Maktkamper och korridorfester : En etnologisk studie av kulturella processer och gruppinteraktion i två studentkorridorer

Sammanfattning: The purpose of the thesis is to analyse the cultural processes that arise when a group of people come to live together and share part of their everyday lives. It is based on a ten months fieldwork in two so-called student corridors, a form of student housing, in Uppsala. The central issues concern how community is created and maintained, but also why some people become outsiders.This thesis is also a contribution to the new youth research, where youth is seen as a socially and culturally regulated category and used as an analytical tool. Another term that is used to analyse events and relations in the groups, is culture, which is seen as an ongoing process in which individuals are active participants. The corridors are the students’ home but in the common areas, such as the kitchen, the privacy of the home is intermingled with public spheres. Therefore the relation between public and private becomes a significant topic, as does the relationship between the group and its individual members. The dissertation also employs a new concept of power, which is applicable to the small, intimate environments that are examined. In order to understand the power structures fully, a gender analytical perspective is applied, that connects power use on an interactional level with gender power on a structural level.At the same time as the thesis gives insight into the everyday lives of young college students, it also gives new perspectives on how small groups work, from a cultural analytical point of view.