ABS164 - 'Growing up in Rosengard is quite nice!' ? Social capital - A different perspective to consider young adults in Rosengard

Social work practice and research, particularly targeting vulnerable inner-city neighbourhoods, lack a Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) perspective on these issues. CHAT provides useful tools to describe people's social functioning when combined with the notion of Social Capital, which I used while studying young adults’ experiences of living in the segregated and stigmatized inner-city neighbourhood of Rosengård, Sweden. This area is well known as a poverty zone, with high criminality, ethnic minorities, low educational attainment levels, drug usage and high unemployment. I found that fundamental social capital, as a collective asset within the family and with other kinship, and the availability of other social capital resources within the environment, is important for young adults' development of their own social capital.

Bridging and linking social capital seem to have great value for work, education, and functioning of the young adults. There was also a need for a balance between the bonding social capital within the primary group and bridging social capital towards heterogeneous networks in order to attract resources. The big question in practice is how to bridge the gap – what’s called the structural hole – between the inner-city area and the surrounding community in order to meet each other’s needs. Out of a CHAT perspective, we can ask the questions: How can two important communities or activity systems meet, how can CHAT be used in a Social Work practice together with a Social Capital perspective to improve adaption of youth and improve the interactive functioning of the two systems?