Childhood, Youth and Family Life

The research group on Childhood, Youth and Family Life is currently conducting several kinds of interdisciplinary research projects about the everyday life of children and young people across institutions and families. These research endeavors aim to uncover the impact of ongoing modernisation on children and young people as well as on institutions and family life.

Working Life and Learning (ForAll)

The research group combines an interest in learning in working life with an interest in lifelong learning. We study the developmental conditions and course of development of working life, including possibilities and conditions for learning in working life. “Work” is of great importance, not just for the individual human being. As a collective practice in relation to changes on an institutional and societal level it makes a difference. The focus on subjective perspectives on lifelong learning in our research indicates that this kind of research is unable to capture the complexities of its object, if the notion of competency development is reduced to an adaptation to external demands.

Gender, Body and Everyday Life

In all culture gender is a category which is used to define a framework for the individual’s actions. Although different kinds of meaning are associated with gender in various social and historical contexts, gender can be a category which always makes a difference. This is the reason why the research group focus specially on gender across different fields of research. We wish to study the meaning of gender in and through different contexts with the aim of developing understandings of the meanings of the gender across various fields of research and from different theoretical perspectives.

Social Innovation

The research group develop and share knowledge on social innovation processes, learning and competency development, and innovative management styles. The perspective is interdisciplinary and in part draws on psychological, pedagogical, and sociological perspectives, while also drawing on barrier-breaking knowledge which applies to the areas we study.

Subject, Technology and Social Practice

The research group focuses on studying of human beings’ subjectivity, experiences, and activities in their everyday life across different contexts. Today technologies play a vital part in coordinating the social activities and subjectivity in the plurality of contexts which is the basis of modern social life. Through the study of the social organisation of human practice (e.g. in a work place, a child care centre, a health care practice), the research aims to analyse relations between the challenges, perspectives, and technologies of everyday life. Furthermore, the research group makes analyses of the influence of these relations on how human subjects understand each other and act together.

Health Promotion

The research group creates knowledge about strategies, iniatives and processes which prevent and advancehuman health. The research group for health promotion is organised as an independent and interdisciplinary research team.