Emergent subjectivity in caring institutions for teenagers

Abstract

We investigate how different mealtime situations help shape teenager and staff subjectivities in two Swedish residential care homes and a special school for girls and boys, 12–15 years old, with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties. Three mealtime networks are analysed using concepts from actor–network theory, treating architectural space and artefacts, as well as teenagers and staff, as actors. The architectural spaces in the kitchen and dining room were first created for other purposes than residential care for troubled youth (i.e. a former farm, hospital and preschool) and have been adapted to be more homelike while coping with housing and feeding 20 or more people. The original architectural spaces as well as activities before mealtimes were powerful actors in the mealtime network, causing different subjectivities to emerge in the translations. The subjectivities emerge in the first network as offenders/guards, in the second network as small children/nannies and in the third network as guests/service staff. The different translations in the three meal networks create different mobilization opportunities for the teenagers concerning responsibility and normality.

Keywords:

• residential care
• actor–network theory
• mealtime
• SEBD

Notes

1. The term ‘SEBD’ is used in the UK, while in the USA the equivalent term is ‘emotional and behavioral difficulties’. Similar designations are used in most countries.

2. Hem för Vård eller Boende (HVB) in Swedish.