Landscapes of care and despair for rural youth - a qualitative study in the northern Swedish 'periphery'

Conducting research with young people at the margins - lessons learnt and shared through case studies in Cambodia, India, Sweden and Zambia

Building on the value of engaging with and enabling the participation of marginalised young people in research, the aim of this article was to profile practical and procedural issues faced when conducting studies with young people who experience some form of marginalisation. Drawing on observations and research experiences from four diverse case studies involving young people who were either imprisoned in Cambodia, living in informal urban communities in North India, residing in rural northern Sweden or attending school in rural Zambia, learnings were identified under three thematic areas. Firstly, a need exists to develop trusting relationships with stakeholders, and especially the participating young people, through multiple interactions. Secondly, the value of research methods that are creative and context sensitive are required to make the process equitable and meaningful for young people. Thirdly, it is important to flatten power relations between adults and young people, researchers and the researched, to maximise participation. These findings can inform future youth research in the field of global public health by detailing opportunities and challenges of engaging in research with young people on the margins to promote their participation.

The Promise of Belonging: Racialized Youth Subject Positions in the Swedish Rural North

This article analyses how youth subject positions of the ‘racialized other’ are produced, and how these positions interconnect with the concept of belonging to the rural community. We do this by analysing 15 group discussions with 63 young people living in rural areas in northern Sweden taking a discursive psychology approach, and focusing on how discourses produce certain subject positions of ‘the racialized other’. Drawing on the concepts of the politics of belonging and the ‘stranger’, we argue that discourses on belonging to the (rural) community create boundaries that exclude ‘other’ youth, as well as resistance and contestation. The subject positions that such discourses produce represent racialized youth in stereotypical ways and imply a promise of belonging for certain ‘others’ based on their fulfilment of particular norms. However, such a depoliticized promise of belonging that places the responsibility for becoming integrated on the ‘others’ was also challenged. Firstly, in relation to criticisms of the welfare system, and secondly, in relation to racism as an unwelcome threat in rural communities.

Social factors associated with trust in the health system in northern Sweden: a cross-sectional study

Background

Despite the importance of having trust in the health system, there is a paucity of research in this field in Sweden. The aim of this study was to estimate the level of trust in the health system and to assess the factors associated with it in northern Sweden.

Methods

A cross-sectional survey was conducted in 2014 in the four northern regions of Sweden. A total of 24 795 participants (48% response rate) aged 18 to 84 years were involved in the study. A log-binomial regression was used to measure the association between sociodemographic factors and trust in the health system.

Results

Two thirds of the participants (68.5%) reported high trust in the health system i.e. had very much or quite a lot confidence in the health system. Women had lower prevalence of trust compared to men (PR = 0.96; 95% CI = 0.94–0.98) while older participants had a higher trust compared to youth (PR = 1.11; 95% CI = 1.06–1.16). Participants with lower level of education, those who experienced economic stress, those who were born outside Sweden and those living in small municipalities also had lower prevalence of trust in the health system. Conversely, lower income was associated with higher trust (PR = 1.08; 95% CI = 1.04–1.12). Finally, a strong relationship between higher social capital (having emotional and instrumental support, horizontal trust, and higher social participation) and trust in the health system was also found.

Conclusions

Trust in the health system was moderately high in northern Sweden and strongly associated with sociodemographic and social capital factors. Trust is a complex phenomenon and a deeper exploration of the relation between trust in the health system and sociodemographic factors is needed.

Collective imaginaries of caring landscapes for rural youth: a concept mapping study in northern Sweden

Background

In the current study, the approach of ‘utopia as method’ was combined with the concept ‘landscapes of care’ to explore collective imaginaries of caring landscapes in relation to young people living in rural northern Sweden, while focusing specifically on what such landscapes should ideally look like, and how various strategies could help to realise the visions.

Methods

The research was conducted using a modified concept mapping methodology comprising three phases of data collection and analysis. This facilitated the integration of tacit knowledge and utopian visions of young people, professionals and policymakers living and working in various parts of northern Sweden.

Results

The results indicated that caring landscapes should: ‘provide services responsive to young people’s wishes and needs’, ‘be organised around values of safety, equity and youth participation’, and ‘rework metro-centredness’ in order to care for, with and about rural youth.

Conclusions

The findings can be viewed as an imaginary reconstitution of communities in rural northern Sweden, but also as hypothetical building blocks to be used for developing caring landscapes and a ‘good countryside’ where young people have the possibility to live a good life in decent health.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12889-021-12223-4.