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Publications

On this page you can find a group of highlighted publications by CeFU's scholars. 

You can access the rest of CeFU's publications via the links below.


Poetic inquiry: Understanding youth on the margins of education

by Anne Görlich
in International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education (2015)

The article argues that poetic inquiry is a valuable method for producing knowledge that complements current research into 'what works' in reintegrating young people into secondary education. By use of poetic examples the article demonstrates how the young people have pronounced experiences of deficiency, uncertainty, failure, but also of hope, certainty and belonging.


Without a Safety Net: Precarisation among young Danish employees.Nordic Journal of Working Life Studies

by Mette Lykke Nielsen et. al
in Nordic Journal of Working Life Studies (2017)

Precarisation’ is one of the concepts that has become important in efforts to explain how neoliberal politics and changed economic conditions produce new forms of marginalization and increased insecurity. The aim of this article is to examine how subjectivity is produced among young Danish employees through socio-material processes of precarization at workplaces and employment projects. Drawing on ethnographic observations and qualitative interviews with 35 young employees and young people ‘Neither in Education, Employment or Training’ (NEET), the three case examples show how processes of precarization, rooted in global economic and political conditions, can be understood as situated contextual practices. It is demonstrated how being positioned as an easily replaceable source of labor is shaping young people’s processes of subjectification. 


Sexual harassment of newcomers in elderly care as organizational practices

by Mette Lykke Nielsen et.al.
in Nordic Journal of Work Life Studies (2014)

Sexual harassment is illegal and may have very damaging effects on the people exposed to it. One would expect organizations, employers, and institutions to take very good care to prevent employees from exposure to sexual harassment from anyone in their workplace. And yet, many people, mostly women, are exposed to sexual harassment at work. In care work, such behaviour is often directed toward their female caregiver by elderly citizens in need of care. Contemporary Nordic studies of working life and work environment have primarily investigated the interpersonal dimensions of sexual harassment, thus focusing on the relation between elderly citizens in need of care and their professional caregivers. In this article, we argue that sexual harassment from the elderly toward newcomers in elder care should also be seen as an effect of institutional practices. 


 

Exploring and expanding the category of young adult workers. Situating young workers’ risk management in the Retail Industry

by Mette Lykke Nielsen et.al.
in Nordic Journal of Work Life Studies (2013)

Young adult workers aged 18–24 years have the highest risk of accidents at work. Following the work of Bourdieu and Tannock, we demonstrate that young adult workers are a highly differentiated group. Accordingly, safety prevention among young adult workers needs to be nuanced in ways that take into consideration the different positions and conditions under which young adult workers are employed. Based on single and group interviews with 26 young adult workers from six various sized supermarkets, we categorize young adult retail workers into the following five distinct groups: ‘Skilled workers,’ ‘Apprentices,’ ‘Sabbatical year workers,’ ‘Student workers,’ and ‘School dropouts.’ We argue that exposure to accidental risk is not equally distributed among them and offer an insight into the narratives of young adult workers on the subject of risk situations at work. 


 

Adapting ‘The Normal’ – Examining Relations between Youth, Risk and Accidents at Work

by Mette Lykke Nielsen et.al.
in Nordic Journal of Work Life Studies (2012)

This article examines how safety is experienced and practiced among young employees. The aim of the article is to examine relations among youth, risk, and occupational safety. The article offers an insight into young employees’ narratives of risk situations at work. It examines the ways young employees in different organizational contexts talk about – and relate to – dangerous situations at work that they have experienced themselves. The article shows how young employees position themselves – and are positioned – in organizations within different discourses of risk and safety because they are young and as a part of practicing youth.


 

Understanding Learning and Motivation in Youth

by Noemi Katznelson, Niels Ulrik Sørensen and Knud Illeris
published by Routledge (2018)

The way that teaching is currently delivered to students aged 11–19 often does not support positive learning; the ongoing encouragement to produce as much competence as possible at the lowest possible costs elicits critical conditions for learning processes, endangering not only the motivation of students, but also the engagement and motivation of teachers themselves. This book examines how this can be handled in practice by teachers and educators, drawing on the perspectives of carefully selected experts to provide an introduction to the debates surrounding neoliberal education, as well as a means to counteract the damages in their everyday teaching and activities.


 

Educational trust: relational and structural perspectives on young people on the margins of the education system

by Noemi Katznelson and Anne Görlich
in Educational Research (2015)

The study argues for a shift in focus away from an individual perspective on young people on the margins of education and towards a relational perspective that takes the social environment and the education system into account. The study identifies three overall components of educational trust: (1) social security and recognition, (2) flexibility in structures and (3) progression in skills. The concept of educational trust, it is suggested, creates a shift in focus from the individual young person to the role and function of the education system in aiming to reach the target of more young people completing education.


Rethinking motivational challenges amongst young adults on the margin

by  Noemi Katznelson
in Journal of Youth Studies (2016) 

This article is concerned with how motivation to take an education can be stimulated in young adults who are on the margins of the labour market and educational system. The article presents a model with five motivational orientations suggesting a new perspective on re-motivating young adults on the margin of the labour market and educational system. It also discusses the challenges connected to promoting a focus on motivation at a time when the liberalization of education is increasingly central to the welfare state strategy.


 Stories from the margins of the educational system

by Mette Pless
in Journal of Youth Stories (2013)

The main focus of the article is the relationship between the subjective narratives of young people and dominant political storylines on education. The article asks how political storylines on education can be traced in young people's narratives, and if and how they affect the narratives and transitional processes of the young people in question. It also argues that the normal transition, which is currently held up as the political ideal, risks further marginalizing of young people who are already on the periphery of the educational system.