This thesis explores young people's experiences of, and orientations towards, being and becoming. Using focus groups and interviews with participants aged between 11 and 15, the research investigates how young people form a sense of who they are and who they can become in terms of character, temperament, talents, intelligence, humour, appearance and so on. Particular attention is paid to the role of relationality, and especially siblingship, in these processes as well as to how young people themselves make sense of and theorise being and becoming. The research shines analytical and methodological 'spotlights' on key contexts, relationships and modes of thinking which highlight processes of being and becoming in new and interesting ways. A spotlight on the context of secondary school indicates how ways of being and becoming can be created and constrained by the particularities of the environment of school. A spotlight on being and becoming in a group of friends indicates young people's reflexivity about the moralities of being different to friends, despite the largely homophilous nature of these relationships, and reveals some of the ways in which young people's friendships can affect who they are and who they see themselves as becoming in the future. A spotlight on young people's sibling relationships fills a gap in existing knowledge about the role of lateral kin in shaping young people's lives and indicates how siblings can be a source of social capital (for good or ill) in school. It is also argued that being one in a series of siblings can 'fix' aspects of being and becoming in several ways, including through the construction of relational identities in families and through normative ideas about how siblings ought to behave. Finally, the thesis shines a spotlight on young people's understandings of modes of transmission and the nature of personhood, indicating how young people can think in nuanced and complex ways about how being and becoming works. Taken together the spotlights of this thesis indicate how young people form a sense of who they are and who they can become whilst embedded in webs of relationships through time. The thesis demonstrates that, despite being relational and contextual, processes of being and becoming can feel as though they become 'fixed' as the potential for how one can 'turn out' is limited. It is argued that the lay concept of 'turning out' evokes the idea that, although always continuing through time, we will one day 'turn out' and be 'finished'. As such, this thesis suggests that the concept of 'turning out' allows sociologists to think about being and becoming simultaneously. 'Turning out' also encourages an understanding of the social world that embraces ideas which can seem 'contradictory' in sociological terms - such as fixity and malleability, individuality and relationality or genetic and social inheritance. Finally, it is argued that 'turning out' denotes a broader understanding of personhood than those evoked in familiar sociological terms - such as the self, identity and habitus - and incorporates aspects of being and becoming that might otherwise appear somewhat beyond the social.

Utvecklingen och framväxten av digital teknik har ökat exponentiellt de senaste årtiondena och är idag en naturlig del av de flesta människors liv. Forskning om hur den digitala tekniken påverkar barn är ett relativt nytt och outforskat forskningsfält. Denna studie har som syfte att undersöka vilka appar vuxna väljer åt barn samt vilken roll dessa val kan spela i barns digitala användning, kulturer och vardag. Studien tar utgångspunkt i barndomssociologisk teori för att belysa kopplingar mellan barns digitala användning med kulturen de befinner sig i och deras barndom. Vi har använt enkät som metod för att besvara syftet, med tjugotvå informanter som antingen är verksamma i förskola eller är vårdnadshavare till barn på förskola. Slutsatsen och resultatet av studien kan sammanfattas av att barns digitala användning är ett polariserat område där vuxnas roll, åsikter och antaganden kan påverka barnens liv och kamratkulturer. Av den tidigare forskningen och teorin vi valt att analysera empirin med, får vi snarare syn på vikten av en kompetenshöjning och en större medvetenhet kring den digitala användningen och appars påverkan på barns liv.

Syftet med studien har varit att studera hur förskollärare uppfattar sitt pedagogiska arbete med barns intresse för naturvetenskap i förskolan vid gruppdiskussion med andra för­skollärare. Vi har undersökt på vilket sätt förskollärare uppfattar: hur de utmanar barns lärande i naturvetenskap, hur barn visar intresse för naturvetenskap samt hur de fångar upp barns visade intresse i naturvetenskap. Studien är utförd som en fokusgruppsunder­sökning där två grupper legitimerade förskollärare verksamma i förskola har intervjuats. Det empiriska materialet har transkriberats och analyserats utifrån en fenomenografisk forskningsansats. Resultatet redovisas i teman (bakgrund och förutsättningar, strategier att utmana barns lärande samt fånga upp barns intresse, verktyg och barns intresse) och i kategorier (benämna begrepp, medforskande, miljö och material, observera, pedagogens kompetens, reflektion, skapad aktivitet, skolförberedande, uppmärksamma fenomen och visar intresse). De viktigaste resultaten vi ser i studien är att förskollärarna i fokusgrup­perna talar om att det behövs kunskap för att kunna arbeta med naturvetenskap i försko­lan, de talar om att ställa frågor och vara medforskande samt att observera barnen för att kunna fånga upp barns visade intresse i naturvetenskap.

There was a culture debate during 2019 in the Swedish newspaper, Dagens Nyheter, about what kind of literature children should take part of. We took an interest in the debate and wanted to study teachers’ approach to literature in preschools. We found a problem whether the literature should have an educational purpose for the unready child or as stated in the curriculum that children should be viewed as owners of their agency. From the social constructivism concepts of being and becoming, this paper aims to investigate educators’ selection processes of literature and approaches to reading in preschools, and to conceptualise how this type of literary content can be used to teach children civic pointers.In this qualitative study we interviewed people who were working in preschools. We included teachers from different workplaces, assignments and age groups. The results of this study show that the preschools not exclusively have a being or becoming approach to literature, but that the approaches actually coexist in the everyday work. That is, the children are sometimes considered competent enough to handle rather complex ethical problems in the literature, but in other situations the preschool teachers change the stories to for example not scare the children. The literature had distinct purposes in the preschools, for example to help the children reflect over different life situations and teach them how to properly handle such situations. A common strategy the teachers used to accomplish this was to change the stories or characters of the literature they used. In conclusion, this study shows that the selection processes of literature in preschools aim for children to recognise themselves in the literature and it should be developing and challenging for the children. Furthermore, teachers make conscious choices when reading to the children. We also found that teaching civic pointers to children is a constant process in early education. This study can help teachers to be aware of how literature is selected in preschools, that different approaches to literature might form children and that it is an ongoing process.

This thesis, addresses the convergence between several strings of current research in the quest for a better understanding of the co-dependency and co-evolution of the human being and her ability to innovate, organize and provide products and services through competitive firms. The introduction and development of the concepts “Innovation Health” and “Systems of Innovation Health” aims at capturing emerging interdisciplinary understanding of early childhood developmental health and human life-spanning developmental conditions, to the extent that they are relevant for economic change, knowledge- and innovation related theory and research. An overview and analysis of global demographic changes, as they relate to Innovation Health is provided. Further, an extended view or possible emerging Theory of the Knowing and Innovating Firm is proposed and elaborated. Furthermore, Stein’s effort in the early 20th century to create a new philosophy of the humanities and a model of the human being is revisited. Her ontology of association, community and the human being is introduced in the context of organizational economics and knowledge-based theories. Her philosophy and “emergentis” ontology is applied as the theoretical framework of Innovation Health and the entire research effort.