Currently, new knowledge domains and professions emerge as a consequence of societal changes that transform that conditions for work and work integrated learning. Integration work directed to newly arrived immigrants is one example of such a new professional knowledge domain. In civic orientation, which is the empirical case in this study, quality, standardization and dialogue are explicit strategies that impact the planning, organization and decision-making in everyday work. The interest in this thesis concerns the professional knowledge that is developed in activities aiming to provide heterogeneous groups of immigrants an orientation in the Swedish society. By making activity systems the prime unit ofanalysis and scrutinizing the ways in which integration workers make use of a stipulated course material and interactions in a specific context, the aim is to contribute to the understanding of the pedagogical and communicative knowledge that is developed in practice. The analytical approach takes its point of departure in a socio-cultural perspective on workplace studies. Three separate studies have been carried out in which the empirical data consist of observations,interviews, video recordings, field notes and documents from various integration offices.The results show that different perspectives on knowledge and culture becomes relevant in local discourses on quality in integration work. What distinguishes the integration workers professional knowledge concern seeing and understanding the heterogeneity of immigrants' cultural backgrounds and bridging boundaries.Culture function as an organizing element in work that makes it possible to make distinctions and organize a contextually relevant content that can be elaborated together with the members in the groups. Such work imply transformation of procedures and it is shown that the integration workers develop their knowledge from specific situations to understand the significance of textually mediate dimeanings in other situations. Knowledge is developed as the integration workers move between different situations and activities. It is concluded that the meaning-making involved in bridging between different cultural contexts relies on extensive knowledge in and about the recognition of the other and of interactions based on equal grounds. Negotiating agreements with the members of the groups about how common possibilities and responsibilities can be understood is central for respecting heterogeneity in the process and is at the core of the integration workers professional knowledge. Considering the future development of integration work, cumulative structures are needed that recognize and support the development of the integration workers professional knowledge within as well as between organizations and other related fields of practice and in relation to higher education.

Le but de cette recherché doctorale est d'établir la liaison entre deux phénomènes de mobilité parallèles qui peuvent faire changer une société de manière dramatique. On trouve dans le Maramures deux couloirs de mobilités fort liés entre eux: l’arrivée de personnes vers la région, qui consiste surtout en tourisme rural, et le départ des personnes originaires de la région vers l’étranger, qui est représenté par la migration de travail. Le tourisme rural est encastré dans un contexte social, politique et historique particulier. La spécificité supposée de la région est celle d’une authenticité bien préservée, avec un fort usage du discours concernant l’Etat national. Le Maramures est considéré comme une des régions “authentiques”, “archaïques” et “traditionnelles” qui attirent une certaine catégorie de visiteurs, comme c’est souvent le cas du tourisme rural. L’évolution du phénomène touristique est le résultat des intersections complexes des divers acteurs, les migrants jouant un rôle important. Une grande partie des remises de fonds provenant des migrants est investie dans le tourisme rural, d’une manière directe ou indirecte. De plus, ceux-ci fonctionnent comme des médiateurs culturels pour les activités touristiques. La participation à une pratique, tel le tourisme rural ou la migration, facilite souvent l’accès à l’autre, générant ainsi des tensions et clivages sociaux. La croissance continue du tourisme et de la migration est en même temps cause et effet d’une interdépendance entre les modèles culturels et économiques de l’Est et de l’Ouest. / The goal of this PhD research is to show the connection between two parallel mobility phenomena that have the potential to dramatically change a local society. There are two strongly linked “mobility corridors” in Maramures. Incoming mobility, i.e. the arrival of foreigners, largely involves tourists, whilst outgoing mobility consists mostly of labour migration. Rural tourism is embedded in a particular social, political and historical context. The alleged specificity of this area is a well-preserved authenticity, with a strong background of national discourse. Maramures is seen as an “authentic”, “archaic” or “traditional” area, so it attracts a particular category of visitor, as is often the case in rural tourism. The evolution of this tourism phenomenon is the result of the complex intersection of different actors’ interests, and migrants play a major role. A large part of the labour migrants’ remittances is invested in rural tourism, directly or indirectly. Moreover, these migrants function as cultural brokers for tourism-related activities. Participation in either rural tourism or migration often facilitates access to the other. However, it also creates tensions and social gaps. The steady growth of tourism and migration is both cause and effect of an interdependence between the cultural and economic models of Eastern and Western societies.

Cette recherche porte sur le développement international des tournées musicales entre 1850 et 1930, période caractérisée par l’affirmation de la fonction d’intermédiation et par une approche commerciale de plus en plus assumée du concert. En adoptant la perspective des intermédiaires qui ont porté cette évolution, nous nous proposons d’étudier comment le changement d’échelle de ces échanges culturels et économiques que constituent les tournées musicales a provoqué de profondes mutations. En particulier, la dimension transatlantique qu’acquiert le commerce musical à partir de 1850 a des conséquences décisives sur le concert. En effet, non seulement la structure des échanges doit être adaptée à cette nouvelle échelle, mais les répercussions sont sensibles également sur les objets artistiques et sur les pratiques sociales qui entourent l’activité musicale. Traitant le concert comme un spectacle, les imprésarios américains promeuvent une approche résolument commerciale qui, a priori, s’oppose aux conceptions artistiques européennes. Cependant, par le jeu des concurrences et des coopérations transnationales, les innovations apportées par les intermédiaires américains transforment le commerce musical dans son ensemble. Elles suscitent notamment l’émergence, par réaction mais aussi par réappropriation, de directions de concerts modernes à partir des traditionnelles maisons d’édition musicale européennes. En outre, parce que les œuvres musicales sont aussi des objets symboliquement connotés, socialement et nationalement, leur commerce reflète les tensions entre démocratisation et distinction d’une part, et entre enjeux nationaux et tentation universaliste d’autre part. / This research concerns the international development of musical tours between 1850 and 1930, a period characterized by the affirmation of the intermediation function and by an increasingly commercial approach to concerts. By adopting the perspective of the intermediaries who have brought about this evolution, we propose to study how the change in scale of those cultural and economic exchanges that musical tours are has caused profound changes. In particular, the transatlantic dimension that the music trade acquired from 1850 onwards had decisive consequences for the concert. Indeed, not only the structure of the exchanges had to be adapted to this new scale, but the repercussions were also sensitive on the artistic objects and on the social practices which surround the musical activity. Treating the concert as a show, the American impresarios promoted a resolutely commercial approach which, a priori, was opposed to European artistic conceptions. However, through transnational competition and cooperation, the innovations brought by American intermediaries transformed the music trade as a whole. In particular, they led to the emergence, by reaction but also by reappropriation, of modern concert directions based on traditional European music publishing houses. Moreover, because musical works are also symbolically, socially and nationally connoted objects, their trade reflects the tensions between democratization and distinction on the one hand, and between national issues and universalist temptation on the other.