Bjørn Hauger

DISSERTATION TITLE:

Smart Upbringing: Co-Creating Cultural Change Through Future Forming Research

A number of the welfare assignments allocated to the municipalities require new and better methods of execution. There is an imbalance between the services provided and the needs of the citizens. This applies, among other things, to the guaranteed provision of welfare for all children and
adolescents. This thesis describes the development of relational (collective and social) practices in Re municipality’s work on upbringing. Based on a jointly devised vision and identified values, hundreds of employees, children, adolescents and their parents have taken part in co-creating upbringing environments where everyone thrives, and in which all members take responsibility for each other.

This research project is based on future forming research (FFR). FFR as a research approach paves the way for a new mindset regarding how to conduct research. FFR is tasked with changing behavioural patterns (practices) rather than describing the world as it is. In the process to change behavioural patterns within the work on upbringing, this research project has been executed in collaboration with a group of teachers, social- and healthcare workers (co-researchers) in the municipality.

The thesis demonstrates how the development of new practices in the work on upbringing is enabled by replacing a discourse formerly focusing on the individual and problems with new understandings that focus on opportunities and a sense of community. The Dream Class and the SMART Upbringing Language are examples of new collaborative practices developed by means of the research collaboration. These are practices in which teachers at schools and kindergartens involve the children as co-creators of their own upbringing environments. During the research project, a new concept has also been developed, demonstrating how employees who work in a municipality or in organisations with responsibility for children and adolescents can be involved in reflective processes (doing in action) so that they can innovate their own practices from a future perspective.

The collaborative research has also contributed towards the creation of new hybrid meeting places and new types of organisations, allowing the involvement of citizens, voluntary organisations, businesses etc. in new types of relational processes introduced to ensure the welfare of children and adolescents in the municipality.

Complete Dissertation