Search results

AbstractPrevious research conducted in Swedish schools and beyond has shown how newly arrived migrant students are excluded by peers from the majority population and by longer-term residents. The novelty of the present article is its focus on the opposite: how peer interaction between newly arrived and other students arises in superdiverse school settings and what this interaction means for newly arrived migrant students. A multidimensional theoretical perspective with a focus on social interaction within school is utilized to illuminate the drama of social life. Ideals of the civil sphere, superdiversity, habitus and conviviality are combined, the goal being to create links between macro- and micro-levels. Peer interaction is analyzed as meaningful per se, rather than as an exchange value. This is valuable from a subjective perspective in relation to the notion that being ordinary is a key to belonging. The analysis shows the lived interconnectedness between ideals, institutions, practices, and individuals' life experiences. The data are drawn from ethnographic fieldwork undertaken during one academic year in two middle schools [högstadiet] and 42 interviews with newly arrived migrant students and school staff in Sweden.

How does one research racial categorizations and exclusion while remaining sensitive to context? How does one engage the social reality of racial categorizations and the history of racialized exclusions without falling into the trap of race essentialism? These concerns prompt debate about, and also resistance to, examining race in Swedish social science. In this article, Voyer and Lund offer American racial reasoning as one possible approach to researching race in the Swedish context. American racial reasoning means being attentive to how power and the processes of social inequality operate through categories of racial and ethnic difference, and also seeing the path to greater equality in the embrace of those categories. American racial reasoning is a valuable research tool that uncovers dynamics of social inequality and possibilities for social justice that are otherwise difficult to grasp. Taking up the topic of immigration in Sweden, Voyer and Lund demonstrate the analytical value of American racial reasoning for understanding persistent social inequality and exclusion even when explicit racial categories are not in wide use in everyday life.

In this interview, Jeffrey C. Alexander describes the development of cultural sociology, the importance of collaborative work, and the inspiration he takes from his political action, and from the art and humanities. The interview focuses primarily on civil sphere theory (CST), and Alexander's goal in moving towards Durkheimian and away from Parsonian conceptions of solidarity. Alexander addresses common misunderstandings and critiques of CST, describes the current project of the internationalization of CST, and applies the theory to the present crisis of a global pandemic and the social movement of Black Lives Matter. Finally, Alexander reflects upon life in the academic world and the importance of not only analyzing meaning as a cultural sociologist but also working with meaningful projects in order to not be alienated. Alexander was invited keynote speaker at the Sociologidagarna in March in Stockholm 2020, but due to the Corona pandemic the conference was cancelled. This interview took place through Zoom in three different locations (Stockholm, New Haven, and Coventry, Connecticut) on 22 June 2020. ; Sociologisk Forsknings digitala arkiv

Artists and professionalism is a special issue with the overall aim to bring artistic professions into the field of professions and professionalism. The issue consists of four contributions that all highlight artistic professions from different perspectives, such as artists' educational possibilities, professional careers, strategies for inclusion and exclusion, professional logics and boundary-makings, how professional autonomy is affected by welfare states policies and so forth.