Playing our way: Participation, recognition and creativity as resources for growing up across cultures Hildegunn Marie Tønnessen Seip University of Oslo, Ansgar University College and ABUP/Sørlandet Hospital Dissertation presented for the degree of Philosophiae Doctor (PhD) 2020 Department of Psychology Faculty of Social Sciences University of Oslo © Hildegunn Marie Tønnessen Seip, 2020 Series of dissertations submitted to the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Oslo No. 809 ISSN 1564-3991 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without permission. Cover: Hanne Baadsgaard Utigard. Cover photo: Lars Verket Print production: Reprosentralen, University of Oslo. Prelude: Puzzles and potential Where did this story begin? Was it when my grandparents brought me gifts from Jamaica and Nairobi after traveling to UN conferences, and I as a child felt the excitement of being part of a big and colorful world? Was it when I admired my other grandfather’s treasures from his migrant years in New York in the early 20th century? Was it when I lived in Mexico or California or Greece, or when I returned home to Norway with my own multilingual children? Whenever it began, I followed my curiosity, and it got me moving. That sense of wonder in encounters with people who had lived different lives from me, as I understood that we therefore saw and moved through the world differently. The ways I learned from and grew in those encounters. The richness of finding different perspectives interacting and unfolding, even in one and the same person – like melodies and rhythms from different musical traditions playing together, blending into something rooted, but also new. The challenges also stirred me: The injustice in how much harder it is for a refugee to move around in this world than for a tourist or traveling researcher. The discrimination and othering people often face when they are visibly different. The loneliness of the outsider. With more migrants now than the world may ever have seen before, more opportunities for interaction across borders, but perhaps also more polarization and prejudice – what kind of a world is this for children to grow up in? Acknowledging the importance of our formative years, and the cultural nature of human development, how does living with multiple cultures impact a developing child or young person? What vulnerabilities and what potential can cross-cultural experiences foster? As I was already starting to ask these questions and preparing a PhD project in cultural and community psychology, I heard the sound of Kaleidoscope, coming to a theatre near me. I listened up. Here, I could meet young people with complex cultural backgrounds, explore their stories and interaction with each other, and see what beauty their joint efforts could create, as they combined their different songs and flavors. Some of the participants were already telling stories of how much it meant to them to find an arena where their mixed background was not a problem, but a resource. My case had found me. I packed and embarked on my journey, still trying to find out what I was looking for. i Table of contents Prelude: Puzzles and potential ................................................................................................................. i List of articles ............................................................................................................................................ v Preface ..................................................................................................................................................... vi Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................................. vi Summary ................................................................................................................................................. ix 1. Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1 1.1. Topic ............................................................................................................................................. 1 1.2. Context of study ........................................................................................................................... 1 1.3. Research questions....................................................................................................................... 3 1.4. Overview of research design ........................................................................................................ 5 1.5. Plan of foundation ........................................................................................................................ 6 2. Background and research history .................................................................................................... 7 2.1. Humans on the move ................................................................................................................... 7 2.1.1. Migrants and minorities – acculturation, exclusion and belonging ...................................... 8 2.1.2. Culture and development...................................................................................................... 9 2.1.3. Growing up across cultures, across borders ....................................................................... 14 2.1.4. Cultural participation and creativity .................................................................................... 20 2.2. The ecology of human development and living well .................................................................. 24 2.2.1. Health and wellbeing ........................................................................................................... 26 2.2.2. Salutogenesis: Finding the flow towards health ................................................................. 28 2.2.3. Social inequalities in health ................................................................................................. 32 2.2.4. Cultural health promotion: the potential of participatory and creative arenas ................. 33 2.3. Case: The participatory and creative arena of Kaleidoscope ..................................................... 36 2.3.1. Kaleidoscope as a majoritarian discourse ........................................................................... 36 2.3.2. Music as an intercultural tool .............................................................................................. 38 2.3.3. Ongoing projects ................................................................................................................. 39 2.4. Current research gaps and aims of the study............................................................................. 39 3. Methodology ................................................................................................................................. 41 3.1. Philosophical foundation ............................................................................................................ 41 3.1.1. Ontology and epistemology in a multicultural world .......................................................... 42 3.1.2. Dialectic pragmatism: Useful inspiration ............................................................................ 44 3.1.3. Critical realism: Stratified and interdependent reality ........................................................ 46 3.1.4. What is critical about critical realism? ................................................................................ 47 ii 3.2. A participatory approach ............................................................................................................ 48 3.2.1. Participatory Action Research – why and how? .................................................................. 49 3.2.2. The reference group ............................................................................................................ 51 3.2.3. Contexts of knowledge production: Participants and other stakeholders ......................... 52 3.2.4. Co-creating knowledge: Learning together ......................................................................... 55 3.2.5. Ethical concerns – participation, power and integrity ........................................................ 56 Interlude: Rap from afar ........................................................................................................................ 62 4. Mixed methods, participants and procedures .............................................................................. 63 4.1. The rationale and strategies for mixing methods ...................................................................... 63 4.2. Case in context: Kaleidoscope as local communities ............................................................ 65 4.3. Participant observation – exploratory fieldwork .................................................................. 66 4.3.1. Participants in the fieldwork stage ...................................................................................... 67 4.3.2. Data collection – participant observation ..................................................................... 67 4.3.3. Analysis of ethnographic data ....................................................................................... 68 4.4. Interviews .............................................................................................................................