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Research aim: The overall aim of the project is to explore the intersection between sound environments, identity formation and habilitation practices. While various locations involve different types of sounds, not everyone has equal access to these soundscapes. How can the relationship between sound environments and identity be studied and described? Which social and cultural processes make sound environments including or excluding, and how do they work? How can contemporary habilitation create supportive practices and develop methods in order to promote inclusion?

The aim of this paper was to explore how young, sporting women with physical impairments experience physical education (PE), drawing on research on PE as well as on critical disability studies. Phenomenology (Ahmed 2006; de Beauvoir 1949/2011; Merleau-Ponty 1945/2013) provides a sociological theoretical framework that includes the body. Ten semi-structured interviews were done with women ages 15 to 28, living in Sweden. Most of interviews took about an hour. In order to grasp the experience of disability from the view points of the young women themselves, three participants were asked to keep video diaries: they were lent a camcorder and a tripod for two months. The diaries were between 85 to 110 minutes long.The stigmatization the young women experienced in their everyday life resulted in a polarization between the weak, which was expressed through the expression of belonging as ‘we’, and the strong individual. The subject position as positive and capable – as a reaction towards the weak, the negative – was one of the few positions that were available to them. With the positive and strong attitude, the consequence was the difficulty, not only to complain but also to express pain or discomfort in one’s everyday life.However, as regards the issue of PE, the participants discussed problems dealing with experiences of exclusion, being singled out, and special treatment. It appeared to be difficult for teachers to see these women as the sports interested youths that they were. The young women used different strategies of resistance. While a pair of them did not participate in some of the aspects, another woman had chosen not to participate in PE at all. Refusing to be physically active is, according to Larsson et. al. a common form of resistance among girls (with or without impairments) and is interpreted by teachers as lack of interest (2005). An important difference is, however, that in this study the young women were very physically active in their leisure time. One participant made use of a strategy which has the potential for changing the view as regards disabled pupils: she showed her teacher medals she had won in the Swedish national swimming championship, as a way to receive a higher grade. When the women finally described the stigmatization that they had been subjected to, they avoided positioning themselves as victims, by minimizing the seriousness of the situation or by using in the interview the word ‘we’ instead of ‘I’, thus describing the incident in collective terms.

This report deals with everyday habits with environmental impacts in relation to the use of information and communication technology (ICT, colloquially referred to as IT). We raise issues related to a) how environmentally promising and problematic ‘ICT-practices’ in urban everyday life can be identified and b) how the potential for such practices to be transformed through the use of ICT can be assessed, and ultimately utilized, in the context of sustainable urban development. These issues we have addressed through reviewing case studies, reports etc. Case study examples showed how ICT is used, e.g. to streamline and inform, or to share resources, vehicles and other products. We discussed how it might be possible, from an environmental sociology perspective, to assess when and how ICT might serve as an enabling technology that enhances or replaces previous patterns of action. We also briefly included, and discussed, phenomena defined from more general sustainability science point of view, e.g. substitution, induction and rebound effects. An important starting point was that social structures both enable and limit specific patterns of action. The structures can only be said to exist, or be maintained, by people's actions and through their experience. Change occurs as a result of the dynamics between people's actions and the structures created by past actions. Social practices are constantly being reproduced, with additions of new elements, e g when ICT applications are put to new uses. Then patterns of social relations and systems might also change, for example in how we use energy, travel, consume or socialize during both work and leisure time. Our review indicates that the knowledge that partners of Centre for Sustainable Communications (CESC) currently have access to, is fragmented and with a bias towards certain types of sectors, and patterns of action. Environmentally promising practices are more researched than problematic ones. Furthermore, use of ICTs for e.g. commuting and monitoring household energy use is more researched than most other patterns of action involving use of ICTs. Research on e.g. leisure and entertainment in relation to the environment is very much absent from today’s body of knowledge (as it is defined and delimited in this report). As for how everyday practices might change towards increased environmental sustainability by the use of ICT, we have found the knowledge situation even more incomplete. This shows, however, that it is worthwhile for CESC researchers and partners to carry on searching and developing knowledge regarding this. Regarding what should be viewed as more promising respectively more problematic urban patterns of action, we have to some extent illuminated this by exemplifying international environmental sociological research that is useful for discussing social practices in relation to environmental impacts. We have exemplified how this can shed light on some of the case studies we found among the CESC researchers and partners. Based on environmental sociology we discussed in what ways city dwellers with high income account for the most environmentally problematic practices. Correspondingly, we discussed how inhabitants with low income – out of necessity–account for many promising practices. In relation to this we also briefly discussed how rebound effects should be seen as related to socio-economic position. Another kind of problematic aspect highlighted is that players responsible for introducing, trying out etc., new ICTs, seem to have a tendency to do this in own networks or among the urban middle class. This is problematic from a democratic point of view. In 2012, 1.2 million people in Sweden did very rarely, or not at all, use the internet in their homes. Detailed knowledge about this group's ICT related practices seems to be largely missing. If representatives for these groups are not represented in environmental research there is a danger that they also become less visible in public debate of environmental and ICT issues. This means that different social positions imply different opportunities and constraints. What patterns of actions people take more or less part in is influenced by social structures, norms and regulations, the historical and the immediate context, but also by the individuals' previous experiences and knowledge. The understanding of how a change towards a more sustainable society could come about through use of ICT therefore requires knowledge of practices among the full socio-demographic range of city dwellers. QC 20140702

The main aim of this thesis is to explore young women’s lived experience of the body, which, on one hand, is viewed as deviant – the disabled body – and, on the other hand, is viewed as accomplished – the sporting body. The questions posed in the thesis are the following: how do the young women handle the two subject positions that emerge as a result of the perception of them as respectively deviant and accomplished, which forms of femininity are available to them and what are the strategies of resistance they develop. Based on the work of philosophers Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Simone de Beauvoir, phenomenologies create in this thesis a sociological theoretical framework that includes the body. Participant observation was conducted at a disability sports camp for young disabled people and at four disability sports contests. The participants were recruited from both the sports camp and disability sports clubs. Ten semi-structured interviews were done with young women ages 15 to 28. Three of the participants were asked to keep video diaries: they were lent a small camcorder and a lightweight tripod for two months. In this study a polarization paradoxically is apparent between the weak, which is expressed through the expression of belonging as ”we”, and the strong individual. The subject position as capable and positive – as a reaction towards the weak, the negative – is one of the few positions that are available to them. With the positive and strong attitude, as with distancing from the victim position, the consequence is the difficulty, not only to complain but also to express pain, despair or discomfort in one’s everyday life. In this study many critical voices are raised. They also tell about stumbling and incontinence. At the same time the answer ”no, it’s fine” is given in many different forms. In this thesis this is interpreted as an unwillingness to express negative emotions. The phrase ”I am like everyone else” and the many variations on the same theme in the empirical material are interpreted as a wish for normality. Using the same logic – that attributed weakness leads to the expression of strength – the deviance that is attributed leads to a nearly extreme expression of normality. The lack of gender attributed to disabled people appears to imply that if functionality is not ”normal”, there is no room for another categorization. One interpretation of the material is that disability is seen in the family and in society as a different landscape, in which vulnerability needs to be compensated for by normality, which in turn results in the interview persons’ socialization into a compensatory normalcy. Avhandlingens huvudsakliga syfte är att utforska unga kvinnors levda erfarenheter av en kropp som å ena sidan betraktas som avvikande – den fysiskt funktionsnedsatta eller rörelsehindrade kroppen – å andra sidan betraktas som presterande – den idrottande kroppen. De frågor som ställs i avhandlingen är hur de unga kvinnorna förhandlar de båda subjektspositioner som uppstår, vilka former för femininitet som finns tillgängliga för dem samt vilka motståndsstrategier som de utvecklar. Med utgångspunkt i filosoferna Maurice Merleau-Pontys och Simone de Beauvoirs fenomenologier skapas i avhandlingen ett sociologiskt teoretiskt ramverk som inkluderar kroppen. Deltagande observationer utfördes vid ett handikappidrottsläger för unga med funktionsnedsättningar samt vid fyra handikappidrottstävlingar. Studiens deltagare rekryterades dels från lägret, dels från handikappidrottsföreningar. Tio semistrukturerade intervjuer genomfördes med unga kvinnor, 15-28 år. Tre av deltagarna ombads att göra videodagböcker: en liten videokamera och ett lättviktsstativ lånades ut till dem under två månader. I materialet uppstår paradoxalt nog en polarisering mellan den svaga, vilket uttrycks genom tillhörigheten till ett ”vi”, och den starka individen. Subjektspositionen som kapabel och positiv – som en reaktion mot den svaga, negativa – är en av få som finns tillgängliga för dem. Med denna subjektsposition, liksom med distanseringen från offerpositionen, följer dock inte bara en svårighet att klaga utan också att uttrycka smärta, förtvivlan eller trötthet över att vardagen är besvärlig. I materialet höjs förvisso många kritiska röster, och de berättar även om snubblande och urinläckage. Samtidigt återkommer ofta svaret ”nej, det är bra” i olika varianter. Detta tolkas i avhandlingen som uttryck för oviljan att visa negativa känslor. I frasen ”jag är som vem som helst” och dess många varianter i det empiriska materialet, inryms begäret efter normalitet. Enligt samma logik som gör att den tillskrivna svagheten leder till framhävandet av styrka, leder den avvikelse som påläggs dem till framhävandet av en accentuerad normalitet. Den könlöshet som tillskrivs människor med funktionsnedsättningar tyder på att om funktionaliteten inte är ”normal”, finns det inte utrymme för ytterligare en kategorisering. En tolkning av materialet är att det annorlundaskap som funktionsnedsättningen anses utgöra i familjen liksom i samhället, ses som en utsatthet som måste uppvägas med normalitet, vilket har lett till att intervjupersonerna socialiserats in i en kompensatorisk vanlighet.

t Studiens frågeställning var: Hur samverkar funktionshinder och genus när fysiskt funktionshindrade barn och ungdomar väljer att mer långsiktigt ta del i idrott? Med kvalitativa intervjuer, observation och videoupptagning undersöktes hur unga med fysiska funktionshinder talar om sig själva, sin kropp och sin fysiska förmåga som funktionshindrade och som idrottande tjejer och killar. De positiva effekter av idrotten som framkommit i tidigare forskning bekräftades. Skolidrottens normaliserande funktion tycks dock vara avhängig lärarens engagemang och kunskap om funktionshinder. Graden av autonomi bland unga funktionshindrade togs upp, och frågan ställdes om autonomi är ett önskvärt ideal. Den positiva sociala gemenskapen inom handikappidrotten diskuterades, liksom dess påverkan på idrottens dominerande maskulina diskurs. Slutligen behandlades de internaliserade negativa förväntningarna på funktionshindrades fysiska förmåga, och idrottens förmåga att förändra dessa. I undersökningen blev vikten av fortsatta kvalitativa studier av hur funktionshinder och genus samverkar inom idrotten tydlig. De preciserade frågeställningar som framkom var: Hur förhåller sig de unga till idrottens idealbild: den friska, starka och maskulina kroppen? Kan idrotten ha en funktion som normalisering och hantering av stigmatisering för unga med funktionshinder? Vilken roll spelar överbeskydd kontra autonomi i de unga funktionshindrades engagemang inom idrott? Vilken funktion har integrering respektive separering i ungdomarnas idrottsengagemang?