1.
Jakobsson, Mats, et al.
(author)
'Att blifva sin egen' : ungdomars väg in i vuxenlivet i 1700- och 1800-talens övre Norrland
2000
In: Sociologisk forskning. - Umeå : Umeå universitet. ; 37:3-4, s. 134-141
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic) abstract
The background to this study is that there is no studies on youth and their transition to adulthood in preindustrial Sweden. The main objective of this thesis has therefore been to analyze young peoples transition to adulthood during the late 18th and 19th centuries in a region of the northern part of Sweden. The social context of the region was mainly agrarian during the investigated period despite the fact that in the later part of the 19th and beginning of 20th century, a development of a growing forest industry had started. The main questions is: How and when in life did different social categories of young people establish an independent and adult life? Where there any changes in transitional patterns and was the establishment smoother or more troublesome at different times during the investigated period ? Where there any changes regarding social norms related to the establishment of adult life?The transition to adult life is studied from a life-course approach and four key-transitions; The First Holy communion, leaving home, marriage and parenthood are regarded as significant steps within the process to a independent social position. Individual data related to keytransitions is mainly collected from cathectical examination records and comprised 2206 individuals born in six different cohorts between 1770 and 1900. The selected cohorts represents individuals that had to deal with different social conditions during their youth and transition to adult life.The main results regarding the transition to adult life can be summarized in two words, complexity and variance. Usually it was a "long" transition but the number of accomplished keytransitions and the order between them varied, as well as ages when taking the first Holy Communion, leaving home, marriage and entering parenthood varied. Transitional patterns varied between different categories of youth. A dividing line existed between the sexes, those from households strongly rooted in the agricultural structure and those with background in social categories that didn't own or was in possession of land. Social norms related to keytransitons changed along this dividing line during the investigated period of time, and became less permissive within landowning or land-possessing categories and less prescriptive in other categories.Transitional patterns were also influenced by the social situation at different historical times. The need for labor, war and years of famine directly intervened in timing and sequencing of keytransitions. A long term development was that the transition to adult life became more problematic in the later part of the 19th century, especially among young people who were less integrated in the social context and among socially stigmatized youth. Finally, young people were active and reflexive in seeking social space to make the transition to adult life, actions that sometimes caused tensions and conflicts between generations.
2.
Grönberg, Anna Gunnarsdotter, 1967
(author)
Ungdomar och dialekt i Alingsås : Young people and dialect in a small town in West Sweden
2004
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic) abstract
This thesis presents a study of sociolinguistic variation among students from five municipalities, all attending an upper secondary school in Alingsås, a town of 25,000, northeast of Göteborg, Sweden. The material consists of recorded interviews with 97 students. The informants are categorized according to social variables representing different aspects of background and identity: Sex, type of study programmes (vocational, intermediate, preparatory for university), demogeographical areas and Alingsås neighbourhoods (divided on the basis of urbanization and socio-economic factors), and lifestyle based on two-dimensional mapping (concerning taste, leisure, mobility, plans for the future, etc.). The lifestyle analysis both complements and includes traditional sociolinguistic variables. Eight phonological and lexical variables are analyzed. The variants are found to be associated with traditional local dialect, regional and supraregional standard, Göteborg vernacular, general and Göteborg youth language. Correlations with demogeographical area generally show a pattern going from southwest to northeast (along the E20 highway and the railway from Göteborg). One area does not fit into the continuum, in Sollebrunn (NW of Alingsås), where particularly female informants tend to use standard and innovations to a higher extent than informants in Herrljunga, which is situated the same distance from Göteborg (but NE of Alingsås). Gender is the second most important social factor, in two different ways. There are general differences in linguistic behaviour between sexes, but also differences between groups when gender is combined with study programme and lifestyle. There are major differences from one social group to another when it comes to expressing gendered identity through linguistic means.
