Health promotion, prevention, and remediation efforts : a narratively inspired analysis of professional actors’ oral representations

• The purpose of this study is to present new knowledge about the oral representations of the health promotion, prevention, and remediation efforts of professional actors working with young people who use alcohol and narcotics. These oral representations produce and reproduce an interactive space for developing both successes and obstacles in relation to young people (students) and to themselves in the role of professional actor – as an interactive form of professional identity. In the representations analysed as a product of the dynamic and commitment (as well as lack of commitment) in myriad interactions in upper-secondary school and treatment contexts, images emerge of possible social pedagogical recognition in the role of a professional actor and in the role of a young person (student). This sought-after recognition in the study’s contexts of school and treatment contributes to the creation and re-creation of autonomous and individual unique actors in those contexts. The narrative empirical material in this study is based on 36 interviews with professionals working with this population of young people within the context of upper-secondary school activities and outpatient treatment units in Sweden. In their oral representations, in this study, professional actors depict themselves as having an interactive advantage in relation to the verbal category of “young people who use alcohol and narcotics”. These verbal patterns seem to cement the professional actor as a superior who sets the agenda for placing these young people within a prevailing normative order. The analysis indicates that an inclusive approach by professionals is crucial to achieving several important aims. An inclusive approach also imposes demands, however, on how upper-secondary schools and outpatient treatment units collaborate with each other in this work with young people. This approach also plays a role in determining the support and room for manoeuvring that professional actors have relative to normatively right and deviant actions and to laws and policies that to some extent govern this practical work.  

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Sociologi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Sociology (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Utbildningsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Educational Sciences (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

school success

social pedagogical development

verbal portrayal

oral portrayal

verbal emphasis

dramatisation

substance abuse problem

obstacle

collaboration

Sociology

Sociologi

Socialt arbete

Social Work

Education

Pedagogik

Missbruks- och beroendevård

Substance Abuse Treatment

Social Pedagogy

Socialpedagogik

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

kon (ämneskategori)