”Att växa upp på Rosengård är ganska nice!” – socialt kapital – ett annat perspektiv att betrakta unga vuxna på Rosengård

Författare

Mahmoud Azzam

Summary, in English

"Growing up in Rosengård is quite nice!" – Social capital - a different perspective to consider young adults in Rosengård [translated title].

The aim of this study was to understand young adults’ experiences of living in the
segregated and stigmatized inner-city neighbourhood of Rosengård. This area is well
known in Sweden as a poverty zone, with high criminality, drugs and unemployment.
The study is based on ten semi-structured qualitative interviews with four young
women and six young men aged 19-25, with different ethnic backgrounds, education
and employment status living in Rosengård. As a part of the interviews the
respondents filled in a map of their networks, to give a visual tool describing different
relations in their network. The theme revolves around family, the area, education,
work, gender and the network. During the process of analysing the material the
concept of social capital has been used. The paper concludes that a fundamental social
capital, as a collective asset, within the family and with kin, but also the resources
within the environment, are important for young adults' development of their own
social capital. Residents in an ethnic enclave, as Rosengård, could be compared with a
rural area with little input of new resources and ideas. The study shows that a bridging
and a linking social capital have great value for work and education for the young
adults. The study shows that there was a need for a balance between the bonding
social capital within the primary group and bridging social capital towards
heterogeneous networks in order to attract resources. The role of a “broker” is
important in order to bridge the structural holes that exist between the area and the
rest of society.

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