Programme full

Thursday 16 April 2015 11:00 - 12:30
PAPER SESSION 4
addressed through an ethnographic fieldwork in a neighbourhood of Rome, traditionally marginalised because of its
socio-economical and planning characteristics.
Creating Swedish Spaces in Finland: Social Practices of Swedish-speaking Finns in Two Cities
Terje, A.
(University of Glasgow)
This paper examines unilingually Swedish spaces that the Swedish-speaking minority in two cities in Finland creates
and makes use of. While there has been a large amount of research on the minority, it has mostly been based on
quantitative data. My doctoral research addresses questions of social location and belonging by drawing on qualitative
research, providing a more multi-faceted and in-depth view of the lived experience of the Swedish-speaking minority in
Finland.
In this paper I will draw on ethnographic research undertaken in two cities in Finland over a period of six months. I will
examine how Swedish-speakers create unilingually Swedish spaces for themselves amidst a daily life that is
otherwise often experienced through the use of Finnish, the first language of the majority of the population. This will be
done using data from participant observation undertaken in different free-time clubs and societies, as well as in-depth
individual interviews conducted with Swedish-speakers. I will discuss the meanings unilingually Swedish spaces take
on for participants, how these spaces are experienced by them, as well as reflect on how this affects the social
position of Swedish-speakers in Finnish cities.
Cities, Mobilities, Place and Space 2
W702, HAMISH WOOD BUILDING
'Looking at the Family from the Inside Out': Social Space and Symbolic Power in the Troubled Families
Programme
Crossley, S.
(Durham University)
The Troubled Families Programme aims to 'turn round' the lives of some of the most troubled and troublesome
families in England using a 'Family Intervention' model which seeks to work with the family 'from inside out, rather than
outside in'. Family intervention workers are expected to ''grip' the family' and 'roll up their sleeves and get stuck in',
with encounters between worker and family often taking place in family homes.
Drawing on Bourdieu's work on the 'space of relations', this paper explores the 'strategies of condescension' that exist
in the 'troubled families' narrative and how this influences the practice of frontline workers. The official naming and
classification of families as 'troubled' can be understood as an act of symbolic violence, imposing an official point of
view and creating a legitimate social problem. The paper highlights how, within the official narrative, the doxic primacy
afforded to the intimacy of the micro-encounter between family worker and family members in their own home leaves
little room for discussion and consideration of structural and environmental influences. The practical, hands-on support
and the interpersonal skills required of workers serves to symbolically close the social distance between the state and
marginalised families. These encounters thus potentially become 'one of those cases in which the visible, that which is
immediately given, conceals the invisible which determines it'. The paper will also draw on the early findings of
fieldwork with family workers to explore the extent to which they negotiate, resist or enact the official narrative.
Do Local Authority Commissioning Requirements Hinder the Development of Resident, Relational Based
Lasting Solutions to Social Problems?
Alexander, J.
(Goldsmiths, University of London)
Deprived areas of the UK are so often the focus of much of local authority commissioned services. Despite
considerable efforts many commissioned services fail to engage effectively with local residents or bring about a lasting
change. This paper considers whether the commissioning criteria set by local authorities and funders actually hinders
rather than helps the development of local empowerment lasting support for those who need it.
Commissioned local authority services are often measured through financial efficiencies and quality assurance
measures which are designed to ensure established best practice and value for money. However many of these
indicators preclude groups of organically formed residents wanting to change their neighbourhood and leaves only
BSA Annual Conference 2015 146
Glasgow Caledonian University