Religion and social cohesion. Youth exclusion and religious organisations in a super-diverse city district of Oslo, Norway

Avhandling (ph.d.) - VID vitenskapelige høgskole, Oslo, 2018This thesis is a contribution to the research on youth exclusion, religious organisations, and religious diversity in Norway. It asks how religious organisations’ activities and engagements for youth in Søndre Nordstrand, a super-diverse city district of Oslo, contribute to social cohesion. The thesis approaches the research question on two levels: a theoretical discussion of social cohesion and qualitative research on youth exclusion and on religious organisations’ activities and engagements for youth in Søndre Nordstrand. Paper I: Holte, B.H.(2017). Counting and meeting NEET young people: Methodology, perspective, and meaning in research on marginalized youth.Young – Nordic Journal of Youth Research 26(1): 1-16. DOI:10.1177/1103308816677618 / Not in the file in Brage because of copyright restrictions. Paper II: Holte, B.H., Leis-Peters, A., Angell, O.H. & Korslien, K.K.. (2018). Us and them: Faith-based organisations and street youths in Søndre Nordstrand, Oslo, Norway.” I I. Swart, A. Vähäkangas, M. Rabe, & A. Leis-Peters (ed.), Stuck in the Margins? Young People and FBOs in South African and Nordic Localities. (s. ) / Book manuscript in preparation. Paper III: Holte, B.H. (2017). Religion and integration: Religious organisations' communication in a diverse city district of Oslo, Norway. / Article manuscript under review.publishedVersio

Covid-19 and the Islamic Council of Norway: The social role of religious organizations

The new coronavirus came to Norway along with vacationers returning from Italy and Austria in February 2020. In less than a month, the demographic profile of the individuals infected by the virus changed from the privileged to the less privileged and from people born in Norway to immigrants from certain mostly Muslimmajority countries. This article presents how The Islamic Council of Norway (ICN) produced and distributed information material about the coronavirus in the early phase of the pandemic in Norway. Further, it examines how the ICN’s informational material reflects particular ideas about the social role of religious organizations. The empirical material analyzed in the article stems from media reports, government press releases, and information material published online; the analysis is inspired by Niklas Luhmann’s theory of society. The results show dedifferentiation occurring as the ICN linked religion to politics and health as well as how the ICN links the Norwegian national public with a transnational Muslim public. Thus, this article shows how different ideas of the religious and the secular as well as of the national and the transnational coexist in Norway. The discussion relates this to theories about the social role of religion and religious organizations, focusing particularly on the concept of religious organizations as public spaces. The article contributes to a metatheoretical reflection on religious social practice. It also employs and tests alternative theoretical understandings of integration and social cohesion. The results are relevant for practitioners and analysts of religious social practice in modern, secular, and diverse social contexts.publishedVersio

Flower gardens and shambas: Forms, practices, and talk of horticulture inside and outside a high-end boarding school in Kenya

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons CC-BY-NC 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).Artikkelen tar utgangspunkt i en hendelse fra feltarbeid ved en eliteskole i Kenya. Den beskriver og analyserer hagebruk innenfor og utenfor skolen, samt hagepraksiser og hageprat ved skolen. Den bygger på deltakende observasjon og arkivmateriale, samt sekundære kilder og skjønnlitteratur. Artikkelen viser at innsiden og utsiden av skolen var preget av ulike former for hagebruk og stod i kontrast til hverandre, men at de allikevel hadde felles elementer og var gjensidig avhengige. Hagepraksiser og hageprat blant lærere og elever ved skolen bygde på opplevde og symbolske forskjeller mellom skolens innside og utside. Artikkelen befinner seg i krysningspunktet mellom tre antropologiske litteraturer: Litteraturen om hagebruk i Afrika, en nyere litteratur som anlegger et bourdieusiansk perspektiv på sosiale forskjeller i Afrika, samt litteraturen om enklaver i Afrika og andre deler av verden.publishedVersio

Statistical snapshots. Ccontextualising the lives of youths in South Africa and the nordic countries. Kap. 3

I: I. Swart, A. Vähäkangas, M. Rabe and A. Leis-Peters (Red.), 2021, Stuck in the Margins? Young people and faith-based organisations in South African and Nordic localities (Kap. 3, s. 49-64). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Brill. https://www.vr-elibrary.de/doi/abs/10.13109/9783666568558This book is the product of a South African - Nordic research collaboration that wanted to gain deeper insight into the role that faith-based organizations (FBOs) play in the lives of young people eking out a living from the margins of society. The book as such distinguishes itself as a first major international scholarly endeavor to explore the contemporary phenomenon of youth marginalization from a concerted interdisciplinary faith-based organizational interest. While the exploration of concepts such as NEET (an acronym for young people not in education, employment or training), social cohesion and FBOs constitutes an important point of departure, the book's essential contribution lies in the empirical work undertaken. In six case studies, conducted respectively in locations in South Africa, Finland and Norway, the authors make a deliberate attempt to give a voice to the young people with whom interviews were conducted. The result is a scholarly work that in its discussions and conclusions is both critical and appreciative of the involvement of FBOs in the lives of marginalized youths but also the research achievement itself. Perspectives that recognize the meaningful presence of FBOs in the lives and lived religion of many young people at the margins are presented, while authors do not shy away either from highlighting the shortcomings of FBOs to work more purposefully with young people in overcoming the conditions conducive to their marginalization. Ultimately, however, this book does not confine itself to a critical perspective on FBOs alone but through the contribution of some of its authors present illuminating insight into what may still be required from the point of view of academic research to participate in larger liberative practices involving young people but also FBOs at the margins of society.publishedVersio

“If we throw the roma out of the tent, we throw Jesus out of the tent”: Reflections on the role of religious actors in roma inclusion in Oslo, Norway

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.This article presents re"ections on Roma inclusion in the context of intra-European mobility. It begins with accounts of visits to two religious actors running centres providing humanitarian assistance, social services, and opportunities to exercise religion to Roma and other migrants in Oslo, Norway: the Lutheran Church City Mission welcoming Roma migrants as guests in the City Mission Centre at Tøyen Church and the Pentecostal organisation Evangeliesenteret, where Roma migrants receive food and participate in religious gatherings at the Contact Centre. !e article re"ects on the modes of inclusion represented in these two accounts in relation to three di#erent approaches to inclusion: EU Roma policy, the work of the German sociologist Niklas Luhmann, and diaconal theology. !e article ends with re"ections on what inclusion might mean in the context of intra-European Roma mobility.publishedVersio

NEET as a Comparative Conceptualisation of Youth Marginalisation. A South African–Nordic European Exchange of Perspectives. Kap. 2

I: I. Swart, A. Vähäkangas, M. Rabe and A. Leis-Peters (Red.), 2021, Stuck in the Margins? Young people and faith-based organisations in South African and Nordic localities (Kap. 2, s. 31-48). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Brill. https://www.vr-elibrary.de/doi/abs/10.13109/9783666568558This book is the product of a South African - Nordic research collaboration that wanted to gain deeper insight into the role that faith-based organizations (FBOs) play in the lives of young people eking out a living from the margins of society. The book as such distinguishes itself as a first major international scholarly endeavor to explore the contemporary phenomenon of youth marginalization from a concerted interdisciplinary faith-based organizational interest. While the exploration of concepts such as NEET (an acronym for young people not in education, employment or training), social cohesion and FBOs constitutes an important point of departure, the book's essential contribution lies in the empirical work undertaken. In six case studies, conducted respectively in locations in South Africa, Finland and Norway, the authors make a deliberate attempt to give a voice to the young people with whom interviews were conducted. The result is a scholarly work that in its discussions and conclusions is both critical and appreciative of the involvement of FBOs in the lives of marginalized youths but also the research achievement itself. Perspectives that recognize the meaningful presence of FBOs in the lives and lived religion of many young people at the margins are presented, while authors do not shy away either from highlighting the shortcomings of FBOs to work more purposefully with young people in overcoming the conditions conducive to their marginalization. Ultimately, however, this book does not confine itself to a critical perspective on FBOs alone but through the contribution of some of its authors present illuminating insight into what may still be required from the point of view of academic research to participate in larger liberative practices involving young people but also FBOs at the margins of society.publishedVersio

Us and them. Faith-based organisations and street youths in Søndre Nordstrand. Kap. 7

I: I. Swart, A. Vähäkangas, M. Rabe and A. Leis-Peters (Red.), 2021, Stuck in the Margins? Young people and faith-based organisations in South African and Nordic localities (Kap. 7, s. 121-142). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Brill. https://www.vr-elibrary.de/doi/abs/10.13109/9783666568558This book is the product of a South African - Nordic research collaboration that wanted to gain deeper insight into the role that faith-based organizations (FBOs) play in the lives of young people eking out a living from the margins of society. The book as such distinguishes itself as a first major international scholarly endeavor to explore the contemporary phenomenon of youth marginalization from a concerted interdisciplinary faith-based organizational interest. While the exploration of concepts such as NEET (an acronym for young people not in education, employment or training), social cohesion and FBOs constitutes an important point of departure, the book's essential contribution lies in the empirical work undertaken. In six case studies, conducted respectively in locations in South Africa, Finland and Norway, the authors make a deliberate attempt to give a voice to the young people with whom interviews were conducted. The result is a scholarly work that in its discussions and conclusions is both critical and appreciative of the involvement of FBOs in the lives of marginalized youths but also the research achievement itself. Perspectives that recognize the meaningful presence of FBOs in the lives and lived religion of many young people at the margins are presented, while authors do not shy away either from highlighting the shortcomings of FBOs to work more purposefully with young people in overcoming the conditions conducive to their marginalization. Ultimately, however, this book does not confine itself to a critical perspective on FBOs alone but through the contribution of some of its authors present illuminating insight into what may still be required from the point of view of academic research to participate in larger liberative practices involving young people but also FBOs at the margins of society.publishedVersio

Youth at the margins : Reflections on diversities and similarities using intersectionality as a lens. Kap. 12

I: I. Swart, A. Vähäkangas, M. Rabe and A. Leis-Peters (Red.), 2021, Stuck in the Margins? Young people and faith-based organisations in South African and Nordic localities (Kap. 12, s. 225-246). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Brill. https://www.vr-elibrary.de/doi/abs/10.13109/9783666568558This book is the product of a South African - Nordic research collaboration that wanted to gain deeper insight into the role that faith-based organizations (FBOs) play in the lives of young people eking out a living from the margins of society. The book as such distinguishes itself as a first major international scholarly endeavor to explore the contemporary phenomenon of youth marginalization from a concerted interdisciplinary faith-based organizational interest. While the exploration of concepts such as NEET (an acronym for young people not in education, employment or training), social cohesion and FBOs constitutes an important point of departure, the book's essential contribution lies in the empirical work undertaken. In six case studies, conducted respectively in locations in South Africa, Finland and Norway, the authors make a deliberate attempt to give a voice to the young people with whom interviews were conducted. The result is a scholarly work that in its discussions and conclusions is both critical and appreciative of the involvement of FBOs in the lives of marginalized youths but also the research achievement itself. Perspectives that recognize the meaningful presence of FBOs in the lives and lived religion of many young people at the margins are presented, while authors do not shy away either from highlighting the shortcomings of FBOs to work more purposefully with young people in overcoming the conditions conducive to their marginalization. Ultimately, however, this book does not confine itself to a critical perspective on FBOs alone but through the contribution of some of its authors present illuminating insight into what may still be required from the point of view of academic research to participate in larger liberative practices involving young people but also FBOs at the margins of society.publishedVersio

St. Andrew's, Turi : Forming Subjects and Affects for Privilege in Kenya

This thesis is based on six months of fieldwork at and near St. Andrew's School in the Rift Valley in Kenya from January to July 2012. The ethnographic material that I present and my analyses both concern two related topics. The first topic is the production and reproduction of social differences in Kenya. A private, formerly racially exclusive European school, St. Andrew's has been a domain of privilege since it was opened in 1931. I first present a historical ethnography of how children of (mostly) propertied European parents in colonial East Africa were separated from the children of poor Europeans as well as Africans in early colonial Kenya. I then comment on how this has changed over the passage of time and provide a detailed ethnographic description of the current practices of separation. I address both spatial and social separation in the form of enclaving and discursive practices that construct others as different. The second main topic of this thesis is the effect on the students at St. Andrew's of being raised and educated in this context the processes of subject formation at St. Andrew's. I approach this through a Foucaultian anthropology of ethics and recent anthropological theory on affects. I suggest that this must be understood in relation to the vast differences in lifestyle and income between the students families and other Kenyans, and my analysis shows how the students at St. Andrew's are physically and socially removed from the Kenyan national public to be integrated into a partial and hierarchical alternative public through practices such as volunteering. In my conclusion, I indicate how the two topics can be merged to address how the history of St. Andrew's influences the current student as the inheritors of Kenyan privilege

Religion and social cohesion. Youth exclusion and religious organisations in a super-diverse city district of Oslo, Norway

This thesis is a contribution to the research on youth exclusion, religious organisations, and religious diversity in Norway. It asks how religious organisations’ activities and engagements for youth in Søndre Nordstrand, a super-diverse city district of Oslo, contribute to social cohesion. The thesis approaches the research question on two levels: a theoretical discussion of social cohesion and qualitative research on youth exclusion and on religious organisations’ activities and engagements for youth in Søndre Nordstrand. Paper I: Holte, B.H.(2017). Counting and meeting NEET young people: Methodology, perspective, and meaning in research on marginalized youth.Young – Nordic Journal of Youth Research 26(1): 1-16. DOI:10.1177/1103308816677618 / Not in the file in Brage because of copyright restrictions. Paper II: Holte, B.H., Leis-Peters, A., Angell, O.H. & Korslien, K.K.. (2018). Us and them: Faith-based organisations and street youths in Søndre Nordstrand, Oslo, Norway.” I I. Swart, A. Vähäkangas, M. Rabe, & A. Leis-Peters (ed.), Stuck in the Margins? Young People and FBOs in South African and Nordic Localities. (s. ) / Book manuscript in preparation. Paper III: Holte, B.H. (2017). Religion and integration: Religious organisations' communication in a diverse city district of Oslo, Norway. / Article manuscript under review