Högskolan i Skövde

In this article we have analysed the ways a discourse on individualisation is taking shape within adult education in Sweden, how it operates, and what effects it has in terms of shaping student subjectivity. Drawing on a post-structural theorisation we analyse interviews with teachers and students in municipal adult education (MAE) and folk high schools (FHS). The analysis illustrates how both institutions contribute to the shaping of individualised subjectivities, although differently. At the end, a general question is raised about what happens with the democratic function of adult education in general, when a discourse on individualisation operates in the ways described, and more specifically, asks what is happening to FHS as an educational practice, that upholds its self-image as a last bastion of a collective notion of learning and subjectivity, and nurturing an educational practice of learning democracy?

The role of education in citizen training has been well mapped out in youtheducation. What has been less studied is how this role comes into being inadult education. By providing illustrative empirical examples from a recentlycompleted study of adult students enrolled in adult education, this articleaims to offer a theoretical response to the question of the role of adulteducation in adult student citizen subjectivity formation. Taking on Diken’sconcept of ‘reactive nihilism’, we wish to make the following arguments. First,that citizen formation in adult education, when students are asked aboutit, is actualised as processes of re(dis)covery of will in order to be(come) asuccessful and happy citizen in society. Secondly, that these processes pointtowards a role of adult education as one where these formation processeswork in tandem with those of the reactive nihilists. This means that the citizenformation processes made possible in this educational site are those markedout by the desire to mobilise one’s will formation so that it adapts to theprevailing societal situation—that of late capitalism, which is a situation notconsidered by the adult students as possible to change.

I detta temanummer riktar vi intresse mot So-ämnenas undervisning i skolan. Vi tar vår utgångspunkt i vad de flesta lärare vet, men kanske inte alltid finner tid, utrymme eller någon lämplig plattform att uttrycka. Nämligen att all undervisning, och i förlängningen all utbildning – av nödvändighet – är omhuldad av risk (Biesta 2013), av det som är oväntat. Vår ambition är inte i första hand att lyfta fram detta oväntade som en omständighet eller nödvändighet i allmän mening i utbildningssammanhang. Ambitionen är snarare att utifrån denna nödvändighet resa frågor till den dagliga undervisningen i de samhällsorienterade ämnena religionskunskap, samhällskunskap och historia, alternativt i so-undervisning generellt. Utifrån skilda empiriska, i högre eller lägre grad teoretiskt färgade ansatser, prövar vi att resa frågor som på olika sätt knyter an till vårt överordnade syfte i temanumret, vilket är att undersöka om, och i så fall vilka särskilda villkor eller bevekelsegrunder som kan tänkas prägla just de samhällsorienterade ämnenas undervisning, sett i ljuset av det oväntade som en potential, som möjlighet.

Paradoxes of citizen formation: Citizenship positioning in stories about belonging in an era of migration:

This article analyzes the formation of citizenship in today’s multi-ethnic Sweden with a par-ticular focus on how migration renders visible existing citizenship ideals, defined in terms of similarity and difference on the basis of ethno-cultural background. Analysing three individual stories of women who have migrated to Sweden, with different biographies and stories of how they ended up in Sweden, the article focuses on negotiations of the boundaries and contents of citizenship in multi-ethnic Sweden. The point of departure for the analysis is a post-structuralist and discursive approach. In all, the stories address the crucial question of who should be included into the social community and on what conditions – and who should be left out? This particular question is also at the very centre of the political debate in today’s Europe. On the one hand, there are strong arguments about the ’death of multiculturalism’ and demands for new forms of ethno-culturally graduated citizenship – also in Sweden. On the other hand, in Sweden as well as in other European countries, claims for the development of a new and more inclusive societal community have been raised, expanding the rights of citizens to accommodating also those who have been excluded from them

We argue that municipal adult education (MAE) can be seen as a place for displaced and abnormal citizens to gain temporary stability, enabling their shaping into desirable subjects. Drawing on a poststructural discursive analysis, we analyse policy texts and interviews with teachers and students. Our analysis illustrates how two distinct student subjectivities are shaped: the rootless, unmotivated and irresponsible student and the responsible, motivated and goal-oriented one. The difference is that the latter of these subjectivities is positioned as desirable. MAE provides a temporary place in time, a heterotopia of deviation, allowing students to escape precarious employment. The heterotopia places the students in a positive utopian dream of the future. A utopia is not a real place, and what is to become of the students after finishing MAE is not determined; the students themselves should shape it. If they fail, in line with a neoliberal governmentality, it is their own fault. 

This article deals with the notion of belonging in today’s multi-ethnic Sweden and hints at perpectives of future European identity-building. On the basis of Frantz Fanon’s understanding of colonialism and the colonized mentality as theoretical, the article deals with the situation of Roma in Sweden – and Europe. With the story of a young Roma woman that has migrated to Sweden from Hungary as point of departure, the article addresses the situation for Romani people, but also for other migrants in Europe, with particular focus on who are allowed to belong to the community of Swedish and European citizens, and who are not.