DEN REPARATIVA SLÖJDEN. Ungdomar om motstånd, kulturarv, krishantering, prepping och framtiden

Abstract

This master thesis is an attempt to fill in a gap in research that I found when I was investigating craft traditions in Sweden. Sweden is a country that has a rich cultural heritage when it comes to craft and we have obligatory craft as a subject in school. There is plenty of research about pedagogy, craft and children in school. I also found that there is a lot of research with grownups in fields like my own, the cultural studies and similar fields. Since I could not find any research, I started wondering if young people do crafts. So I conducted my own research, with my favorite method; etnography. I interwieved eight young persons in the ages of 18-22 about their crafts, their relations to ofter crafters and craft as a subject in school. I asked them about crisis, cultural heritage, prepping, the present and the future. My theoretical framwork is of Donna Haraway on making kin and taking care of this broken world. But also of Zygmunt Baumans thinkings about nostagia and fear. I followed Les Backs listening and his thoughts about what makes a life livable. I have dug into Wendy Browns thinkings about neoliberalism and homo oeconomicus. And I have dabbled with Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick and her reparative practices. And more. In this essay we follow eight young people and learn their crafts, why they do what they do and how they are making a better world for themselves by using less screen time, and more creative time. These are their stories.