations belonging to Liberal Adult Education (folkbildningen) deal with their role under New Public Management (NPM). Key issues of voluntary organizations are the ideas or the particular nature for which they were created, and which forms the basis for their activities. When introducing competitive markets these ideas risk being bent in order to meet the demands of the market, and the requirements for economic effectiveness. The organization’s interplay with the changes of the environment is highlighted through the use of the New Institutional Theory. The rhetorical analysis of the self-images of the Study Associations, as actors of the market of education, show a linguistic usage where they both point out their role as actors of the market of adult education and their ideological affiliation to “folkbildningen”. By using the traditional discourse, emphasizing pathos (emotions and values), and combining it with logos (programs to qualify the target group), the Study Associations create a special character or a profile of their education. Instead of a deinstitutionalization of the character of the Study Associations we can se a recycling of the traditional discourse in the new context

The article describes the characteristics of educational action research on the basis of its development in three Nordic countries, namely Sweden, Norway and Finland. The characterisation begins with a reflection on the Anglo-Saxon variants of action research within education. Thereafter follows a democratic and participatory conceptualisation of action research identified through a description of its formation within working life practices. This conceptualisation is traced back and interpreted in terms of bildning, collective pedagogical practices within folkbildning and in relation to pedagogik as a basis for teachers’ professional knowledge base. The characteristics of educational action research are encapsulated as action research for being.

Launching a new journal is a rare event - doing it electronically is even more rare. Given the subtext for the journal: “media, technology and lifelong learning”, the format might not be so surprising. Enthusiasts for electronic publishing underline that it acts as an alternative to the traditional publishing in a number of significant ways. It is far more affordable for independent actors to establish, it is a lot more reasonable to run, and in addition supports genuine academic virtues more effectively than traditional journals: results from research can be published faster, they are accessible for everyone with a PC hooked onto the Internet, it can serve formerly unrecognised academic communities and special interests with a platform, etc.Genevieve Brown and Beverly J. Irby give a brilliant account of the “whys” and “hows” they confronted while planning and launching their journal “Advancing Women in Leadership Journal”. Read their wonderful article in The Journal of Electronic Publishing.The most important, however, is the founding idea, what the editors suggest as their contribution to the current discourses in the field. Seminar.net is a title we find telling: it is about education, it is about teaching and learning, about democracy in the digital age and about didactics. Now, didactics has a significant position in educational theory in general. Behind the development of didactics, there is a long history of trying to formalise the “art of teaching”. Educational technology goes back to the ancient Greek, according to the historian of educational technology, Paul Saettler. Trying to make teaching meaningful to the student, efficient in its use of time and resources, coping with both the process of conveying meaning, cultural standards and upbringing as well as initiating the young into the world of adults is a complex activity. Inventing methods, tricks of the trade and rules of thumb, has, during history, been crucial in making training of teachers possible. In this sense didactics, has been the technology whereby teachers could act efficiently. One dimension of this technology is theoretical e.g. what researchers investigate and theorize. Another dimension is practical and material. The school building, classrooms, blackboards, textbooks – are all exponents, or representations of what we during history have conceived of as promoting teaching and learning. They are material expressions of the educational technology.The digital tools for information and communication technology have intensified the significance of a more thorough understanding of the media in education. Pedagogical innovations are clearly linked to innovations in methods for communication, its rhetoric and ability to mediate. The relation between the objective world and the subjective mind is a mediated relation. Comenius’ suggested that children would understand this relation when it was represented and mediated in ways that gave meaning to them. Language, images and the senses made it possible to induce from observation and logically connect them to former knowledge. It was the task of the teacher to make this mediation possible, and Comenius invented the modern textbook to aid teachers in their efforts. In many respects, modern educational technology, particularly the personal computer and the Internet provides education with the same mediating capacities.The articles of this first issue are invited contributions. Lars Qvortrup, adjunct professor of the Centre for media education at Lillehammer University College, director of KnowledgeLab.Dk as well as professor of Media at the University of Southern Denmark, gives a thorough introduction to the educational theory of Niklas Luhmann (1927-1998), the German sociologist. He played a major role in making Systems Theory applicable to social theory, and introduced a number of new insights to how the modern world functions. Qvortrup is one of Luhmann’s finest interpreters, who extends and develops his work into media and communications theory. In this article he shows how Luhmann’s theoretical notions fruitfully can stimulate developments in educational theory. David Hamilton, Ethel Dahlgren, Agneta Hult and Tor Söderström, University of Umeå, present a collaborative paper, which critically looks into the Swedish tradition of ”Folkbildning”. Folkbildning is deemed to be student-centred, participatory and constructivist, - a materialized version of the ideal of Bildung, in which conversation (Swedish: samtalet) is the fundamental tool. The authors question how various software handle this phenomenon, and seeks to develop a critique of their ability to support the genuine samtalet. As things are, students are confused by a multitude of “threads” and cross-postings that follow the trails intended by the tutors (or the engineers), and it is difficult to emulate the pedagogic practice with its “inherited values of liberal adult education (or folkbildning)” by the on-line education software of today. They finally compare this critique with the conclusions of the policy paper prepared by the On-line Distance Learning (ODL) Liaison Committee (created by the member networks of the European Distance Education Network (EDEN)).Our third contribution is from one of the leading researchers in adult education in the UK, senior lecturer Neil Selwyn, University of Cardiff. His paper delineates reflexivity as a phenomenon in the learning society, and asks whether the use of ICT in contemporary flexible education contribute to the reflexivity of the learner. The empirical research project is presented and a number of interesting conclusions made. The reflexivity of learners using ICT, is not necessarily an effect of using ICT. Some were living “reflexive” lives in many other aspects as well. The relation between reflexivity and flexible learning is in practice a very complex one. The image of the self-directed learner being a reflexive and autonomous entity, is an idealised image, and not representative of the average flexible learner.By these three contributions for our first issue, we hope to have stimulated readers to contribute with their own writing from their theoretical and empirical contexts!

Sociologi är en forskningsdisciplin som i dag präglas av stor mångfald, sett till vilka samhällsfenomen vi sociologer studerar eller vilka metoder och teorier vi använder. Kanske är det därför som föreställningen om en sociologisk teoretisk kanon fortfarande fyller en viktig roll, som en fast – men föränderlig – referenspunkt alla sociologer oavsett specialitet kan förhålla sig till. Detta dubbelnummer av Sociologisk Forskning innehåller många texter som på olika sätt kretsar kring sociologins klassiker och det sociologiska teoretiserandet. I ”Theory as text or theory as activities?” diskuterar Richard Swedberg två olika sätt att använda sociologisk teori. Artikeln är hans keynote-föreläsning från Sociologidagarna i Uppsala 16 mars. Swedberg argumenterar för att teori främst bör ses som en aktivitet som är sammanvävd med forskningsprocessen, vilket gynnar både förståelsen och användandet av teori. I ”Järnburen smids på nytt. Ett klassiskt sociologiskt perspektiv på new public management och dess konsekvenser” tar Olof Hallonsten utgångspunkt i framför allt Weber och Habermas teorier. Artikeln belyser fenomenet new public management (NPM), som alltmer kommit att belysas i forskning om arbetsliv som samhälle, och diskuterar brytpunkten mellan ”mellan rationalisering och hyperrationalisering”. I ”Altruismens kollektiva former. Om altruistiska ’yrkeshjältar’ utifrån Durkheim” diskuterar Daniel Persson Thunqvist olika former av självuppoffrande altruism i dagens arbetsliv. Begreppen heroisk altruism och medborgerlig altruism används för att förstå de förväntningar som ställs på individer vid olika nödsituationer i samhället. Även Magnus Granberg lutar sig mot sociologins klassiker i ”Ekonomisk form och den ömsesidiga konstitueringen av ojämlika sociala relationer”. I artikeln formuleras en teori ”om vara och arbete som förmedlare av sociala ojämlikhetsformer genom att diskutera hur varuform och lönearbete har utvecklats i samspel med bestämda rasifieringsprocesser”. I Alessandro Johanssons och Lena Gunnarssons artikel ”’Jag är inte prostituerad, jag lever normalt’. Sugardejtares språkliga och praktiska relationsarbete för att avgränsa sugardejting från prostitution” analyseras intervjuer med ”sugarbabes” och ”sugardaddys”. I artikeln analyseras de intervjuades ”relationsarbete” med att särskilja sugardejting från prostitution som sådan eller från vad de betraktar som egentlig prostitution, som ses som moraliskt klandervärd. I artikeln ”Arv, miljö eller både och? En kritisk realistisk kritik av heritabilitetsmetodiken” undersöker Johan Alfonsson de ontologiska antaganden som görs inom forskning om betydelsen av genetiskt arv. Även denna forsknings ambition att förklara sociala utfall utifrån genetiskt arv kritiseras framhålls att ”[u]tfall i världen påverkas av hur samspelet mellan genvarianter och miljö ser ut”. Sara Uhnoo och Ove Sernhede tar i artikeln ”Shout out! Ortenpoddar som folkbildning, motoffentlighet och underhållning” upp den roll poddar spelar för ortens unga. Utifrån samtida sociologi och urbanteori menar de att ortenpoddar bör ses som ”en del av ett kollektivt identitetsskapande och motståndsformer som växer fram i dagens segregerade storstäder”. Angelica Wågby diskuterar i artikeln ”Den sociala meningen med barns delaktighet i vårdnads-, boende- och umgängesprocesser” olika tolkningar och förgivettaganden i aktuella policys om barns delaktighet. Hon menar att dessa förgivettaganden ”tjänar som osynlig mall för hur barn bemöts och hur deras delaktighet hanteras”. I sin forskningsnotis ”Teacher careers and professional dispositions in a diversified school market” skriver Per Dannefjord och Magnus Persson om skolsegregation. Ökade skillnader mellan skolor påverkar inte enbart eleverna, utan även lärarnas arbetsmarknad och användbarheten av deras professionella kompetens. I numrets recensionsdel skriver Josef Ginnerskov om Sociologins klassiker, en antologi under Lisa Eklunds och Bo Isenbergs redaktörskap i vilken 23 sociologer presenterar klassiker. I sin recension konstaterar Ginnerskov: ”Trots att urvalet kanske lämnar en del övrigt att önska i fråga om geografisk spridning, kulturell resonans och i mindre utsträckning historisk avgränsning, måste författargruppen få beröm för sin välbehövliga insats att vidga vår förståelse av sociologins klassiker.” Göran Therborn recenserar den svenska nyutgåvan av Michael Youngs 2034. Meritokratins uppgång och fall. Therborn drar slutsatsen att ”[d]en liberala jämlikheten räcker bara för en generation. Youngs kritik berör detta, men problemet har vuxit enormt sedan 1958 och på ett sätt som han inte kunde förutse”. I sin recension av Shoshana Zuboffs Övervakningskapitalismen. Vid maktens nya frontlinjer lyfter Alexandra Bogren fram att ”bokens främsta styrka att den ger en inblick i några företags arbete med att ta fram smarta produkter samt i de framtidsvisioner och idéer som dessa företag presenterar för omvärlden”. I en dubbelrecension tar sig Mats Franzén an Andreas Reckwitz böcker Die Gesellschaft der Singularitäten och Das Ende der Illusionen. Han menar att det går att invända mot enskildheter men framhåller att Reckwitz med begreppet singulariteten ”förvånansvärt väl fångar in vår inte sällan motsägelsefulla samtid”. Slutligen skriver Isak Engdahl att Florian Jatons The constitution of algorithms. Ground-truthing, programming, formulating ”har särskild behållning för läsare som är intresserade av maskininlärning, artificiell intelligens, vetenskap- och teknikstudier (STS) och digital sociologi.” Vi publicerar också Sociologförbundets avgående ordförande Kenneth Nelsons tal på Sociologidagarna i Uppsala, i vilket han reflekterar över likheterna mellan gitarrspelande och sociologi. Som vanligt vill vi uppmana er att sända oss era artikelmanus, forskningsnotiser, förslag på recensioner och idéer för framtida temanummer. Sociologisk Forskning publicerar bidrag på svenska och övriga skandinaviska språk samt på engelska. Sociologisk Forsk­ning tillämpar anonymiserad kollegial granskning (double blind peer review) och alla artiklar publiceras med omedelbar öppen tillgång (open access) på tidskriftens hemsida. Lena Sohl och Magnus Wennerhag Redaktörer för Sociologisk Forskning