Expertise
In my doctoral research I sought to understand how social capital is involved in the labour market experiences of young adults with humanitarian immigrant backgrounds (YAHI). The qualitative study employed a decolonial methodology. The lived experiences of thirteen YAHI research partners, together with the observations and experiences of twenty-four practitioners working with YAHI were explored through arts-based activities, semi-structured interviews and participant observation. The analysis was undertaken through ‘systematic visuo-textual analysis’, poetic enquiry, vignettes and ‘reflexive thematic coding’.
This revealed ‘othering’ as a prominent feature of the job search process for YAHI with African or Middle Eastern origins or of Muslim faith. Practitioners and YAHI believe such ‘otherness’ is understood by employers to increase the risk of them not being a good fit for a job or organisation. In response, a character-based referral is usually required. Someone established on the Swedish labour market needs to vouch for the YAHI’s worthiness; to convince an employer this particular young immigrant is suitable for the Swedish workplace. Such racialisation of immigrants of non-European origins is understood as a key driver in the need for a CBR, and a CBR is the critical social capital resource needed by these young immigrants to get a job in Sweden. ‘Othering’ contributing to the labour market being organised on racial grounds is inconsistent with the meritocratic and equality discourse commonly associated with the Swedish labour market or the post-racial, ‘colour-blind’ contemporary national identity.
With the project illuminating the prominence of racialisation and the limited direct engagement with it in social capital theorisation, an expanded theory of social capital is proposed. Socio-structural context, relative social position and function, are added to networks, resources, access and mobilisation, as the core elements of social capital. This facilitates engagement with what specific resources are needed by individuals and groups, and how these relate to the function and functioning of social capital. Empirically, the thesis contributes by providing a detailed account of the racialised labour market experiences of YAHI in Sweden. Additionally, it provides an empirical example of undertaking decolonial scholarship within a Scandinavian business school.
Selection of publications
Bye, N. A., (forthcoming). ‘Mirror, mirror on the wall’: Advancing social capital theory through ‘colourblind’ Sweden’s racialised labour market.
Bye, N. A. and Rydzik, A., (forthcoming). Conducting arts-based transformative research: A reflexive dialogue at the intersection of two arts-based studies. In X. Matteucci (Eds), Visual and arts-based methods in tourism research. Channel View Publications.