Class and rural-urban migration

The paper discusses rural to urban migration in modern Norway from a class perspective, focusing on to what extent actors in different social classes have distinct migration patterns. The analysis is based on Norwegian Census data from the period between 1960-90 (ten-yearly), and traces the social (e.g. education, occupation, and income) and geographic mobility of all Norwegians born in 1955. Data about their parents' social background are also employed. The number of cases is approximately 70,000. Theoretically the paper is based on a bourdieuian perspective. The point of departure is a hypothesis that young people from better-off rural families are the most likely ones to leave the countryside in favour of a more urban life, basically due to education motives. This is sought explained by employing Bourdieu's concepts of economic and cultural capital, and his claim that the objective class structures, which reflects unequal access to and composition of to these forms of capital, should be related to dif-ferences in the structures of subjective life-style (La Distinction, Bourdieu 1979). In this way migration decisions may be understood as results of class structured «lifestyle choices».

Bygdefolks syn på hytte-boomen. Delresultater fra undersøkelsen By, bygd og fritidsboliger 2008

-I dette notatet gis en presentasjon av noen av de empiriske resultatene fra Norsk senter for bygdeforsknings spørreundersøkelse ”By, bygd og fritidsboliger 2008” som ble gjennomført vinteren 2008. Analysene viser at bygdefolket i distriktskommuner med mange hytter jevnt over er positive til hyttefenomenet i bostedskommunen. Ikke minst gjelder dette lokale aktører som har en direkte økonomisk gevinst av hytteutbyggingen, så som grunneiere og selvstendig næringsdrivende som har hyttefolket som kunder. Samtidig er det også en betydelig gruppe som mener at gevinstene av hyttebyggingen er begrenset, og som også er skeptisk til videre hytteutvikling i bostedskommunen

Transnasjonale hverdagsliv: Østeuropeisk innvandrerungdom i distrikts-Norge

Mange østeuropeiske ungdommer flytter til norske utkantkommuner som følge av at foreldrene får arbeid i de tradisjonelle bygdenæringene. I denne artikkelen analyserer jeg hverdagslivserfaringene til disse ungdommene, deres identiteter og livsprosjekter, og diskuterer hvordan de forhandler sine posisjoner som innvandrere i distriktssamfunnene. Utgangspunktet er et kvalitativt materiale som består av individuelle intervjuer og fokusgruppeintervjuer med 19 østeuropeiske ungdommer i én kystregion i Midt-Norge. Materialet viser hvordan ungdommenes sosiale virkelighet preges av deres multi-lokale identiteter, tilhørigheter og sosiale praksiser. Resultatet er ambivalente hverdagsliv utformet i spennet mellom lokalsamfunnet og forskjellige transnasjonale sosiale rom. Samtidig som det synes å være mange likhetstrekk mellom innvandrerungdommene i distriktene og i de mer urbane regionene, demonstrerer materialet også hvordan den rurale sosiogeografiske konteksten påvirker deres hverdagsliv i utkant-Norge

Kjønnsperspektiv på flytteforskning om ungdom

I denne artikkelen diskuteres anvendelsen av kjønnsperspektiver i studier av ungdoms flyttepraksiser. Artikkelens første del viser hvordan fremveksten av kjønnsperspektivene på ungdoms flytting reflekterer den mer allmenne utviklingen innen samfunnsvitenskapene de siste tre-fire tiårene. Det gis en oversikt over denne utviklingen, og jeg skisserer de viktigste innfallsvinklene som kvinne-, kjønns- og feministisk teori har bidratt med. Den neste delen gir videre et overblikk over hvordan disse kjønnsperspektivene er anvendt i analyser av ungdoms flytting innenfor ruralsosiologien, med vekt på eksempler fra den norske litteraturen på feltet. I artikkelens tredje og siste del problematiseres kjønnsperspektivene, og det diskuteres hvordan de kan bidra til bedre analyser av ungdom sine migrasjonspraksiser

Fengslende sosiologi

"Prison has always been an attractive object for study in the field of sociology. Few other areas of modern society demonstrate social reality’s fundamental ideas so clearly and obviously than prison. Social deviance and stigma, ostracism and integration, control and discipline, power and inequality are all examples of key sociological concepts that are crystalized in daily life in a prison environment. Fengslende sosiologi. Makt, straff og identitet i Trondheims fengsler (Captivating Sociology. Power, Punishment and Identity in Trondheim’s Prisons) presents twelve scholarly, peer-reviewed chapters that explore various aspects of prison as a social phenomenon, both as a part of and an expression of society. The majority of the contributions build on empirical studies at maximum and minimum-security prisons in Trondheim, but the analyses have a broader relevance – both empirically and theoretically – for our understanding of power, punishment and identity in Norwegian penal institutions. Most of the contributors are associated with the Department of Sociology and Political Science at NTNU, the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, and the department’s project ‘Fengslende sosiologi’ (‘Captivating Sociology’). Several of the texts are by former master’s students in sociology and present further analyses based on their master’s projects. This anthology will be of interest to scholars and practitioners in the field as well as students and others interested in prison as a social institution and penal institutions in general.

Gray Racialization of White Immigrants: The Polish Worker in Norway

The literature on racialization has typically focused on the situation of people of color in the Western world. In this article, we explore the analytical value of extending the concept of racialization to analyze symbolic boundaries that rely on and fortify the ascription of the specific skills and identities of white immigrants. The discussion builds on a review of the emerging literature on Polish immigrants in Norway since 2004. It reveals other everyday experiences of Poles and how they see themselves – and how others see them – differently compared to Norwegians and other immigrants and minorities. We examine how these processes of identity ascription are rooted in the Poles’ position as ‘labor migrants’ in predominantly low-waged and low-skilled segments of the Norwegian labor market. We also demonstrate how their location in the productive structure has far-reaching implications that work to construct symbolic boundaries, setting the Polish migrant apart from mainstream Norwegian society. The conclusion suggests a modified racialization concept, ‘gray racialization’, to conceptualize the discriminatory situation of the Poles as an immigrant and minority population, which we find to better allow for an understanding of power relations and social inequalities than its conceptual alternatives

Regulering av utenlandsk arbeidskraft i landbruket

publishedVersio

Transnasjonale helsepraksiser. Bruk av helsetjenester blant polske arbeidsinnvandrere i Norge

Transnational Health Practices Among Polish Labor Migrants in NorwayThe article discusses the use of health-care services among Polish labor migrants in Norway. We apply theories of patient–physician relationship, trust, and transnationalism to analyze a material of qualitative in-depth interviews with eleven Polish labor migrants about their health practices. The material demonstrates how and why many Polish labor migrants evaluate Norwegian primary health care negatively. Their main reason for doing so is the non-paternalistic doctor–patient relationship. They therefore supplement Norwegian health services with health services available in their home country. However, the labor migrants tend to evaluate the Norwegian health system more favorably as time passes. In total, the Poles establish creative, reflexive, competent, and dynamic health practices that go beyond national state borders and combine elements of two health-care systems. We argue that these practices enable migrants to enhance the total quality of their health care

The Alienation-Insulation Dynamic and the Low-Wage Migrant Work Ethic

Low-wage labour migrants moving from lower-income to higher-income countries have been celebrated for their strong work ethic over recent decades. The paper draws on qualitative insights from European horticulture to explore why low-wage migrants work as hard as they do. We centre our analysis on an ‘alienation-insulation’ dynamic. Specifically, we show how migrants are particularly alienated in ways that are different to that of the immobile working-class. However, we also argue that migrants’ spatial (their dual frame of reference) and temporal (their liminal) agency insulates them from this alienation to some degree. It is important, in this respect, to differentiate between alienation as ostensibly encountered (an objective phenomenon) and the actual felt experiences of alienation (as a subjective phenomenon). We conclude that the alienation-insulation dynamic is a key, but underexplored, element in understanding the complex relationship between labour mobility and labour power