<p>The aim of this thesis is to describe children’s own perspectives on being scouts and to describe the scout movement as a cultural phenomenon. The thesis is based on interviews with 34 members of the movement and studies of archive material and contemporary documents. It is also based on a social constructivist view of knowledge.</p><p>The results show that the movement seems to lack profile and is decentralised and secularised from the children’s point of view. They say that the movement’s history, the scout law, the scout oath and religion do not have great meaning. The movement has changed and membership today is not what it used to be. The children are scouts, but not too “scouty”.</p><p>The informants find that outsiders think that the movement is “geeky”, but it can have a high status among elderly people. The informants react to the “geekiness” by not caring, hiding the fact that they are members, not telling anyone or protesting against other people’s views on the subject. This “geeky” label and the informants’ reactions to it can be seen as an unexpressed initiation rite to becoming a scout. It is something the members have to go through to be seen as worthy scouts.</p><p>Being a scout is not considered rebellion against adults. Scouts can be seen as lacking youth culture patterns, adapting to an organized recreational activity. However, being a scout can be considered rebellion against other youngsters; some informants for example wore the scout uniforms in school. Some informants think that they have the correct picture of the movement and that outsiders have the wrong one. This strengthens their feeling of togetherness. Thus they are rebellious by being well-behaved. They fight against a dominating culture. Hence the scout movement works as a subculture even though it was created by adults.</p>

The aim of this thesis is to describe children’s own perspectives on being scouts and to describe the scout movement as a cultural phenomenon. The thesis is based on interviews with 34 members of the movement and studies of archive material and contemporary documents. It is also based on a social constructivist view of knowledge. The results show that the movement seems to lack profile and is decentralised and secularised from the children’s point of view. They say that the movement’s history, the scout law, the scout oath and religion do not have great meaning. The movement has changed and membership today is not what it used to be. The children are scouts, but not too “scouty”. The informants find that outsiders think that the movement is “geeky”, but it can have a high status among elderly people. The informants react to the “geekiness” by not caring, hiding the fact that they are members, not telling anyone or protesting against other people’s views on the subject. This “geeky” label and the informants’ reactions to it can be seen as an unexpressed initiation rite to becoming a scout. It is something the members have to go through to be seen as worthy scouts. Being a scout is not considered rebellion against adults. Scouts can be seen as lacking youth culture patterns, adapting to an organized recreational activity. However, being a scout can be considered rebellion against other youngsters; some informants for example wore the scout uniforms in school. Some informants think that they have the correct picture of the movement and that outsiders have the wrong one. This strengthens their feeling of togetherness. Thus they are rebellious by being well-behaved. They fight against a dominating culture. Hence the scout movement works as a subculture even though it was created by adults.

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Who is responsible for youth policy implementation? This thesis attempts to deepen our understanding of Swedish and Nordic youth policy. Youth policy is cross-sectoral and includes all the decisions and measures affecting the conditions of young people. National youth policy therefore concerns young people's life situations in a number of different areas, such as work, housing, education, health, leisure and influence. The purpose of the study is to increase the knowledge of youth policy work the last century by understanding the impact of youth research concerning adults' role in youth policy implementation.   A mixed method approach has been applied to the study: interviews, documents and youth theory have been analysed. The results show that youth research had a major impact on the Swedish youth policy. It also shows that the state has an important role in the implementation of youth policies. To create a youth policy that meets the democratic mandate, it is necessary to create a systematic approach and guidelines for municipalities. The study has clearly shown that the state's role in the democratic mandate differ significantly over time and that adults' role in the implementation is of great importance. The study draws attention to the perception of adults over time and how adults are increasingly seen as a barrier to young people's democratic schooling, and on what grounds this opinion rests. It is proposed that views on the democratic mandate will be extended from a municipal focus to the state where youth policy have a broader focus that takes account of national welfare goals based on a policy all municipalities has to be involved in.

From beatniks to hippies — challenging and revolving subcultural youths in Sweden 1959 to 1969 The purpose of this work has been to explore and analyse the transformation of the youth subcultures beatniks and hippies in a Swedish context between 1959 and 1969, by searching answers to the following questions: What was the background of the subcultures ? How were these subcultures established, transformed and developed in a Swedish context? What became their typical style and taste?, and in what rooms and places were these cultures practiced by Swedish youths?        Mass media, especially TV but also radio, film, books and records brought the world in and were the main reason youths in Sweden could identify themselves through foreign subcultures. They adapted most of the original style but brought in some local elements.       My studies show a close link between the beatnik-subculture and the hippie-subculture, in Sweden transformed through the mod-subculture. The freedom-movement and visions spread by “the beat-generation” were important as inspiration and guide to unite youths and challenge the national hegemony. The mod-culture established the subcultural practises in public rooms. The transnational bounds in the hippie-culture set a global perspective of the world rather than the previous regional or national perspectives.         It is shown in the study that intersectional boundaries were pushed by the subcultures. They helped to bring up equality among sexes and were a main force for women’s liberation throughout the 60’s. All classes were in some way involved in the subcultures, although they practised them in different ways.         Subcultural youth style was commercialized, popularised and became in many ways mainstream during the 60’s. These youth-cultures had a vast impact on cultural changes as well as changes in society in Sweden during the time of my research.