Citation

Sernhede O. Young 2011; 19(2): 159-180.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2011, Tidskriftforeningen Young, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/110330881001900203

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This article deals with processes of marginalization and patterns of segregation in contemporary Sweden that have transformed the former welfare state. During the 1990s we saw the growth of new forms of poverty in the multi-ethnic suburbs of the metropolitan districts of Sweden. The schools in these suburbs are still wrestling with many problems. If these schools wish to reclaim credibility, one way might be to understand and to learn from the topics and processes embedded in hip-hop, the culture of the young in these areas. Hip-hop has grown and engaged many young people in the multi-cultural neighbourhoods of metropolitan Sweden during the last two decades. The article focuses on how informal learning processes embedded in the cultural praxis of youth empower them to express themselves. In the article these learning processes are contrasted with the formal learning carried on in contemporary suburban schools. The hip-hop culture from these suburbs carries with it a social and political criticism and could in one sense be compared to the cultural aspirations of the labour movement in the early part of last century.