”För en bättre värld” En studie om ungas erfarenheter av att engagera sig ideellt i Svenska FN-förbundet.

Abstract

Using interviews with seven youths engaged in the UN-Association of Sweden, this study examines individual experiences of commitment and what they perceive to get in return for their commitments. The purpose of the study is to investigate what makes people engage in non-profit work in civil society by identifying what and how their involvement is perceived as meaingful. This study draws a theoretical framework from Pierre Bourdieu’s reasoning of different capitals and habitus as well as the understanding of the UN-association as an political outlet where committed individuals form a collective political identity using Chantal Mouffe’s theory. The study also draws on the bodily experiences that Lisen Dellenborg has researched. My analysis of the material, gathered from seven semi-structured interviews, showed the result that the commitment served a purpose in the respondents being by creating meaning, identity and being a social field where they could accumulate social, symbolic and cultural capital drawing from their original habitus as well as expanding it. The meaning-making and identity creation seemed to be closely intertwined with the bodily experiences as well as the forming of a collective political identity and the search for a political outlet. What the engaged youth perceived to get in exchange is reasoned to be of value related to a vibrant and active civil society.