Civil society's ways of working to enhance employment opportunities in conditions of socioeconomic disadvantage and superdiversity in Sweden and England

With speaker Professor Gabriella Elgenius from the University of Gothenburg

Countless integration initiatives have focused on the delivery of employability skills yet have failed to address the inequalities facing minoritized populations including migrants and residents in areas facing socioeconomic challenges perhaps by focusing predominantly on human capital at the expense of structural factors that undermine access to work.

This talk will focus on how civil society organisations work to enhance employment opportunities in superdiverse neighbourhoods. A broad definition of civil society includes voluntary ‘non-profit’ organisations, formal organisations as well as informal initiatives, foundations, and social enterprises.

Civil society organizations adopt an “employment” approach to community assets, that prioritizes equipping individuals to cope with structural disadvantages by also focusing on the development of resilience through resistance, confidence building and offering hope. There is much to learn from civil society and its ways of working as it engages with key principles of integration such as the importance of context, multidimensionality, and shared responsibility.

This talk will explore different types of civil society action in England and Sweden and findings builds upon an extensive dataset and material collected over the period 2019 – 2023 in seven neighbourhoods in England and Sweden. The research projects have been sponsored by two Swedish Research Councils (Forte and VR).

Thsi talk is free and open to the public. To book a place, email a.bolstridge@bham.ac.uk