Educare (Jun 2008)
Fostran till kulturentreprenör
Abstract
In this paper young people’s use of and relation to dance, theatre and aesthetic practices is investigated. In what ways can aesthetic practices play an important role in young people’s career expectations and identity formation? The empirical material consists primarily of a case study of an amateur theatre group in a Swedish suburb and complementary interviews. The focus is on the one hand on the different learning processes taking place, and on the other hand on the intersection between the practices of theatre, the schooling system and a multicultural context. Consequently, this is also a study of young people’s career patterns and lifestyles. The results imply that the aesthetic practices create openings for experimenting with identities and for hybridity, that is, for the complex combination of different types of identities. By developing an intermediate area in which the stable is dissolved, “traditional” distinctions are partially erased and reconstructed. The multicultural context and the societal structures are not that present. This is rather a study of self-development, individualization and an ongoing neo-liberal transformation of schools, learning processes and identities.
