Education and Work

#### **Chapter 3**

## Re-Examining Transitions to Adulthood among Young People Engaged in Informal Businesses in the City of Accra, Ghana

*Robert Lawrence Afutu-Kotey and Maxwell Yeboah-Mensah*

#### **Abstract**

Using a longitudinal qualitative methodological approach, the study observed the life course and businesses of young people in the city of Accra over the period 2010 to 2023. The study explores the extent to which business engagement in the informal economy among young people contributes to their transitions into adulthood, and the sustainability of these transition gains. Initial observations demonstrated that, many of the young people were able to achieve transition gains, such as, financial independence, afford rental accommodation, provision of support for family and external relations while some were able to enter into marital and cohabiting relationships. However, the sustainability of these transition gains were challenged over time by factors such as poor business performance, difficult economic conditions and the COVID-19 pandemic. The study concludes by calling for financial and advisory support to reinvigorate the businesses and sustain the transitions achieved in the life course of the young people.

**Keywords:** transitions to adulthood, sustainability, young people, informal sector, Ghana

#### **1. Introduction**

Young people in many countries across the globe are confronted with several challenges including unemployment and attaining the status of adulthood [1, 2]. Across the African continent, improvement in economic performance over the past few decades have not been accompanied by improvements in employment opportunities for young people and this has affected the transitions of young people into adulthood. The employment situation confronting young people and the challenges in attaining the status of adulthood have been observed in the global North [3] and South as well [4]. However, the challenge is noted to be more pronounced in the global South compared to the North [5].

The challenges confronting the young people especially in Africa have made some scholars to cast various aspersions about their conditions and futures. Ref. [6] for

instance, have described the African youth as a group deprived of resources and stuck in a situation of perpetual waiting. Although frustrated with unemployment and transition challenges, the young people are not just a passive group who do nothing about their situation. Many do engage in several activities as a means of survival. Within the African continent for instance, the young people in an attempt to overtime the challenge of unemployment and making gains in social mobility do engage themselves in several informal economy activities, albeit with the prime objective of earning a living. One of the key sectors within the informal space that have engaged many of the young people in Africa over the past two decades is the rapidly changing mobile telephony sector. Many of the young people do indulge in informal support services of the mobile telephony sector including mobile money services and airtime, the sale of mobile phones and accessories, mobile phone repairs and other services such as transfer of music, and recharging of mobile phone batteries.

Although significant attention have been given to young people involved in informal businesses in Africa [4, 7, 8], very little is known about the benefits young people involved in informal businesses in Africa in particular derive from their engagement in these businesses, and more importantly, the extent to which informal business engagement among the youth contribute to their transitions into the assumption of adult roles or responsibilities. However, an exception is [4] who observed the business influence in the transitions of a group of young people over the period 2010–2017, and observed that engagement in the informal business contributes the young people enjoying financial independence, afford rental accommodation, provide support for family members, and establish and sustain households. What we do not know is the sustainability of these transition gains as a result of the youth engagement in the informal economy. It is in light of the above that this chapter explores the sustainability of young people's transitions using young people involved in the informal mobile telephony sector in the city of Accra as a case study. What is the current state of transitions among young people involved in business in the informal economy? How sustainable are transition gains among young people? An exploration of young people's transition gains and the sustainability of these transitions will contribute to the growing body of literature, which have called for policy support for young people involved in informal businesses generally, and the returns from business in the transitions of young in the global South and Africa to be precise.

#### **2. Young people, transitions to adulthood and business engagement: a theoretical perspective**

The United Nations defined the concept "youth" to constitute the age group 15 to 25 years, but this definition is different from that of the National Youth Policy of Ghana which defines youth to include the age group 15–35 years [9], similar to the definition of the African Youth Charter [10]. In the literature however, the terms "youth" and "young people" are frequently used interchangeably to refer to the same group [11], and we do likewise in this chapter. However, in order to get a greater understanding of young people's transitions and their lived experiences with a focus on the rights, duties, and responsibilities that they assume, youth is approached from a life course perspective. Young people who successfully take on these obligations and roles are considered to have acquired adulthood.

Early studies on young people's transitions into adulthood especially within the global North was defined as a process marked by a series of life events [12].

#### *Re-Examining Transitions to Adulthood among Young People Engaged in Informal Businesses… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.114027*

Thus, transitions were seen in the context of school-to-work where young people are expected to complete full-time education and begin work that will lead to attainment of economic independence. Transitions to adulthood were also defined in the context of household and family formation, which involves young people leaving parental home, forming a union – cohabitation or marriage, and becoming a parent. Overtime, transitions in many parts of the world have been observed not be a linear course. Rather, transitions have been observed to be late whereby events in the life course of young people tend to be delayed or postponed. In other instances, transitions to adulthood have protracted and have become complex at times [13].

Transitions to adulthood have also been observed in the context of personality development leading to the introduction of concepts such as emerging adulthood which constitutes the phase of life between adolescence and full-fledge adulthood with distinctive demographic, social, and psychological features [14, 15]. Emerging adults frequently examine a number of potential life directions in terms of love, employment, and worldviews since they have left the reliance of childhood and adolescence but have not yet accepted the enduring responsibilities that are normative in adulthood [16].

In the global South and in many parts of the African continent, transitions of young people into adulthood in the late 20th Century have been described as 'waithood' where many young people find themselves in perpetual state of waiting for a future that is becoming elusive [17]. The envisioned better lives of the young people in Africa for the future through work, education or migration have not materialised. The situation of waiting has also been worsened by the introduction of structural adjustment and neoliberal policy reforms which have worsened inequality, poverty, unequal access to resources and marginalisation with young people among the worst hit [18].

Consequently, the youth in Africa have experienced frustration, disillusion, despair or apathy and many of these experiences are becoming a way of life for many. The current experiences of the youth have led to several depictions in the literature. According to [19], the current generation of African adolescents is one that was born into social environments where chances of leading respectable lives are slim, with many of them ending up locked in situations of inadequacy with limited opportunities and dim prospects. [20] portrayed the youth in Africa as being "stuck" between childhood and adulthood, a situation described in equal measure as "waithood" [21, 22]. Waithood depicts the involuntarily prolonged adolescence of especially urban youth who are dealing with issues of poverty, unemployment, access to education, and more generally, social and political marginalisation [21, 22]. The young people are mostly deprived of resources required for attaining social adulthood (i.e. financial independence, marriage, family, household formation etc.) which leaves the youth in a perpetual state of waiting and this contributes to a feeling of dullness, frustration and indignity [6].

Despite the various characterisations of youth lives, there is a contrary perspective which points to the fact that the youth do engage in several activities in the process of waiting. The youth while waiting are noted to build relationships while engaging themselves in self-employment with many going into business activities in the informal economy [4, 23]. The informal economy has been observed as a provider of employment of last resort for many including young people [24]. Despite its significance, however, very little in terms of empirical research has explored the gains from the sector for many of the young people who continue to venture into various kinds of businesses in the sector. Additionally, the empirical literature has also not given attention to the influence of business engagement in the transitions of young people into adulthood,

and more importantly, the sustainability of these transitions. What is the current state of transitions into adulthood among young people? To what extent does young people's informal business engagements influence their transitions to adulthood? How sustainable are the transitions of young people involved in business in the informal economy in the city of Accra? By exploring these questions, the chapter aims to contribute in filling the knowledge gaps in the transitions of young people involved in businesses in the informal economy in the developing country city context while contributing to the youth transitions literature in Ghana and the African continent as a whole.

#### **3. Methodology**

The study utilised longitudinal qualitative methodological approach involving the use of life trajectory observations and biographical interviews conducted with young people involved in informal businesses in the mobile telephony sector over the period 2010 to 2023. Following an initial mapping exercise in the city of Accra in 2010, the lives and businesses of 11 young people operating various informal mobile phone businesses were tracked through repeated interviews over the period 2010–2013. Additionally, biographical interviews were conducted with 25 young people also involved in informal businesses in the mobile telephony sector such as mobile money and airtime services, the sale of mobile phones and accessories, mobile phone repairs and other services such as transfer of music, and recharging of mobile phone batteries. The interviews focussed on the young people's life course with particular attention given to how the businesses have changed over time and the key resources they have drawn on to sustain their businesses over the years and the gains in businesses in the transitions of the young people into adulthood. The ages of the young people ranged from 21 to 33 years with an average age of 25 at the time.

After a gap of 5 years, we revisited the young people and conducted repeat biographical interviews with 28 of them out of which 8 were females. The repeat interviews focused on similar issues earlier highlighted such as the life course and business, resources for business and the influence of business in the transitions of the young people into adulthood. In 2023, we revisited the young people and were able to conduct biographical interviews with 11 with three being females. The interviews focussed on discovering how the life course of the young people have evolved in over a decade, the current state of their businesses, the key resources they were drawing upon, and how gains in transitions reported in earlier rounds of interview have been sustained over the period.

With the over 10 years of rapport built with the respondents over the years, the latest round of interviews were conducted on the phone, and audio-recorded with the informed consent of respondents. The audio-recordings were transcribed verbatim and several readings of the data were done after which a manual analysis of the data was conducted leading to the determination of codes and themes, which in addition to data from preceding round of interviews constituted the analytical core of this chapter.

#### **4. Sustainability of young people's transitions**

Evidence from the repeated interviews with the young people conducted from 2010 to 2017 pointed to five thematic areas where the young people identified to have made transition gains as a result of their engagement in business in the mobile *Re-Examining Transitions to Adulthood among Young People Engaged in Informal Businesses… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.114027*

telephony sector. These themes include financial independence, support for family and social relations, ability to rent residential accommodation, marriage, and acquisition of land. We explore current state and sustainability of these transition gains in the life course of the young people as follows.

#### **4.1 Financial independence**

Although financial independence is noted as one of the most significant markers of young people's transitions into adulthood [4, 25], achieving financial independence has always proven difficult for many [26]. However, our interactions with young people involved in business in the mobile telephony sector over the period 2010 to 2017 have proven that they were able to achieve financial independence, and the achievement of financial independence among the young people cut across various business types and by gender. A typical instance, which reflects many of the cases is that of John who noted that, "This business has helped me … as I can say that I now have financial independence." Commenting on his status of achieving financing independence in 2017, Steve noted that, "I see a very bright future for myself, if I'm able to manage this business well. Everything is looking bright for me." Notwithstanding the positive responses from the young people regarding their business engagement in the transitions to financial independence, when we interviewed them again in 2023, the situation has completely changed. According to Steve, "After COVID, my business has never been the same. I do not make enough money as I used to". When we interviewed John in 2023 to further explore the current status of his financial independence which he alluded to be enjoying, he noted that, "I cannot say that I have enjoyed financial independence over the past few years as business has not been very good." Grace, commenting on her current status of financial independence observed as follows:

*In the early days of the mobile money business, the business was good and I made a lot of profit, but now it is common and it is difficult to make so much profit from the business. I cannot say I'm independent, financially.*

As captured in the narrative of Grace, there is keen competition in the informal mobile business space currently and this has reduced the profit margin for many operatives. The intense competition can be attributed to the low capital requirement for start-up for some of the businesses (for example, mobile money and airtime services) which has made it possible for many to enter the business space. With the increased number of young people starting businesses in the sector, many of the young people recently interviewed alluded that sales per person has reduced and hence profitability. With reduced profit margins, as observed in many of the narratives, it becomes difficult for the young people to sustain the financial independence which they alluded to be enjoying during the last round of interviews in 2017.

When asked about the state of financial independence, Esi who has been involved in mobile money business over the years noted that, "Oh not that much, something small now that the mobile money business has become common." The response of Esi, similar to that of Grace is reflective of many of the young people who complained about the increased number of people who have ventured into the mobile telephony sector with the view to earning a living, and thereby reducing the profitability and financial independence of the young people involved in business in the sector. The profitability of businesses and the transition gains in the mobile telephony sector and the informal economy as a whole is therefore linked to performance of the young

people's businesses. During periods when the business is experiencing a good turn in performance, financial independence of the young people as observed tends to be stronger and vice versa. It is therefore difficult to argue that the young people are enjoying a sustained transitions into the status of financial independence as a result of their engagement in business in the mobile telephony sector.

#### **4.2 Marriage and family sustenance**

Some of the young people in earlier round of interviews before 2017 had indicated that one of the greatest benefits from running their businesses is the fact that they have been able to regularise their marriages. Others are cohabiting but most of the young people indicated that were able to offer the needed support in these relationships. A typical example is Florence, who observed that, "Through this business, I'm able to offer support to my husband … in the payment of our children's school fees." When we interviewed Florence again in 2023 about the support she is providing in her marital relationship, she pointed out the capital boost she needs to sustain her business to be able to play her supportive role in her marriage.

*I've three children now and I use proceeds from this business in taking care of them. I need money to sustain the business. The more capital I invest into the business, the better the profit for me and the better the support I can give to my family but things are difficult now. (Florence, 26 years old mobile money vender).*

From the narratives, supporting in relationships is important for many of the young people although sustaining this support has at times proved challenging. The reason being that at times the business is not thriving, and the gains from the business is not enough or do not come at all. This makes it difficult for the young people to be able to offer the required support in their relationship. The way out as many alluded is to inject a bit more capital into the business.

Although the narratives indicate that the businesses of the young people are not performing well, many saw the need for capital injection into the businesses to enable them make more gains and sustains the transitions including marital sustenance, which they have assumed. It is therefore important to note that even though the young people have transitioned into marital or cohabiting relationships, their gains need to be sustained which calls for the businesses to flourish. Sustainability of the businesses which is very much linked to the sustainability of the young people's transition gains depends on the reinvestment into the businesses as well as favourable economic conditions in the country. In the words of Peter in the recent round of interviews, "The more sales I make, the better the profitability from my business and the more I'll be able to do for my family." The young people therefore continue to look out for opportunities to reinvest into the businesses. Other factors which have affected the sustainability of businesses and the support that the young people offer in their relationships including marriage is the difficult economic conditions over the past few years. Supporting arguments regarding the difficult economic conditions in the country which is adversely affecting businesses and transitions generally, Frank, a 38-year-old who deals in the sale of mobile phones stated as follows:

*Things have become difficult in the country and you need big capital to sustain your business. At times, you make sales but you cannot use the returns to buy items into your shop because prices of items have gone up significantly.*

*Re-Examining Transitions to Adulthood among Young People Engaged in Informal Businesses… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.114027*

Like many of the narratives, Peter's demonstrates that the capital base of the business of the young people is being eroded by high rates of inflation which threaten their businesses and sustainability of the any transition gains that have been achieved. A way out of the difficult economic conditions for many of the young people is the need to reinvest into the businesses, which many are doing or looking out for avenues to do in order to sustain the transition gains of supporting their marriages and other cohabiting relationships.

#### **4.3 Support for family relations**

Many of the young people, in the last round of interviews indicated that as a result of their engagement in informal businesses in the mobile telephony sector, they were able to offer support to their family relations which hitherto was not a possibility. This support comes in many forms including financial assistance to family relations and assisting in the payment of school fees for young siblings. This support was unlike what is dominant in the youth literature where young people are portrayed as recipients of assistance from familial relations [1, 27]. The support for family relations as observed cut across the various business groups and by gender where both young males and females were observed to be assisting family relations. In the recent round of interviews however, it was observed that this support has substantially reduced as the narratives indicate:

*I used to save money in the course of the year and during Christmas, I purchase food items and share with my relatives, but now, I'm unable to do that. I only support a niece of mine at the moment. Conditions are difficult now, and I can no longer support the people I was supporting. (Ryn, 34-year old phone dealer).*

Similar to Ryn's narrative, Florence, who runs a mobile money service noted that, "I have to adjust to the living conditions. It is unlike previous days when I could easily give out support to relations." The narratives show that the young people are unable to support as many relations as they used to do and this they attributed to the difficult business terrain in recent times. As captured by the narrative of Ryn above, many of the young people have to introduce readjustments in the way they support their relations which means that support in most instances is reduced. Despite the difficult period however, the young people indicated that they have not cut off support to relations entirely, but rather, support within their network of relations have been reduced in accordance with the new realities confronting them and their businesses.

#### **4.4 Ability to rent accommodation**

In the previous round of interviews, many of the young people studied indicated that they have gone through challenges with accommodation previously, however, they have been able to rent accommodation where they were staying while a few indicated that they are developing a place of their own. When we interviewed them again in 2023, many of the young people indicated that they are still able to rent despite the difficulties that the businesses are currently going through. Esi who is into mobile money services indicated in 2017 that, "… for four years now since I started this business, I have been able to rent a room where I stay with my two children." When we interviewed her in 2023, Esi, like many of the young people further stated that, "I am still renting but the business is not going well." What this means is that for many of the young people,

the ability to rent, just like other transition gains that the young people indicated they have achieved over the years is tied to the success of the businesses. More so, because of the critical nature of accommodation to many young people, even if the business is not thriving, they still need to channel however little gains they are making from their businesses into getting themselves a decent accommodation that they are occupying. Thus, although many of the young people spoke about the difficulties confronting their businesses, many have been able to sustain the gains of rental accommodation due to the significance with which they attach to the need for accommodation.

#### **5. Conclusions**

With difficulties in securing employment among young people across the African constituent and consequent challenges in making gains in transitions to adulthood and social mobility, some have ventured into informal enterprise activities in the mobile telephony sector [4]. These informal businesses initially appear to have secured many of these young people in the city of Accra an avenue where they were able to make some gains in their transitions into the assumption of some adult responsibilities as a result of stable income flows from their businesses. Although these jobs have provided avenues where the young people are able to secure livelihoods, the findings points to a strong link between the performance of the informal businesses of the young people and their transitions into adulthood, and more importantly the sustainability of any transition gains on the part of the young people studied. The difficult economic conditions in addition to the lack of finance for reinvestments that will reinvigorate the businesses and the transitions of the young people came out strongly among the greatest challenges to the sustainability of transitions to adulthood among the young people studied. The lack of finance for young people's businesses and the difficult economic conditions have been observed among the greatest challenges confronting businesses of young people in Africa [28, 29]. The constraints in the businesses of the young people as identified have implications on their transitions and sustainability of any transition gains achieved over the years.

The findings of the study also revealed the adverse effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the businesses of young people, and sustainability of any transition gains among young people. The devastating effects of the COVID-19 on the businesses of young people have been observed in many countries across the African continent [30, 31]. Specifically, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought about the situation where many small and informal businesses have experienced price fluctuations, production uncertainty and business discontinuity or unsustainability [30], while others are confronted with the challenge of raising resources for recapitalisation of their businesses [31]. The findings of the study confirms these challenges, in addition to the constraints which these challenges poses to the transitions and sustainability of any transition gains achieved by young people.

The informal businesses, and most especially the performance of the businesses, are important in the transitions to adulthood among the young people. However, any transition gains as observed need to be sustained in order to make a worthwhile experience in the life course of the young people. Considering the challenges of finance, the COVID-19 pandemic and general economic decline and their effects on the businesses of the young people studied, support in the form of financial assistance and technical advice are therefore very much needed to propel the businesses of the young people to greater heights.

*Re-Examining Transitions to Adulthood among Young People Engaged in Informal Businesses… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.114027*

#### **Disclosure statement**

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

#### **Author details**

Robert Lawrence Afutu-Kotey1 \* and Maxwell Yeboah-Mensah2

1 University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana

2 University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA), Accra, Ghana

\*Address all correspondence to: rafutu-kotey@ug.edu.gh

© 2023 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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#### **Chapter 4**

## Beyond Pressure and Perfectionism – Student Struggles in Contemporary Denmark from the Perspectives of Educational Counsellors

*Jeanett Bjønness and Margit Anne Petersen*

#### **Abstract**

This chapter explores the struggles that high school and university students in Denmark experience and try to cope with, through the perspectives of study counselors. Scholars have lately described a relation between students' felt pressures and an increase in diagnoses such as stress, anxiety, and depression as well as increases in the non-medical use of prescription pharmaceuticals for enhancement purposes. While counselors have a unique position in the educational system as someone who is there to support the students, they are also witnesses to the changes that student populations experience over time. The chapter is based on in-depth interviews with 36 counselors at different universities and high schools in Denmark and examines how counselors cope with new developments in the educational system as well as new kinds of student challenges and struggles that go beyond issues with performance and perfection.

**Keywords:** study counselors, students, educational structures, pressure, coping strategies, performance enhancement

#### **1. Introduction**

*Many of our students just long for a gray Monday. There aren't many completely normal days, where you as a student only attend classes and talk about the homework you have done for those classes (H5).*

This chapter is based on in-depth interviews with 36 counselors at universities and high schools in Denmark. As the quote alludes to, counselors note that students often long for a 'normal' day with no pressures to perform or obligations to present themselves in specific ways. While students' experiences are well-documented in research, experiences and perspectives from the point of view of educational counselors have been

less explored even though these experiences would make an important contribution to understanding the pressures and struggles students face in current educational contexts. Counselors have a unique position in the educational system as they are there to help while at the same time not being part of the teaching system. Furthermore, counselors not only see struggles existing within student populations but also witness how these struggles might change over time, as well as how recent developments in the policies and practices that govern educational programs, also might influence students' struggles. The chapter shows that counselors struggle with their role and possibilities to help students, and while the chapter mainly focuses on counselors' experiences and views of students' struggles with pressure and performance, we also describe how they deal with the fact that some students seek other solutions to their problems than asking counselors for help. As such, this chapter builds on the growing research interest concerning young adults and their overall well-being in the European and North American educational systems [1, 2]. It has been documented that as a result of an increasing focus on competition and achievement in Western Societies, many students feel highly pressured [3, 4] and several researchers have highlighted the relationship between the pressures experienced by students and an increase in diagnoses such as stress, anxiety, and depression [5, 6], and the increase in non-medical use of prescription pharmaceuticals for enhancement purposes among healthy college-students [7–14]. This is also the case in Denmark, where several reports bear witness to increases in anxiety, stress, and a general lack of wellbeing among young people [2, 3, 15–17]. A tendency for young people to use and misuse prescription medicines as a way of keeping up and performing in the Danish educational system has also been noted [18–22].

#### **2. Theoretical background**

An important theoretical point of departure for this chapter is that achievement seems to have become the ideal for a 'good life' and that the ideal self is an achieving self [2]. Even though modernity theorists [23–25] decades ago noted a growing space for individual self-construction and that the individual is less bounded than before, it seems that the poststructuralist self is not quite as 'unbounded' as these theorists have suggested [26]. On the contrary, a new kind of individual responsibility to construct self-hood seems to have developed. This kind of self has been linked to neoliberal societal values [27], that favor the predominantly active, efficient, and goal-oriented individual [15, 26, 28] and include an obligation to perform well.

In line with these more general sociological points, recent educational research also reports on an increasing focus on efficiency, performance, and accountability in educational policies in many Western societies. Devine et al. [29] suggest that this development places new demands on students, which again require a focus on competencies such as efficiency and goal orientation. According to recent Danish surveys, young people report decreases in well-being compared to a few years ago [17]. While young people's mental well-being is affected by various factors, external as well as internal, and the causes for a lack of well-being are manifold, we suggest that the overall social focus on performance may be one of the major factors relevant to this development. A similar point is made by Sørensen & Nielsen [30] who analyze the self-construction of young Danes. The young people they have interviewed seem to experience no self-evident right to subjectivity, and to regard subjectivity as something they are obliged to earn and create themselves (Ibid: 44). This means, the authors suggest, that the obligation to perform a specific kind of self is strong and

#### *Beyond Pressure and Perfectionism – Student Struggles in Contemporary Denmark... DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.113962*

that young people, out of fear of becoming 'abjected', and thus 'nobody' (Ibid: 36), seem to be inclined to act close to the ideals. In line with, for example, Willig [31], Sørensen & Nielsen argue that this obligation seems to be hard for young people to avoid or eliminate (see also [16]), and they see this new demand to be a flexible, responsible, and self-realizing individual (see also Refs. [27, 32]) as different from the demands of modern societies. They argue that 'the self' used to be 'closed', in the sense that there were relatively constant rules to follow, while in contemporary Western societies, the self is 'open', and that it is the obligation of young people to 'close' it by choosing the right ways to present themselves. The educational system, the authors argue, is a central arena of this self-construction.

Furthermore, one domain that seems to be increasingly important in the lives of young people is the increasing influence of social media. While researchers increasingly associate the focus on performance and perfection in young people's everyday lives, and especially in educational contexts, with their stress and dissatisfaction, several studies have recently focused on how social media might play a role in young people's images of achievement and perfection [33].

Considering the described general discursive and structural conditions and developments, we investigate how counselors understand students' conditions, struggles, and coping strategies, as well as how they contemplate their role in relation to the students in contemporary Denmark. Our analysis of the counselor's narratives is thus inspired by a poststructuralist perspective [34, 35], suggesting that counselors' (as well as the students') narratives are conditioned by and embedded in social and cultural notions and norms.

#### **3. Methods**

The chapter is the result of the analysis and comparison of interviews with educational counselors. The interviews formed part of three different datasets from related but separate research projects which included interviews with 36 counselors and 100 students. All three projects were concerned with the overall topic of performance enhancement and student struggles, primarily with a focus on the perspectives of the students themselves [12, 18, 21, 22]. In this chapter though, student struggles are analyzed through the lens of the educational counselors, and it outlines how counselors experience students' challenges and solutions, also in the cases where students handle their problems in other ways than asking them for help.

#### **3.1 Sample**

The interviews for the first two projects took place at Danish universities and high schools between 2014 and 2016, and the last interviews took place at Danish high schools in 2018 and 2019. All three projects have sought to construct a diverse sample of both high schools and universities, to include as many different experiences and perspectives as possible. This includes both urban and rural high schools, various universities as well and different study programs that attract different student populations, including both competitive and less competitive settings. That being said, we also relied on schools and universities' willingness to participate, and we recognize that the more resourceful institutions may have been more inclined to participate and that we relied on willing doorkeepers [36]. While our sample may not be representative, it nevertheless still covers a variety of perspectives.

The narrative data in this chapter come from in-depth qualitative face-to-face interviews with 36 study counselors from five different universities (U) and seven high schools in Denmark (H), conducted by the authors. The interviewees have worked as counselors between two and 25 years, there is a majority of women in the sample, and more than half have worked as counselors for over 10 years. We did not notice any differences between the experiences of male and female counselors, the main differences had more to do with the amount of time they had worked as counselors. While the interviews have belonged to different research projects, their focus and content are similar, addressing the themes also paramount in recent literature regarding student pressure and performance [2, 30].

We were particularly interested in exploring how counselors' views on students' struggles could contribute to the overall understanding of what students face in educational contexts in contemporary Denmark. The interviews focused on their individual experiences as counselors, both regarding recent political and structural developments in the educational system, the public discussions of performance pressure in media accounts, the kinds of problems students presented to them, and their knowledge of students' coping strategies including performance-enhancing substance use. The interview schedules were open-ended and participants were able to raise themes and issues that were not necessarily included in the interview schedule [37]. For example, the perceived changing role of parents and importance of social media were themes introduced by the counselors. All interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim.

#### **3.2 Analysis**

The empirical material was coded with Nvivo, using elaborate code trees with main codes and subcodes. We used thematic analysis [38] and discussed the material across the codes to identify patterns. In the analysis of the data, we were attentive to the ways in which the attitudes of the counselors reproduced or diverged from themes in public discourse or the media about education, performance, and perfection, which may affect the work life and attitudes of counselors. Furthermore, we paid attention to how themes raised by counselors resonated with and differed from the themes raised by students [12, 18, 21, 22]. Across all our data, our analysis suggests that many developments and considerations are emphasized by both counselors and students and between the different universities and schools, regardless of socio-cultural contexts and geographical locations.

The projects have been reported to the Danish Data Protection Agency. Our data collection is GDPR compliant and the research projects to which the data belongs have been followed by research groups of competent peers at Aarhus University.

#### **4. Results**

Overall, our analysis suggests that there are an increasing number of students who seek counseling. Counselors find that students seem to experience new demands concerning their study life, as well as regarding themselves as individuals, requiring new coping strategies. The analysis illuminates the ways in which counselors conceptualize and manage this development and illustrates that student everyday life, as well as counselors' role in the students' lives, have changed radically. Many of the counselors try to explain these new developments by pointing to not only increased pressures in the *Beyond Pressure and Perfectionism – Student Struggles in Contemporary Denmark... DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.113962*

education system but also by alluding to changes in leisure time and family life, including parental roles [30]. Furthermore, counselors are concerned about the increase in diagnoses among young people in general, as well as about indications that more students than before use performance-enhancing drugs. Finally, they are concerned about the pressure that is born of the requirement to present oneself as a successful being on social media [39]. The counselors reflect on how recent structural developments also cause new requirements for their daily work with the students. Among other things, they assume a more caregiving role than they used to and thus find themselves involved in tasks that they think ideally should be taken care of by the parents.

In the first section, we focus on how counselors describe the students they meet in the light of new demands for self-realization through perfection and achievement. In the second section, we take a closer look at how counselors view the background and implications of the students' challenges. Finally, in the last section, we present and discuss the counselors' experience with different coping strategies that students employ to meet their described changes and challenges.

#### **4.1 Perfection and achievement**

When we ask the counselors to describe the young people they meet in their counseling practice, they all (across our data sets) tend to describe contemporary students as concerned with perfection and grades.

*They want to… uhm… perform well. They are all very concerned about that and about their marks. That is what is important to them… they are very concerned about doing what they see as perfect (H5).*

The university counselor in the following quote, sees a tendency among the students to focus more on performance and results and he relates this to the new demands placed on students:

*Students can no longer take their time the way they once could. They are pressured to finish their studies fast, both because of limitations in the financial aid system and because they in a shorter time-span need to perform well if they want to get a good internship or a relevant student job, or perhaps get into an international study program (U1).*

Striving for perfection is not only a concern connected to grades and academic performance. Rather, it seems to reflect a more *general* tendency among young people to be concerned with perfection and achievement, not only to be the perfect student but also the perfect friend, partner, family member, intern, or whatever else they engage in [20, 21, 30, 40]. Furthermore, and related to the urge for perfection, according to the counselors, one of the main characteristics of the students is that they are goal-oriented. As a counselor at one of the central counseling offices for university students describes it, this 'perfectionism' may cause students to have problems handling situations they have not planned for:

*I always tell them; 'Yes, a truck can suddenly get stuck in the middle of your road. That is life. You have to learn that not everything will always be perfect. But this is very difficult for them to deal with. It is one of the challenges that we try to help them with (U7).*

Some counselors also relate the focus on perfection and grades to another important change: they note that the 'kinds' of students that seek help have changed and that the students they meet now are in many ways more resourceful than the ones they met earlier:

*Lately, after the progress reform, I get more students who have had a normal childhood, but who come with stress symptoms. So, there is a difference and I think we have just seen the beginning of it (U9).*

But even if the students, who seek counseling, seem more resourceful than before, often, the students themselves cannot explain what is wrong, other than feeling stressed or unhappy. As one high school counselor notes:

*Typically, they do not know what is wrong themselves. Some experience performance pressure which then triggers some anxiety. It is typically the girls who have anxiety, there are also boys, but it is especially the girls… It is clear that it is about having to appear perfect on a lot of parameters and at once and… that it triggers them… either panic anxiety or social anxiety, there are some contexts where (…) they cannot necessarily even say 'that's why I have anxiety'. But they can say 'I feel pressured both in this and that and that area' (H3).*

As the previous quote illustrates, and this is especially so for young women (see also [18]), the range of different expectations the students have for themselves often somehow "gets in the way" of well-being. One high school counselor talks about several young women who collapse in a high-school gym class, and he relates this incident to the pressure to have perfect looks:

*They are very preoccupied with the perfect look; it is important to look good to be good enough. Moreover, they come and tell me that it's awful that they've only got B and not A in some subjects - they seek out the teachers and want an explanation of what they can do better to get an A. They are very preoccupied with those grades (H5).*

Besides performing at school, the counselors experience that it is also important for young people, especially in high school, to perform in the peer group, and to be seen as popular, fun, or good-looking. Students who seek counseling often say that they are afraid of being excluded from the group and of being seen by peers as stupid or inadequate. This tendency to feel inadequate and insufficient is underscored by the following quote from a high school counselor:

*We have many more than before who feel inadequate. They do not use the word 'insufficient', but they say, 'I am not good enough'. And when I talk with them, it's the fear of being stupid and of being outside the group that preoccupies them. What do the others think about me? (…) That is something we've talked about in the group of student counselors - this has become much more widespread! Many of our students miss a gray Monday (H5).*

When asked, the counselor expands on the concept of a gray Monday, explaining that the students need "ordinary and predictable days, where they know what to do". *Beyond Pressure and Perfectionism – Student Struggles in Contemporary Denmark... DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.113962*

He thinks that many of the students find that the expectations are too high and that they meet (too) high demands for levels of reflexivity and independence.

Many of the counselors note that the demand to work independently and the pressure to be reflective is growing, and there is great pressure to constantly start new projects and meet multiple deadlines. They find that the pressure experienced by the students is very 'real', and they note the same tendency in their own work lives: "In our own schedule as study counselors - many more assignments come in" (H9).

Related to this, and regardless of where in the educational system they are working, almost all the counselors notice that one of the challenges that students face is the ability to structure their time. Having to navigate many different projects and subjects as well as social and extracurricular activities is in itself a difficult task, and with the added pressure to perform well it becomes even more difficult:

*We did a little 'study' of our own, looking at what the main reasons for seeking help at the counseling office were. Apart from lack of self-confidence, time management was a major issue (U7).*

Many counselors note that strongly related to the anxiety of wasting time is a growing goal-orientation among the students. A university counselor explains that the students who are in the phase of applying to schools or universities are very concerned about making the right choices:

*One of the things I have felt most clearly during the 4 years I have worked here is that there has been more goal orientation among the students, especially those who seek us out: 'If I start here, what opportunities do I have? What can I end up with? What choices should I make?' (…) These are people who have not started at all yet (…) they make plans, and if at some point they have to deviate from this plan, then they feel that they have wasted their time in some way. And I think that is a pressure for them, to be sure not to waste time or resources or limited financial aid (U12).*

Some of the high school counselors see it as their task to explain to the students that more than grades, it is important to focus on well-being and a curiosity to learn. But then, as one counselor explains:

*Then the students smile at me and say 'yes, but we know very well what reality is like - we must have an A in average to get into our dream study. So, it is worthless to focus on well-being' (H5).*

This seeming lack of confidence among students in their own ability to influence the general circumstances is something many counselors experience, and while it is more pronounced in the high school domain, several traits of it also exist within the universities. Furthermore, while there are some differences in how striving for perfection and focusing on achievement is challenging for young people, who seek counseling in high schools and universities, overall, they seem to experience many of the same kinds of problems in their everyday lives. This points to a more general problem that may be less connected to the specific level of education or type of situation a young person is in and more to a general societal and cultural phenomenon.

#### **4.2 Recent reforms and changes in the study counselor role**

Overall, study counselors are quite concerned with recent reforms of the educational system which is also described in research [39, 41]. They find that recent changes in Denmark, for example, the implementation of the 'progress reform' in 2005, has had a large influence not only on the educational pressure that students must deal with but also on their own role and ability to help students, who face difficulties. One high school counselor, who is also a teacher with nearly 20 years of work experience, reflects on this:

*It is quite frustrating to have to live up to all these demands that come from outside the educational system. Things have changed a lot…with these reforms… I thought, great, we are going to get much more time with the students, more time to talk with them. But that was not the case at all. It was all about working more. In fact, we are getting less and less time. Both in teaching and in general (H2).*

The counselors attribute the experience of teachers and counselors having less time with the students to the continual pressure from the government to change procedures. Especially the older, more experienced counselors underline the increased time pressure and the fact that more students demand their assistance only adds to the time pressure.

These changes have increased pressures both on counselors' time and their performance. Some counselors also note that this development may relate to what has been described in recent literature, that academic education has become more of an ideal in the overall discourse on youth [2, 3, 6]. Many counselors believe that this development may lead young people to believe that performing academically is the only way to perform a successful youth identity:

*I think many more young people choose and are admitted to university than used to be the case. Earlier, it was not for everyone, but now it seems that everyone is somehow pressured into getting a university degree, even if it is not really their thing (U4).*

The counselors are concerned with the ways in which recent developments; reforms and an increase in the presence of students with diagnoses such as anxiety, depression, and stress, influence both the students' lives and their own daily work as counselors. The more experienced counselors find that the students they meet often have other and more serious problems than the students who approached them before the reforms. In fact, sometimes, counselors find that helping students is beyond their ability as study counselors. The counselors reflect on these changes, and in the following, we describe the four main developments that counselors see as "game-changers" in their own work life: increases in students with diagnoses; parents' changing roles; increasing loneliness among students; and the presence of social media in students' lives.

#### **4.3 Student pressures and an increase in diagnoses**

The counselors experience that the combination of the performance-based 'measurement culture' with the increased time pressure creates new requirements and a more stressful situation for many students [12, 18, 20].

*Beyond Pressure and Perfectionism – Student Struggles in Contemporary Denmark... DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.113962*

*Many students experience that they are not good enough. And then there is a hassle in the family, and the boyfriend splitting up, or the housing situation is unsafe (…) These things have always been talked about, but what we've seen escalate over several years is about performance and perfectionism. This affects all students (…) Perfectionism is not just being very ambitious, but as something unhealthy, almost pathological, and you scold yourself because you got a B and not an A. (U6)*

Study counselors, especially at high schools, suggest that increasing demands, while simultaneously having less access to face-to-face contact with teachers, may contribute to the problems experienced by students:

*Many have a diagnosis…. A lot of them are anxious. We try to help them develop strategies that they might be able to take with them further on in their studies… our role as counselors has really changed. It used to mainly be concerned with electives and study requirements, and of course absence from school, which we still deal with, but then we talk about why they have been absent, and then all the problems surface (H5).*

The more experienced high school counselors recall that, some years ago, they helped more with, for example, choice of subject and absences from classes, while now they increasingly help with problems such as vulnerability related to anxiety and depression. Especially high school counselors have noticed that particularly the youngest students over the last decade or so, have started to seek help from counselors regarding new kinds of challenges in the educational system:

*I really like to feel that I make a difference for the students. Those who don't really have adults in their lives, at least they have a study counselor in whom they can confide. Because it is important to have grownups who you can share your thoughts and problems with…. you know, the pressure has increased, and the students use me for more things than earlier on…I really feel that many of them are much more vulnerable than what we have seen before (H5).*

As this last quote illustrates, one common concern about the growing vulnerability of students is that they seem to lack responsible adults in their lives.

#### **4.4 The role of parents**

Both high school counselors and university counselors underscore the importance of family support for the well-being of students, but quite a few of them hear from students that they feel that their parents lack interest and that they do not feel supported by them. An experienced university counselor (U13) cites a student he met in counseling: "*Now I am a first-generation academic, a true pattern breaker, and there is no one in my background who understands me. I feel extremely lonely*." On the other hand, counselors also often hear of parents who, in the eyes of the students, expect too much from their children. This is sometimes when parents are very well educated, and the student feels pressured to live up to that. Finally, counselors mention that some students live with a single or vulnerable parent and may be afraid to bother them with their problems.

Quite a few of the high school counselors describe that students often experience distance in relation to their parents and that they lack an adult with whom they have a confidential relationship. Sometimes, when high school counselors invite parents to meetings, the parents have no idea what their child is struggling with:

*Sometimes it comes as a surprise to the parents how big the problem is. And many of the students we see feel that their parents are not really present in their everyday lives (H5).*

There is a general tendency that counselors are increasingly experiencing having to take care of tasks that they think of as parental tasks, such as care and recognition.

#### **4.5 Loneliness**

A growing problem that counselors struggle to help students with is the issue of loneliness and a sense of feeling different. In a recent study about Danish university students, one out of four participants described themselves as lonely in their study environment [42], and our interviews showed that this may manifest itself in many ways. One university counselor gives the following examples:

*It can be: "Now I am a first-generation academic, and there is not anyone in my background who understands me. I feel that I am extremely alone with this". Or: "I come from a home where both my parents have Ph.D. degrees and I think there is so much I have to live up to intellectually". I might see slightly different versions of it depending on the background. But I might see it with all types of backgrounds (U5).*

Although loneliness is a theme both among university and high school counselors, it is more upfront among high school counselors. Many of them are concerned with an increasing number of young people feeling alone and socially excluded:

*Typically, they come to my office and say, 'I want to change class'. And when you ask 'why?' You find that it's not about the teachers, it's not about them thinking they're in the right school with the right subjects, but that they cannot identify themselves with their classmates. And that can seem somehow strange because 5-6 students can come to see me from the same class and say the same thing, right? They all feel alone and seem to think that all the others have someone to talk to (H3).*

Many counselors experience that loneliness may be one of the most difficult problems for high school students to handle because there seems to be a kind of taboo attached to it. In contemporary Denmark, where the main requirement is to be active, goal-oriented, socially visible, and popular [2, 26], it may be especially hard to talk about feeling lonely:

*In the last two or three years, I think loneliness has been an ever-increasing problem. Before that, they approached me with challenges like stress and assignments and… Now I think that loneliness, is definitely top one of things they come to me with (…) And it's not because we do not have stressed students today, we certainly still have (H3).*

Many of the high school counselors we interviewed are concerned about the degree to which loneliness preoccupies students and about how common it is. And they find it hard to handle:

*Beyond Pressure and Perfectionism – Student Struggles in Contemporary Denmark... DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.113962*

*If they say, 'I suspect I have depression' or if they talk about symptoms of anxiety, then it is pretty easy to say: 'You need to go to your doctor'. But what do you say to a young person who is lonely? I actually think that's harder, right? … There is not necessarily anything wrong. They just don't thrive (…) Sometimes you can find some explanations… But often they are just not really happy, and they think it is difficult when everyone else has a lot more fun than themselves (H7).*

In general, the high school counselors note that the feeling of not being popular is an important concern of the students they meet in counseling. The feeling of inadequacy is described by, among others, Alain Ehrenberg [43], who is concerned exactly with the distance between what societies expect, and what individuals can live up to. Bjønness [18] for example describes how students experience a discrepancy between what is expected from them as students and friends, and what they can do or perform. This discrepancy, according to the counselors, is made even more present for the students as a result of the increasing role of social media.

#### **4.6 Social media**

Counselors both at high schools and universities generally agree that much of the academic and social imperative for success, and the related stress and loneliness, may relate to the emerging culture of documenting and presenting oneself through social media. They note that the way young people interact has changed a lot and that platforms such as Facebook and Instagram are used to receive positive feedback from friends [44]. This creates an environment of comparison and competition, which, for some young people, may be hard to live up to [33].

Many of the counselors argue that social media may contribute to the feeling of being alone:

*We have talked about in the student counselor group that… it is harder to be young today. Because there is a requirement that you must be on social media. You cannot just opt out. And it is 24/7 that you are on communities on social media. The phone must be switched off during teaching, but as soon as the break is there, they pick it up - because they must check if there is something they have to comment on (…), and that puts pressure on them (…) Fear of missing out, right? Especially among the group of students who want to perform well (H5).*

Some counselors are concerned, that young people who feel that they are already marginalized may feel that social media amplifies their sense of marginality:

*They typically have a class chat on Messenger or Facebook - and when they have written on the chat 'Is there anyone who wants to join something' and they get no answer - they can see that everyone has seen their questions and then of course they feel extremely humiliated to have asked and no one answers. And then maybe someone else asks something and then everyone answers all of a sudden (…)They know very well, intellectually, that it is a snapshot and that it is not necessarily the whole reality, but they still have the feeling that they are never in those pictures (…) those who are lonely, they also have a tendency to withdraw so they are not included in those class chats, they end up opting out of everything (H3).*

Counselors at both university and high schools are concerned with the felt requirement among students to be on social media all the time:

*We are more and more experiencing those "FOMOs" - fear of missing out - tendencies. It is rare that one simply experiences a student who takes the consequence and erases himself – it is mostly as if the mobile phone is being tattooed on their hand. It sits there constantly, and it must be on constantly. They are so scared of missing something. FOMOs are here to stay. One should preferably look like someone who is constantly in touch and constantly busy, all the time, fresh, and smart (U12).*

Besides providing a means to become included, social media is also about promoting oneself, showing that one is both having fun and doing well in work and studies. Some counselors talk about certain students as 'overachievers', who want to show their success in all aspects of their lives [3, 21], but that even among the students, who do not fit into this description, there is a kind of tacit requirement to engage in this self-promotion. Several counselors find this hard to resolve, and many relate this hardship to the fact that their own youth experience was so different from what the students experience today. They find it difficult to fully understand and live up to technological changes and the student's perceived need to constantly engage with social media.

We have until now described recent changes from the perspective of educational counselors, but the tendencies described above are also central in our interviews with students as described elsewhere [12, 18, 39]. In the next section, we discuss how the counselors understand some of the different coping strategies used by students.

#### **4.7 The emergence of new coping strategies**

Many students in both high school and university do not seek counseling [21, 39]. Such students often do not expect that counselors could be helpful in solving the struggles they deal with, and some students understand seeking help as admitting to not being in control of things. Students who do not seek counseling sometimes seek alternative strategies, outside the educational system [21]. However, counselors have noted that even though the students do not approach the counselor to talk through their problems, they sometimes ask the counselor's advice about how to get a doctor's note, a diagnosis, or a sick leave, to give space and time to deal with what they are going through:

*Many students take sick leave or get a doctor's note so that they can postpone their exams or papers. This is another way of saving time in the system (U3).*

While the counselors acknowledge that these can be necessary solutions, several of them suggest that these strategies are sometimes used to deal with a situation that perhaps could have been helped in other ways:

*With certain diagnoses, students get more time for an exam, and this can of course really help those who need it. But I can't help wondering if some of the diagnoses that are made, might be strategies for coping with an educational system (U1).*

The counselors seem to acknowledge that these kinds of strategies may be used as ways of dealing with an educational system that often does not encompass enough time and flexibility. In some ways, this might be understood as related to processes of (bio)medicalization [45, 46]. This is not necessarily because students and counselors see their problems as pathological or belonging to the medical

*Beyond Pressure and Perfectionism – Student Struggles in Contemporary Denmark... DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.113962*

realm but because they have figured out that medical documents and explanations may constitute a more legitimate and productive way to achieve help. As this university counselor notes:

*Problems with non-wellbeing take up more and more space in our work (…) earlier on a diagnosis had negative connotations… today it provides access to various resources (U10).*

But while some students choose to cope with challenges such as concentration, time pressure, procrastination, motivation, and self-confidence via the official healthcare system, counselors note that others choose to acquire and consume pharmaceuticals non-medically [18, 20, 39, 47].

*I have had a few students, in the last 6 months, who have said that it is difficult to get an appointment at the psychiatrist's office and that many want to get an ADHD diagnosis because then they have access to the medicine. I asked one of them if he knew people who did that, and he said yes. He did not think it was because they felt they had ADHD, but rather in order to get access to the drugs (U7).*

Using doctors as access to prescription stimulants for non-medical purposes corresponds with what previous studies have shown [48] and can be understood as yet another version of turning more general problems into medical ones [2, 15, 46]. Several scholars have pointed to the blurred boundaries between enhancement and treatment in the use of pharmaceutical enhancers [49, 50] and research has documented how the knowledge about such practices spreads fast in and beyond student populations through peers, as well as on social media [48, 51]. While there is not much survey research in a Danish context, a bi-annual survey focusing on student life and well-being shows that 7% of students use different substances to handle pressures, including caffeine pills, beta-blockers, prescription stimulants, and alcohol [19]. Many of the counselors are aware of the non-medical use of Ritalin and other ADHD medicines but, they have so far been more focused on cannabis use, particularly in high school settings, which seems to be somewhat normalized among Danish students. Most of the counselors do not seem to worry much about the use of cannabis, and they also meet students who thrive despite using cannabis. Jens (H19) says that some students may experience pressure, but in his view, that is not because they use cannabis. On the contrary, Jens says: "Rather smoke cannabis and be a part of a group, than be lonely". Counselors may also experience cannabis use as a problem though, for example when it is used because the young student cannot afford to buy medicine for their conditions:

*I have experienced some students who smoke some cannabis because they cannot afford their prescribed medicine, or who have forgotten to buy it. Maybe they just moved from their parents, and just can't get it done (H8).*

At universities, the use of pharmaceutical enhancers like Ritalin is a topic of concern, but most counselors think that there are more cases than reported, because they expect that students would not come to them and talk about such use:

*Many students would be ashamed to use study drugs. When you read about the culture, for example in American universities, they are very open about their use of study*  *drugs. But most of our students would feel that it was cheating. So, some students might do it, but they would keep it to themselves. They would not tell us (U 13).*

Previous research confirms that, in a Danish context, students tend to keep their non-medical use of prescription stimulants a secret, also from counselors, because it is not normalized and accepted to the extent that it is in a North American context but also because most of the students do not conceptualize their use of such drugs as problematic [52]. While counselors recognize that using substances to manage student pressures occurs without them knowing much about it, they do not isolate this 'misuse' from other coping strategies, such as doctor's notes, sick leaves, or, as this high school counselor points out, self-hurting behavior:

*If not all, then at least a very high percentage of our students have found some strategies to either relieve their 'pains' or get a little recognition. And it is not only drug misuse. It can also be 'cutting'. Or other kinds of self-inflicted pain. Eating disorders also. But probably the most common is drug misuse (H21).*

Many counselors make a link between study reforms and the indications that more students use performance-enhancing substances, suggesting that the system pressures young people into 'boosting' themselves with substances:

*One could imagine that progress means that one says: "Well, when we are now more pressured in relation to the fact that we have to pass the exam on the first attempt, I just take some Ritalin or an extra-large handful of caffeine pills to be able to handle it". You may realize that we have a new phenomenon, but whether it means pulling the behavior in one direction or another, you do not know until you see it happen (U13).*

But some counselors recall that substances were also used years ago when they were students themselves:

*I remember we used caffeine pills back then. In a way, it is not that different from what students are doing now, but I guess there is a difference between caffeine and ADHD medicine. And there is a difference in how we felt back then, and how I see the students feeling now. When I was a student, caffeine pills were not even illegal (U1).*

While what this counselor suggests implies that functional drug use [50] is not a new phenomenon, the particularities of the drug use may well be very different nowadays. None of the more experienced counselors recall such discourses on 'mental well-being' or 'being the best version of oneself' that currently dominates the focus among many young people.

#### **5. Conclusion**

In this chapter, we have illustrated some of the common challenges that exist among Danish high school and university students from the perspective of educational counselors. While students often ask counselors for help with problems that relate to overall struggles with pressure and perfection, our study also reveals how

*Beyond Pressure and Perfectionism – Student Struggles in Contemporary Denmark... DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.113962*

recent changes in discourses about performance in Danish society, reforms of educational structures, as well as technological changes affect not only students' lives, circumstances, and struggles but also how counselors are (and are not) able to live up to new demands and roles.

This illustrates, as some theorists argue, that individuals are less bounded than earlier [24, 25], but also that rather than unboundedness, it may be a matter of new kinds of boundedness. It seems that both students' and counselors' narratives confirm that rather than fewer boundaries for individuals, new ones are emerging. Both student's and counselor's narratives indicate that the main obligation is to perform well and to present, build, and promote oneself (also on social media) as an efficient, goal-oriented, and socially competent individual [10, 26, 28, 53]. These new requirements seem to create new challenges both for young people, especially the youngest students, in the Danish educational system, as well as for the counselors' ability to understand and help. There is a concern among the counselors about the growing number of diagnoses and loneliness among students, and how this development relates to recent reforms in the educational system, and to the more general development towards 'the performance society'.

Given the quite unison concerns in much research, as well as among counselors and students in our Danish context, we find that more attention should be paid to not only the consequences of the increasing pressures to perform which seems to influence the well-being of young people, but also to the political and cultural structures in which these pressures exist.

#### **Conflict of interest**

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

#### **Author details**

Jeanett Bjønness\* and Margit Anne Petersen Centre for Drug Research, Aarhus University, Denmark

\*Address all correspondence to: jb.crf@psy.au.dk

© 2023 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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#### **Chapter 5**

## Enabling Meaningfulness with Young NEETs in the Nordic Region

*Anna Karlsdóttir*

#### **Abstract**

This chapter focuses on diverse possibilities to engage in mobilizing young adults to meaningful activities within an ever larger and more varied group of marginalized youth in the Nordic countries. A pan Nordic study, commissioned by the Nordic Council of Ministers committee of officials for sustainable rural regional development in 2017–2019, was driven by the need to better understand the situation of these marginalized young adults. This chapter is based on this Nordic project and will present some local and regional processes with serious mismatch problems relating to youth education and validity in the local and regional labour market in the Nordic countries. We ask what characterizes the group of youth and rising number of young adults in the age 18–30 that seems to lose meaningfulness during their education and drop out, and who do not engage in training and have hard time becoming employed. What explanations do other studies on NEETs (not in education, employment, or training) provide? Which initiatives to mobilize young people have worked and in what context in the Nordic countries, so far?

**Keywords:** early school leaving, Nordic region, NEETs, youth, mobilizing, re-engagement, motivation

#### **1. Introduction**

The working title of the project, which this article is product of, is "A rural perspective on spatial disparities of education and employment outcomes" conducted within the Nordic Thematic Group on Sustainable Rural Regional Development. In this group of officials and representatives from individual Nordic countries, we were wondering what could explain rural youths'situation in the local and regional labour market. Their engagement varied substantially from one region to another. How come there were mismatch problems, the skills needed in the regional labour market were not being met by their competences [1, 2]. There has been substantial national discussion in each of the Nordic countries on why dropouts from school vary so much in between regions. While we do not hold the ultimate evidence as to why, all research in the field points to the idea that early school leaving has significant societal and individual consequences. In each of the Nordic countries, there had been debates previously on why there were rising school dropouts from secondary school and why the regional variation was so significant. We have not come to terms with all the

combination of factors explaining why but many previous studies conclude that dropout rates are a mix of personal and societal factors. However, they are costly for the state and regional authorities, the society as a whole because they can lead to longterm negative consequences for numerous people. Staying a bit longer in school, even just a year longer, even without graduating can mean an income increase in lifetime earnings by 4–10% [3]. Negative implications for individual early school leavers may mean long-term unemployment, in the worst cases risk of poverty and social exclusion. Furthermore, many of the personal costs may not be immediately observable but gradually impoverish and deteriorate the mental health among the persons involved [2–4].

#### **2. Early school leavers and NEETs (not in education, employment, or training), why and who are they?**

A longitudinal study conducted in each of the Nordic countries for 15 years (1993– 2008) on youth unemployment and inactivity concluded there were significant differences between countries. It focused on cross-country comparison of school-to-work transitions and labour market outcomes in four Nordic countries [5]. Many early school leavers where either in work or enrolled in a study programme when at the age of 21 [5]. This means that early school leavers do not necessarily end up unemployed. Dropouts from compulsory schools do follow different trajectories and these combined with family background and support may be strong predictors of where you end up in the labour market [5]. Demographic development consequences on youth often relate to disruption between school and community. Therefore, the likelihood of leaving school early increases, depending on vulnerabilities in social class, gender, and ethnicity [6–8]. They are intersectional and intertwined into broader social backgrounds like family and community where the school and persons are situated. They do not exclusively explain early dropout but may contribute to understand the social process dynamics that are generated by a mixture of structural conditions and individual decisions [2, 9, 10].

Some of the risks are directly linked to a weak social background. Also, young males seem to be at higher risk of getting disengaged. Furthermore, pupils with immigrant background are more exposed to drop out early [11]. Danish and Finnish studies also found that parents' income levels and educational background seem to affect aspirations and performance among youth in education [12, 13].

Many studies acknowledge that the social and economic status of youth has an impact on the propensity of dropping out from school [6, 7, 14]. However, it is important not to underestimate the spectrum of various social and economic conditions that can affect early school leaving. Employment situation, unstable housing conditions, bad health conditions, and residence stability vs. moving around are important stressors or enablers affecting young people's choices or no choices. Furthermore, it cannot be underestimated to have parents' backup to become educated. If parents have negative attitudes, and children lack supervision, and there is in general little interaction with children and youth in their daily lives, this may harm the schooling experience [11]. Finnish, Danish, and Swedish research point to the fact that there is a social inheritance factor among youth most exposed to social disadvantages. Children of parents in weak labour market positions, with low incomes and basic education, have higher probabilities of dropping out of education [15, 16].

The 18–24-year-old school dropouts, by sex, between 2012 and 2017 were mapped in the Nordic countries based on available statistics disaggregated onto a regional

#### *Enabling Meaningfulness with Young NEETs in the Nordic Region DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.114103*

level. In the map, you see the early school leaving rates and comparing the maps it turns out that the rates have dropped in this five-year period. More youth is staying in schools. However, in Denmark and S-Finland dropout rates among young males have been on the increase. In general, males are more prone to dropping out, even if the gender gap is narrow. Three regions in Norway (Hedmark, Oppland, and Trondelag) show most significant improvement in declining dropout rates. Young women in Sweden showcase increased tendency to drop out from school, seemingly due to various causes triggering mental health challenges (**Figure 1**) [2].

In Iceland, the gender gap is noticeable. Young males have 10 times higher risk of dropping out than females. Some of the explanations rest on grades, lifestyle priorities, and too loose requirements from the schools [17]. While females perform well, males underperform them in academic achievements demotivating their school curriculum ambitions. Many Icelandic schools are flexible in terms of students coming and going, but in effect it affects and causes lack of compulsion. While females' reasons for leaving school early may be caused by forming a family main reason, for males it is finding a good job. Overall, in Iceland, a country where unemployment rate is almost nonexisting, and lack of labour is almost constant, the attractiveness of the labour market influences motivation to stay for a long time in the schooling system. Thus, there is a significant economic incentive, which at first means for many combining work with studies, and eventually may lead to work ruling life, rather than educational choices [18, 19].

Other factors mentioned by various studies being the main trigger for students to leave school are lack of interest and boredom in school, experience of mocking, feeling low, or being broke [20].

In Norway [21], boys and girls are even in performance, so there was no statistical significance in probabilities of early school leaving [22].

There are minor gender differences in early school leaving in Sweden and Finland suggesting other factors at play. More recent longitudinal and qualitative study from Norway addresses the need to shift focus from socio-economic background and gender as a reason onto looking at dropping out as an interaction between the person and the system. Young people who are allowed to tell about the experience in their own words say that there was a long preceding time where this possibility was roaming in their minds, in some cases years before they ended up leaving school. Social interactions between the students and the teachers and other representatives of the structure have to be considered and taken into account as part of understanding why people end up leaving school [21]. From a gender point of view, it is necessary to move beyond the binary gender understanding, framing that the males are losing to the other gender, the female—but look to broader perspectives like impacts of student's social backgrounds on how they are tested, marked, and graded [23]. Swedish students with immigrant background leave school earlier at more than double rate than native Swedes [24]. Even if nonobservable in statistics, there is also tendency among younger and younger primary school pupils to stop attending school and become long-term school avoiders. However, much further research on that is needed. Seemingly segregation and inequality are on the rise in Sweden [25]. A debate on privatization of schools in Sweden and the marketization of premises of education has at times been loaded in Sweden, underpinned by supporting studies [26]. Increased competition with socially segregated schools as an effect is considered to be a negative development for many pupils. Schools compete internally to attract the best students and reject the weakest ones, with the aim of boosting their reputation and thus expanding their pool of customers. Additionally, students from advantaged backgrounds benefit

#### **Figure 1.**

*Dropouts from education and training, by sex, during 2012–2017.*

from segregation because the best schools are found in their neighborhoods [26]. These priorities spur inequalities and have implications not only within urban areas but also between urban and rural areas. Rural youth experiences reduced educational opportunities because of competition. They find themselves in a dilemma of staying or moving to big cities to continue their careers. This may challenge education possibilities for some young people. Affording the expenses of commuting besides covering living costs far away from family and home is not available to all pupils [26].

Although early school leaving rates in the Nordic countries are not strikingly high from a European perspective, the issue remains a concern. Not least because formal education is fundamental to accessing the labour market. The link between early school leaving and NEETs is thus clear. In fact, research highlights the higher probability for school leavers to become NEETs [27, 28].

#### **3. Who are the NEETs?**

An emerging group of young people who fall out of the established systems is the so-called NEETs, an abbreviation of not in education, employment, or training. The NEET rate means it is the share of youth population not enrolled or involved in education, employment, or training (NEET) [2, 29]. This group has existed for decades and is in danger of social marginalization.

The literature on NEETs is extensive in both defining the term conceptually [30–32] and identifying what are the relevant factors causing the situation of being NEET [33–35]. Although they are different groups, NEETs have in some cases been included in the category of early school leavers [36]. The relationship between these two groups is evident because, usually, leaving school without a qualification may address significant barriers for young people to join the labour market and, thus, they may risk becoming NEET [27]. Because of the continuity of that process, there are similar underlying factors that help to explain why young people become marginalized even in affluent societies.

One key methodological issue encountered when researching the group of young NEETs pertains to the definitions of the concepts of young and NEETs. Being aware of the heterogeneity of a diverse group, even if categorized as NEETs in the statistics, is essential. Despite how the system perceives or categorizes them, they are a diverse group of human beings. These young people may have little in common other than the trauma of not being accepted which interrupted their straight transition into adulthood [32, 37, 38]. **Figure 2** shows the percentage of NEETs in four Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Sweden, and Norway) by age and degree of urbanization and regions domestically. The overview showcases that Sweden and Norway have less NEET ratio than their neighboring countries Denmark and Finland. We can identify two trends. The first is that NEET rates tend to remain low for the 15–19 age group. Most likely because major part of young people are still enrolled in education. However, NEET rates increase steadily for every age group, so that those aged 25–29 years are the most affected. The second trend is that cities systematically show lower NEET rates than towns and suburbs, and rural areas in the Nordic region (**Figure 3**).

#### **4. Different types of challenges characterized**

Why is it important to understand that there are different underlying causes for why young people face marginalization in school, hence drop out and possibly deal with reduced functionality for a time or even rest of their life? Our approach is sociogeographical, in that we want to understand the distribution of young people who are not thriving in the Nordic welfare societies. Our point of departure was to investigate

**Figure 2.**

*Percentage of NEETs in Nordic countries by age and degree of urbanization, 2017.* Source: *[2, 29].*

regional spatial differences of match making as many of the regions where NEETs have been on the increase are also facing shortage of labour in certain sectors. The focus and evidence of an emerging rise in declining mental well-being among young people has furthermore been most investigated in urban areas, but we also have evidence that this situation has been growing in the rural areas. Spurring this research therefore fills a gap in research knowledge otherwise dominated by focus on urban youth. The study would merely be topographic if not for wanting also to understand and find some socio-psychological explanatory frameworks asking why. We have thus sought to enhance our understanding beyond the conventional disciplinary focus of spatial regional variations. Numerous studies have tried to figure out how NEETs are, but fewer have given meaningful explanations that prove useful as tool to develop measures helpful for the group(s) in focus. Since part of our task was to explore initiatives taken to mobilize and re-engage young people. In our approach, we rest ontologically on an understanding that humans and the young involved are equipped with several qualities and talents that may best be described as multiple intelligences which indicate that there are many ways of learning and knowing [39], but that there are conditions in their environment that may prohibit them from becoming thriving citizens.

Ontologically we rest on the understanding that humans nondependent of age need to feel that what they do is meaningful. We relate to studies done among young Greenlanders whose suicidal rate is uncomfortably high [40] in global comparison. It bases its theoretical framework on the work from Yalom [41], where he describes the four major ultimate concerns that resonate with us. These are death, meaninglessness, isolation, and freedom. These are an inescapable part of being human and in young people's lives a crucial part of the formation towards adulthood [41]. Losing meaning deserves more attention in a society that changes rapidly and moves from being manageable to being experienced as opaque. Intricate structures are often

**Figure 3.** *NEET rates in Nordic countries, 2017.*

characterized by this basic condition [40]. We as humans seek a meaning when some insurmountable, incomprehensible, unjust, senseless things happen in our lives [40].

Aaltonen, Berg, and Ikäheimo suggested a framework we have found useful [2, 42]. They identified three groups of NEETs according to young people's education, work experience, and general situation in life and life history, which provide our explanation framework to underlying causes of becoming a NEET [37, 42].

Education has long been considered a bulwark in hard times, but during recessions even young people with good educational merit may lose out and their income possibilities be hollowed out, making their progression in the labour market more difficult leading to more youth unemployment in general. This resonates well with the

definition of the first group called 'victims of recession'. They have merits but where they live the jobs available do not fit them or are simply elsewhere. They are hit by living in a rust belt or where crisis has hit, and they become stuck without enablers to help them reskill or make a living. Thus, they become entangled into a negative spiral that transforms into a feeling of being useless. Many may lose perspective of meaning over time if no measures are taken to improve their situation [37].

The other group is named 'worker-citizens in the making'. They are minor deviations, in that they are fully functional but have abrupt educational or vocational experience. Some of their bad relationships with schooling may be caused by minor neurotic deviations on a spectrum from dyslexia, dyscalculia to attention deficit disorder (ADD), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), or mild end of the autism spectrum. Due to these deviations, they may have experienced bullying in school or being mocked at. Their self-esteem towards formal educational pathways is at a low, and also in social relations. Many among this group have changed from one school to another without succeeding in graduation but reasons for leaving school or vocation may be varied. The most likely reasons given are difficult relationships with peers in class or mental health issues like anxiety. We have qualitative evidence from our informants that they desired to turn back on track but felt they did not have what it takes, due to former traumatic experiences. They wondered if they should just have pulled themselves together. However, they were not able to [37].

The last and third group is described as 'troubled'. This group has dealt with different types of mental health challenges. The mental health issues vary on a spectrum from debilitating depression to affective paranoia and in worst case schizophrenia. The length of time experiencing difficulties varies. Some have from an early age been dealing with not really functioning within the school structure or in life in general, others became sick when they reached adulthood. In some cases, the reason for being so troubled is caused by deprivation of parental protection while growing up [37]. The majority of people who are in this situation have been faced with a life of uncertainty where homelessness, physical abuse, or unstructured families dominate daily life. Therefore, schooling or training, or just exercising hobbies come second to other more pressing issues. Their rehabilitation will at first have to focus on adapting to normal life and carrying out something that may spur interest but maybe it is not full occupation, which may set them back if too strict requirements are set too fast. It may be a huge challenge for these individuals to understand how to help themselves to various needed services to enable their rehabilitation. Therefore, they need long-term stability. Incidences like shifting personnel in the mental health care or the consultant helping with how to get by—may set this group back to ground zero. Their instability is not dealt with promisingly if building up trust is not part of the process in the clientadvisor relations [2, 37].

#### **5. Methodology**

The methodology in our study is of mixed methods combining statistical spatial data (regional and local statistics harmonized to a Nordic or European scale) and qualitative methods in the form of semistructured interviews and field visits.

Following the literature on the causes for marginalization of young people, we mapped the areas in the Nordic countries where youth unemployment and NEET rates were the highest. Hence, we extracted the statistical spatial data out of national statistical agencies in each of the Nordic countries. On a cross-national level, we

#### *Enabling Meaningfulness with Young NEETs in the Nordic Region DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.114103*

examined a range of statistics and maps with overview of the Nordic region to get a better idea of regional variations in share of youth unemployment, of early leavers from education and training, of young people neither in employment nor in education, regional variation in lower secondary educational attainment level, and foreign born youth with low education, unaccompanied minors, of recipients of social transfers among 20–29 years, and regional variations in share of the population at risk of poverty (income below 60% of the national median disposable income after social transfer). For most statistical data, we looked at changes between 2014, 2016, and 2017 (the work was ongoing in 2018 and 2019). We focused on spatial disparities between urban, small towns and rural areas and whether they could be detected clearly in the statistical data. Thus, we were seeking answers and indicators on where there were regional or spatial variations in smaller towns, communities, and rural areas across the Nordic region. To identify areas where youth unemployment was high, we used Eurostat's indicator that expresses the number of unemployed persons aged 15–24 as a share of the labour force of the same age at the Nomenclature of territorial units for statistics – Level 2 (NUTS 2 level) (yth\_empl\_030) [29]. To identify areas with high NEET rates, we used Eurostat's indicator corresponding to 'the percentage of the population of a given age group and sex who is not employed and not involved in further education or training' (edat\_lfse\_22) [29]. Eurostat's definition of 'not employed' includes unemployed or inactive persons, and the definition of 'not involved in further education' refers to persons who have not received any education in the 4 weeks preceding the survey [43].

Once we identified these areas, we could make a socio-geographical analysis of the state of the Nordic region in relation to the NEETs in the beforementioned age group. One important question in our study was what is being done and seemingly working in re-engaging this group of citizens. By plowing through programmes offered by regional and local authorities across the Nordic countries and gaining information from various officials involved in regional development work in their respective countries, we found several projects that had been, or were being, carried out. We contacted their managers to learn how the projects worked and about their aims. In some cases, we visited informants and project leaders, social workers or teachers or mentors and saw the facilities and some of their activities in action. Others we had to interview on the distance. We did formally over 25 interviews with responsible managers of initiatives for young people fitting the NEET criteria. Interviews were conducted in English, and four of the national languages in each of the Nordic countries; Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, and Icelandic. We did not master Finnish, Sami languages or Faroese or Greenlandic and in these cases, we spoke Danish or English. The interviews were semistructured, following a list of topics we wanted to get answers to. We also made field visits to 12 initiatives in five of the Nordic countries. Our aim was to scope all possible measures that work regardless of whether they are initiated by state, regional, or labour market actors, or by public–private partnerships.

Even if our study represents a contribution to the literature on attempting to include a group of varied marginalized youth, there are limitations to our study. We have not chosen to focus specifically on ethnic minorities or specific groups within the group of NEETS, which may prevent a more detailed insight into specific challenges and possibilities of mobilization We chose to focus on the whole array of varied groups of NEETs including people in highly differing life circumstances. Another of the limitations of our research is that few of the projects had been evaluated from internal or external sources. Only four out of 30 initiatives in all the Nordic region (including Greenland, Faroe Islands, and Åland). Some of the projects were more

systemic, in that they were part of a long-term nationwide programme. Others were supported by the European Social Fund and thus short in their time span, allowing for a maximum of 3 years. With more short time frame to perform the risk is that the endeavors and the learning processes involved get lost in too narrow focus on initiating rather than securing achievements in re-engagement for the long term. Therefore, the re-engagement approaches sketched in this article should not be taken as absolutely successful ways to work with marginalized young people.

With this combination of methodologies, we intended to show a range of projects that have been initiated in the Nordic countries that are working or have worked and especially projects that had grown from regional or municipal authorities. Our point of departure was that good lessons learned in few places would have the option of inspiring other regions with some identical or similar challenges in part of their youth population.

These re-engagement approaches can be seen as examples of initiatives aimed at addressing the issue of marginalized young people. We reckon that the people we are focusing on are diverse and vary in what motivates them as evident from Aaltonen, Berg, and Ikäheimo's attempt to articulate three distinct groups of NEETs. What sparks us as human beings is different and thus our ontology rests on multiple talents of human beings [44]. We simply cannot see any evidence that there should be any one model to fit all. Therefore, we identify three types of re-engagement initiatives.

#### **6. Findings on how to engage young people meaningfully: types of project initiatives**

In the Nordic countries, many policy interventions have addressed and supported NEETs in the last decade. There are local, regional, and national projects to bring this group of young people into education and employment. Our findings in this subchapter are based on interviews with over 30 supervisors or social workers engaged in re-engaging unemployed youth, dropouts, or youth with mental problems. It helped understand the varieties of approaches to re-engaging NEETs.

In Denmark, both national and regional authorities have gone in recent years to great lengths to address ways to re-engage marginalized young people. Guidance centres are an example of public authorities' efforts. They are obliged to contact up to 25-year-old early school leavers because of a reform in the unemployed youth benefit system from 2004. The aim of the guidance centres is to guide youths through different offers of education programmes and, to begin with, find the best suited education programme, training place, or employment for every student [45]. The main types of challenges for young people who drop out in Danish rural areas are lack of role models. They grow up in socially deprived small towns where the unemployment rate is high but there is a need for upskilling. Also, there are groups of people with mental problems and diagnosis or radicalized youth who are on a trajectory towards criminality. Two different examples of measures in Denmark were repeatedly mentioned by informants as being successful in their goal of re-engaging youth.

A project manager in East Denmark in region Sjælland with high unemployment explained how they worked with marginalized young people. In their project Educational Track to Work, early school leavers, unemployed, or young people with poor mental health were the focus group. Marginalized young people have in many cases faced lack of guidance in their lives, because they come from broken families, and/or they have not integrated well at school.

A lot of these young people start and stop their education many times, but they do not finish any education, which is a problem. (Project manager, Denmark).

The project attempted to provide guidance to complete education and apprenticeship through different approaches to motivate the involved. This could be activities like exercising physically, just relaxing, talking, or playing games. In this way, encounters between the guides and people could feel more relaxed, they gained mutual trust, but first and foremost they were based on the individual needs expressed by the youth involved. The young people felt heard.

The other project operates six centres around Denmark (four of six in rural parts of the country). It is built on the ideology of consequence pedagogics and practises its ideology, which can be shortened to: We go to action, we take responsibility, we look ahead. This way of addressing re-engagement of young people has proved effective in reaching out to and engaging the most vulnerable part of the youth. The director claims that the young people they take care of are the people who in all other instances have given up on engaging them in training. In TAMU (as it is called), those who engage in the programme are individually consulted and given real work opportunities in training positions, provided with housing and food three times a day and almost military discipline. TAMU enables young people in the age 18–30 with little prior formal education to become considered valid citizens in training. Some of the people who have had social mobility experience through TAMU were being sacked by all other instances of the system because they had criminal background or history of substance abuse. Some have been marginalized due to social or mental illness diagnosis, but TAMU has decided to believe in their abilities. The headmaster who is among our informants said that they train the young people's social skills simultaneously parallel to giving them hands-on work experience in 18 different sectors of work life. It is important to equip TAMU youth with skills of self-determination, self-help, accountability, credibility, respect, cooperativeness, and receptiveness. One of the students with a Hells Angels background, an earlier inmate in prison convicted of both violence and drug trade, told that it rescued his life that the programme managers of TAMU saw him as a person beyond his tattooed body. Staying in the programme has helped him achieve a feeling of accomplishment in his life for the first time, as kind of the last wakeup call, as he expresses it. Many of the companies that are engaged in recruiting young people from the programme express positive experiences. Trade unions are also part of the programme, and an important incentive is that municipalities remunerate companies involved in this important pathway of re-engagement and rehabilitation [46]. In both projects, the municipalities are important funders because they provide part of the trainee salaries.

The first and second approach, even if different, makes young people feel more comfortable and helps them feel active and feel they accomplish something when they are in an informal environment.

Both programmes' ways of dealing with marginalized young people could be termed as 'activating or empowering approach' not only because they rely on physical activity to re-engage young people but they also place a certain degree of responsibility upon them. Most of the examined project initiatives we have encountered are within this approach (see **Figure 2**).

In Sweden, various governments have been involved in attempting to reduce youth unemployment with special focus on NEETs at least since the year 2000. Also, few regional initiatives have evolved more recently in the last 10–15 years. To combat high youth unemployment, three regions got extra financial support from the

European Union's (EU's) Youth Employment Initiative (YEI) and European Social Fund between 2014 and 2020. The regions favored were Southern Sweden, Central Norrland, and North Central Sweden. Focusing on NEETs they provided assessment of training traineeships and apprenticeships and enabled start-up support for young entrepreneurs as well as offering them qualitative vocational education and training.

As per the Swedish Agency for Youth and Civil Society (MUCF) that conducted a survey among 6000 young Swedes, the findings revealed in general a need to increase inclusion and boost a sense of belonging to society. Furthermore, the study showed that over one-sixth of respondents had been bullied or frozen out, and one-third remarked that they had experienced abuse or felt they had been treated unfairly. This affects confidence in other people. Over 14% of respondents seldom or never confide in others, boys to higher degree than girls. However, girls marked they were more often bullied and had been ostracized [2, 46].

One of our informants in a visit to one of the youth centres in a small Swedish town told many young people felt marginalized and therefore dropped out, even if only dealing with minor learning challenges in the school. He claimed that the way schools were run and managed left no capacity to teachers or supervisors to care for the students at times when they were vulnerable. In many cases, they felt left out, hence dropping out of school education. It seems like they do not bother and cannot cope with students who are in anyway different, he said.

This resonates with other findings from the interviews with several social workers. Schools often lack resources to prevent early school leaving. The system thus omits pupils at risk of leaving school because they become invisible in the crowd. One of the social workers felt they lack strategies to follow up and detect earlier groups at risk of staying away from schooling. She told about a boy she was seeking solutions with because he was not functioning in the school. A solution was found in engaging him in apprenticeship in a company, but it did not work out there either. He stayed home for 3 weeks without the school even registering he was missing. There is a lack of strategies and follow up on how to discover these problems early (Social worker, Sweden).

After 3 weeks had gone by, he called the school to speak to his teacher, but the teacher had left for another job in a different school. He had been totally forgotten. He was devastated and felt nobody missed him or cared about him (Social worker, Sweden).

Among the critiques on school reforms in Sweden is that streamlining has been prioritized so highly that individual differences and needs in learning or engaging or spurring good relations with students with minor learning challenges are not practised to the needed extent. Furthermore, the critique against school reforms implications is that the system has become far too rigid to respond to cases like the ones described above. The social workers know that teachers' 'time is very limited' and thus the responsibility is transferred to individual student, with whom some of these with biggest challenges have no ability to react and improve their situation. That's the big problem too, the one who does not make a sound. If students start a fight they will get noticed, but the quiet ones just slip under the radar all the time. (Social worker, Young in Gävleborg, Sweden).

One of the exceptions of programmes dealing with this is the project Young in Gävleborg (a county in East Sweden). The whole county and municipalities coordinate efforts with local schools and each school's affiliated mentors have been specifically trained and are informed about what is going on in each of the classes. This means they can act when needed so they will without weeks passing by contact students who have stopped showing up. They initiate contact, meet up, and talk, and

#### *Enabling Meaningfulness with Young NEETs in the Nordic Region DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.114103*

assign a coach who will work with the young person in solving issues needed. They create a relaxed atmosphere in this contact to prevent a sense of stress or that things need to be speeded up while evaluating the young person's more pressing issues. After that, the coaching session will focus on improvement in health, family, finances, friends, and at work depending on what is needed in each individual's case. These five areas tend to have deteriorated at the point when the young person is about to give up after a long history of continued failure. In many cases, the focus is on improving health. Health is generally a big concern among the young. "They come to us and express they have bad health. Our approach is to sit down with them on a blank sheet and write down with them different health concerns. These may be about sleep disorder, eating, lack of exercise, etc." (Social worker, Young in Gävleborg, Sweden). The solution lies in laying out an action plan drafted together with them individually and it must rhyme with the young person's desires and goals. The action plan consists of a development plan for activities where each youth's strengths and weaknesses are also identified. Mentors work with an action plan, drafted in accordance with the youngsters' desires and goals, consisting of the development of activities directed at identifying youngsters'strengths and weaknesses.

The way this project worked could be termed not only as an 'empowering' approach but also as the 'caring approach' because of the two approaches emphasized. Showing the person genuine care and attention and making plans with them that enable them to break out of the bad cycle are important. In first place, the project acknowledged some cracks within the education system, whereby vulnerable young people could fall and in most cases the pupil is derailed because of minor unfortunate incidences in the beginning that have escalated.

Many of the re-engagement initiatives we encountered in other parts of the Nordic region had a similar way of approaching their youth—by engaging in identifying the problem with the individual by listening and then finding solutions in order to boost the self-worth and self-confidence in a direction so the person would be better equipped to be re-introduced to the education system, training, or work and with multiple activities attempting to minimize thresholds and anxieties involved. We identify it as a caring approach.

Finland is the only Nordic country that had in 2019 a national legislation (*Nuorisolaki 1285/2016*) that requires municipalities to employ social workers who are proactive in seeking up marginalized young people. While Finland has relatively high completion rates in school, many young people go from education into unemployment [47] and therefore part of the NEETs may belong to the group 'victims of recession'. Finland has good experience with the proactive outreach work with youth that falls out of the system [48]. One-stop guidance centres, or low-threshold services, have been developed in Finland to address young people out of work, training, and education and support them in re-engaging. The guidance centres offer a diversified support to young people. Young people are offered general guidance services and specific education, social care, health care, and employment services to advance emotionally, socially, and professionally—all in one place and without the burdens of bureaucracy.

In one of the centres, located in an old railway garage and workshop, the Jyväskylä Rock Academy is located. Developing the creative talents of vulnerable young people is as they see it an effective way to foster their hard and soft skills. The academy provides all the required resources to start and develop music careers and they are also running a broader arts academy where young people can perform other art-related activities, such as theater acting, dancing, circus, or poetry, to name a few. Regarding a low-threshold approach, the managers explained that the centre is open to all

youngsters who are interested. They offer an open to all free space in the cultural house. Youth may start their encounters by playing billiards or listening to a concert. They can come and talk, ask for help on anything, and they will be met with understanding and staff who attempt to solve things with them. Providing these services and activities they have the responsibility of engaging in their own activity, hence their own self-development. Also, this approach helps them to engage in social practices they are motivated to engage in.

One important aspect of the work overall is dialog circles. They meet regularly with the headspace principle and act as peer support groups (i.e., the NEET discussion group that meets once a week). The only ban is zero tolerance on substance use (alcohol or other drugs).

Regarding proactive outreach work, the centre has two strategies. The first is to keep a close cooperation with schools. When a student has not been attending school for few days, social workers call student's home and go to see what is happening. The other strategy is going patrolling the streets in search of marginalized youngsters who might need social workers' help, which has its perks:

Sometimes they think those workers are police and sometimes they run from them (Project manager, Finland).

Inspiring and mobilizing through arts is the distinctive component of this centre, which in fact works as a cultural centre. The main way the centre works with marginalized young people is through, i.e., composing music and creating video clips:

Mainly the creativity work is what we do in order to engage young people ( … ) It's basically we are helping young bands to edit their first music video, but also young musicians come here and tell them mostly what not to do in their musical career. (Project manager, Finland).

The managers stress that by engaging in creative activities youngsters realize their potential and that helps them to re-engage in social life. In addition, because of the open attitude of social workers and the sharing of experiences with other youngsters in similar circumstances as them, their social trust is boosted (**Table 1**).


#### *Enabling Meaningfulness with Young NEETs in the Nordic Region DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.114103*


*Source: Karlsdóttir et al. [2].*

*Color yellow signifies creative approach, color red signifies activating/empowering approach, color green signifies caring approach.*

#### **Table 1.**

*Three approaches to re-engagement of marginalized youth in Nordic projects in different Nordic countries.*

#### **7. Discussion and conclusion**

As we anticipated in the Methodology section, the aim of this article was not to find the ultimate successful ways to re-engage marginalized young people but rather explore a variety of the initiatives taken in some Nordic countries to mitigate exclusion and marginalization of youth.

Through the description of the activating/empowering, caring, and creative approaches to re-engage young people, we aimed to pinpoint the relevant causes behind young people's marginalization and ways to mobilize. Some of the interviewees mentioned socio-economic disadvantage, gender, mental health, or substance abuse as factors pushing young people off the edge. This reflects the research findings across the Nordic countries on the matter.

Several possible structural factors may contribute to early school leaving and later push youngsters to end up as NEETs. As described, they are caused by various factors or combinations thereof. Socio-economic conditions, gender culture, unintended

outcomes of school reforms, and school closures play a role as well as mental health problems that seem to be on the increase. Also, school reforms in educational systems that prioritize marketization as a management model have had segregation effects, even if unintended. Poor youth, boys, and immigrants are at greater risk than their advantaged counterparts, girls, even if girls in increased number show signs of anxiety. In any case, both socio-cultural and structural factors influence the performance possibilities of different youth groups in this case.

We have in this chapter focused on young people not in employment, education, or training—NEETs. All the Nordic countries are faced with marginalized or ostracized youngsters, or a hidden youth or an inactive youth group for various reasons. While being a heterogenic group with various characteristics that we hardly manage to grasp entirely, we divided them for analytical reasons into three types of challenged youth: victims of recession, workers in the making, and the troubled. This analytical framework was helpful because we have evidence-based reasons that each of these different groups needs different approaches in supporting them.

We have witnessed that while some of the challenges among young people are minor challenges to begin with, there are often responses that either do not respond to the problems or it takes too long time. By the time help is at hand, the initial problems would have grown to become much more complicated to solve. That means an increased risk for every young person facing unnecessarily long-term social exclusion. If not dealt with it may, in future to come, give rise to several social and health-related problems that could have been avoided and can extend far into adulthood. Therefore, early intervention is important. Also, interventions that focus on the user, thereby placing the person involved at centre [2].

The relevance of our study does not limit itself to the period we studied NEETs in the Nordic countries. Implications of COVID-19 in challenging well-being of young people around the world are well acknowledged. Poor mental health in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic has been well documented in adolescents; however, less is known about the longer-term effect of the pandemic [49].

There is a saying that it does take a village to raise a child. It could not be more true when it comes to the needed coordination and cooperation between state actors, labour markets, regional authorities, the unions, and private actors. However, the picture we provide is not complete and merely highlights good examples of some of the actions initiated and practised. As previous studies point out, there is still limited knowledge on what types of measures work and are most effective for different groups with different needs. This also counts for effects of tools and measures attempting to include the most vulnerable youth. Furthermore, there is also a need for further comparative and cross-national studies [50].

The criteria for success in re-engaging young people are not carved in stone. Several perspectives are crucial for motivation—not any one model. Low-threshold services and the provision of a range of support expertise appear vital. Individual placement and support also. Orienting the actions towards identified needs with the user in place is also crucial. The projects we have researched are various. Some of them build on individual consultations focusing on listening to individual needs. We have seen this approach highly prioritized in many Finnish initiatives. This approach also seems to spread as an emerging trend in many of the other countries and regions we have focused on. It underpins the importance of finding motivations that always rest with the individuals [38]. Therefore, efforts should be aimed at the individual. After all, young people are heading towards adulthood so they are unbecoming youth because they are in transition. Because the group of NEETs has for various reasons had challenges in the transition towards adulthood.

#### *Enabling Meaningfulness with Young NEETs in the Nordic Region DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.114103*

While we have studied various multifaceted initiatives, we have also been acquainted with the idea that this is about investing in young people [2]. We should be careful in not overestimating the investment aspect of socially rehabilitating this vulnerable group, while this investment idea for the future transfers focus from future social burden to something more promising. We should also focus on the preventive potentials for a group that with some help can become more well-functioning in employment, education, and training. Young people are diverse. The most important vision is they can constitute an important part of society and that they should be enabled to pursue their life goals individually and collectively. By giving them meaningful options to re-enter and be reincluded in pathways of employment, education, or training, an important goal is met with. Helping them become valid citizens. Therefore, it should be of high priority to motivate their engagement in ways that mobilize them and enable them to flourish. Whether it is about approaching them with engagement that is empowering, creative, or caring or a combination is a question of what they need to find meaningfulness in their lives.

#### **Acknowledgements**

Acknowledgements to Alex Cuadrado who assisted and contributed to the work with some interviews, literature background, and analytical work. Also, thanks to Firouz Gaini who provided the study from Faroe Islands on unemployed youth, Leneisja Jungsberg who contributed with two examples of Greenlandic measures to prevent school dropouts, and Louise Ormstrup Vestergård who helped in finding literature for summary on gender and socio-cultural perspectives. Lastly to Nordregio and the Thematic group on sustainable rural regional development in the Nordic countries 2017– 2020 who provided funding for the project. This chapter is devoted to my son Jonas Hrafn Kettel who took his life in March 2020 at the age of 28 after 7 years of traumatic experience due to mental health challenges and the marginalization that he experienced in the social support systems in Iceland, Sweden, and Denmark.

#### **Disclosure statement**

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the Authors.

### **Author details**

Anna Karlsdóttir Department of Geography, University of Iceland, Nordregio, Reykjavík, Iceland

\*Address all correspondence to: annakar@hi.is

© 2024 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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#### **Chapter 6**

## Everyday Aesthetics and Attractiveness of the University Campus

*Abdurrahman Mohamed*

#### **Abstract**

With the long period that students spend on the university campus, it becomes a familiar part of their daily routine. Many parts of the campus transform into mere functional spaces accommodating students' activities. It is therefore a challenge to identify and investigate a suitable framework for studying the aesthetical value and attractiveness of these familiar parts. It is also questioned whether there is a relationship between students'specialization and their appreciation of the aesthetical value and attractiveness of these familiar spaces. Using the framework of everyday aesthetics, this research investigated the students' appreciation of the aesthetical value and attractiveness of the Engineering Campus of the University of Bahrain. The study revealed that familiar spaces on the university campus have different levels of aesthetical value that affects their attractiveness. Familiar outdoor spaces proved significant in this regard more than buildings. The study also found differences between architecture and engineering students' appreciation of everyday aesthetics in familiar spaces and their attractiveness. The study is the first to develop a theoretical framework for the use of everyday aesthetics to investigate the aesthetics and attractiveness of familiar spaces at university campuses and opens the door for further future research.

**Keywords:** everyday aesthetics, aesthetics pleasure, attractiveness, university campus, students, Bahrain

#### **1. Introduction**

Aesthetics of the everyday life [1] or everyday aesthetics (EA) [2] appeared at the turn of the 21st century as a sub-discipline of aesthetics that made a shift in aesthetics thinking towards the objects and practices of everyday life [3–5]. It has been the subject matter of fierce arguments among aestheticians in the last decades. Some believe it has been originated in western aesthetics thought before the 19th century [6]. Others see it as a reaction to the concentration of aesthetic philosophies on art objects. It was thought that the separation between aesthetic experience and everyday life experiences was not justified [7]. It was also thought that the objective part of the aesthetic experience should be extended to include all life aspects. Aesthetics theoreticians

like Parsons, and Downey argue that EA can be considered within the frameworks of the aesthetics of art [2]. In this regard, Berleant introduces the concept of aesthetic engagement as the main framework for understanding art experience. Since people are always engaged in their everyday life, the same art engagement mechanisms apply to the aesthetical components of everyday life [8]. At the same time, Uriko Saito, Richard Shusterman, and Arto Haapala argue that art frameworks cannot be applied to natural beauty and social activities [2]. Carlson tried to decrease the gap between the abstract disinterestedness of art experience and the active engagement of EA through the understanding of meanings and concepts of EA experience. This cognitive approach depends on the details, relationships, activities, and sensory experiences of everyday life [9]. Within such an approach, landscape elements either hard or soft, urban street furniture and family relationships can all have their special aesthetics experience [10]. This experience can be found in all aspects of everyday life [11, 12]. The appreciation of aesthetics in all these diversified contents relates to the daily life practices. It needs the search for interest and specialty to discover their hidden aesthetics potential [2]. Some of the factors that can be used in this regard include grandeur, loftiness, magnificence, and expression [6]. It needs to be remembered that whatever these objects and activities are, and whatever are their aesthetical judgements, they are always parts and reflections of their social and cultural settings [6].

The significance of EA stems from its ability to improve the way how people look to the ordinary things in their life. This is an important drive for improving the quality of life and the level of public attitudes towards aesthetics [2]. The experience of EA is complex and immersive. It is open to everybody in the community, and it is a way for giving more value for life [13]. EA opened wide doors of new interpretations for the meaning of art and aesthetics and their connections with everyday life [14].

Mandoki defines EA as "the array of behaviors, values, and preferences related to human sensibility". She agrees with John Dewey's argument that EA experience depends on the rhythms, energies, and practices of the everyday [15].

Therefore, EA can be defined as the everyday aesthetics embedded in the values, activities, practices, and experiences that are positively appreciated by a community within its socio-cultural and spatio-temporal settings.

EA emphasizes the everydayness and ordinariness of objects, activities, and values that form the contents of everyday life. These everyday contents can be figured out as mundane, regular, repetitive, and unstructured [5]. But at the same time, EA also does not ignore the extraordinariness in these objectives and values. It keeps a continuous and dynamic relationship between the two [4].

Saito broadened the space of aesthetics to include the appreciation of all sensuous and audiovisual experiences of any activity, phenomenon, or object [16]. This includes all aspects of the everyday life that form the subject matter of the everyday aesthetics and determine the realm of its application, experience, and appreciation. Within this huge collection of life events and objects, it is thought to differentiate between those parts that are designed and effected as works of art and the normal routine everyday parts. Felski provided some characteristics for EA like habituation, repetition, convention, and spontaneity [17].

Melchionne added other characteristics for the everydayness of these things. They include ongoing, common, and active [18].

On the other hand, there is a need to establish a clear and well-defined way for how to examine the EA experience in real life. Despite the extensive discussions of art and aesthetics theoreticians on the relationships and differences between traditional

philosophies of art and EA, little could be found on the scientific empirical means of EA applications. While a lot can be found on such means in visual arts and architecture for example, it is still gloomy and faint within EA. This introduces a serious challenge for the theory and its relevance to both aesthetics and everyday life. Several questions are raised here about a comprehensive framework linking the components of EA and its characteristics with its processes, measures, determinants, and the final aesthetics judgements. A thorough investigation has found that the studies in experimental psychology, psychology of aesthetics, industrial design, and even aesthetics of web design provided a lot on the specific variables and measures, and the processes and procedures of measuring EA in the landscape, urban design, product design, and internet web design. Unfortunately, these studies do not form a complete framework and theory, and much work is still needed to be done in this regard. These investigations are summarized in **Table 1**. They provide a clear, simplified and straight forward approach for EA.

#### **2. Elements of EA**

Saito in her discussion for the relationship between aesthetics of art and EA argued that EA elements include everyday activities, phenomena, and objects [16]. At the same time, Mandok added behaviors which are parts of activities, values which can be parts of phenomena, and preferences which are judgements of certain experiences and are parts of the appreciation of aesthetics [15]. Previous discussions above showed the agreement of EA supporters on not to include art works because they are not part of the everyday life. But this argument can be refuted by considering public art works in the streets and urban spaces. And the issue of architecture and urban design and street furniture of urban streets strongly challenge this argument. In addition, it is still not clear how to define the boundaries of the elements of Saito and Mandok.

#### **3. Characteristic of EA**

Some scholars tried to give some descriptive qualities with which the elements of EA can be recognized and defined. Flexi proposed that for anything to be considered within the domain of EA it should be characterized with habituation, convention, and repetition [17]. Melchionne added that it should be ongoing, common, active, and spontaneous [18]. Then Ratiu introduced that it should be also described as mundane [5]. Although these characteristics can look fine at the first glance; many questions arise about their exact meaning and their theoretical boundaries, not to mention the measures that can be used to examine them empirically. This is in addition to the fact that they are still scattered between the theoretical and empirical studies of scholars from different disciplines without a consensus that can put them all in one mold.

#### **4. Processes of EA experience**

Leaving the dilemma of the definitions and characteristics of the elements of EA waiting for more analysis and discussions, the need arises for understanding the processes of EA experience. Aesthetics is all about experiencing and appreciating aesthetical works and judging the level of pleasure in this experience. Berghman and Hekkert studied aesthetical experience and its processes, principles, and objectives in





**Table 1.**

*General framework for EA.*

industrial design which represents a supply line for everyday life objects [19]. They argued that the aesthetical experience goes through 2 important processes, perception, and sensation before coming to the aesthetical pleasure which is the final judgement. But the argument on which comes first, perception or sensation still needs further consideration. In the field of environmental aesthetics as outlined by Berleant and Carlson, they argued that engagement is an important process necessary for the appreciation of environmental aesthetics which is part of EA [23]. This engagement precedes the state of aesthetical judgement and pleasure.

#### **5. Indicators of EA**

Criteria, indicators, and measures are the tools usually used for the evaluation of both the subject matter of the aesthetics experience in addition to the subjective, cognitive, and psychological aspects of the experiencing people. Tosaki in his search for a theory of rhythm in the visual arts presented it as a tool for composition for the composer and as a tool for measurement for the listener or the viewer [20]. He discussed how rhythm produces different layers of audiovisual effects. He argued for rhythm itself to be a schema despite the complexity it has in composition and in schematic presentation in the perception of the audience. Therefore, it is argued to consider rhythm itself as a general indicator of aesthetics quality that produces different perceptual schemata or schema representations like flow, repetition, movement, mobility, fluidity, and typicality. Following, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy edited by Zalta introduced 11 values that create the aesthetics quality and can be considered as general indicators for it [6]. They include grandeur, loftiness, magnificence, character, taste, dignity, quality, and expression, and provide the chance for the development of different measures that practically and empirically would help to assess the aesthetics quality. Finally, Gao and Songfu in their study for the aesthetic appreciation of urban landscape in London concluded 8 indicators for landscape aesthetics [22]. They are complexity, imageability, visual proportion, cognitive object, naturalness, historicity, and diachronic variability. These important qualitative indicators of the aesthetical quality are inherently part of the aesthetical entity. As part of the aesthetical experience, they create schemata representation in the cognition of the audience. These schemata representations participate in the aesthetics appreciation process and the generation of the aesthetics pleasure. Observing these schemata as measures in the aesthetical entity would therefore insure the creation of more satisfactory aesthetical environment.

#### **6. Determinants of aesthetics pleasure**

It is important to point out that these determinants of EA represent the objective part related to the aesthetics subject matter or the components of the EA. This means that they are measures for the aesthetical quality of the aesthetics material. As such, there is a need to link them to the indicators of EA discussed above where each indicator will be connected to its suitable measures. Attention should be paid to differentiate them from the schemata representations that are subjective and relate to the experiencing audience. Blijlevens et al., in their work for developing a scale for aesthetic pleasure in designed artifacts, listed 40 measures covering a wide range of aesthetics qualities (**Table 1**) [27]. At the same time, Jacobsen and Beudt found that aesthetics pleasure in the visual arts

and the built environment is determined by 10 different factors (**Table 1**) [21]. More recently, Sauer and Sonderegger used another set of six determinants to study visual aesthetics satisfaction of an everyday product (**Table 1**) [28]. The list of all these determinants or measures that affect aesthetics pleasure is quite long. Some of the measures are repeated between groups and some others look subjective. Emphasizing what have been mentioned on previous factors and variables, these also need to be well defined and delineated. Not to mention that certain determinants can be used for certain aesthetical settings. More importantly, some of these measures are broader than limits of a measure and they need several measurements to give right results. This is the case of attractiveness in the list of Sauer and Sonderegger [28].

#### **7. Attractiveness in the built environment- a tool of aesthetics appreciation**

In aesthetics, attractiveness is a state of relationship between the quality of objective aesthetical environment and its responsive personal perception. Generally, attractiveness can be defined as the state of being pleasing and arousing interest and engagement [24]. This relates to the objective qualities of the environment. On the other hand, it refers to the strength and quality of pleasurable emotional response towards this environment [25]. Numerous studies on the urban environment, urban psychology, psychology of design, and psychology of aesthetics dealt with the issue of attractiveness, some from the subjective personal side and others from the objective settings of the environment. Wahlberg used 35 urban attractiveness measures for the study of town center attractiveness in Sweden [26]. Functional elements, urban design elements, and architectural elements were included in the measurement process. Adkins et al. provided another extensive list of aesthetic measures for the study of the attractiveness of urban walking environment [29]. It also covered different features of the built environment like roadways, street furniture, and green structure. In the same direction, Bolleter used nine variables for the measurement of attractiveness of public open spaces. They included walkability, shading, water features, lighting, sporting facilities, flora, and fauna [30]. These studies and the like do not look at attractiveness as an indicator of EA within which these urban environments are components. They lack the vision of the comprehensive approach outlined above and merely look at the urban environment as a functional machine. Looking at the urban environment through the proposed comprehensive framework establishes a strong relationship between the different components and their everyday life settings, features, and aesthetical experience. This framework provides a better chance for the study of attractiveness on the university campus as part of the everyday urban environment.

#### **8. EA in the university campus**

Many universities around the world pay great attention to the aesthetics qualities of their campuses and spend huge budgets for this purpose. The reason behind this is that the aesthetics quality of the campus is the best way to build its character. This is sometimes done through the installation of artworks that can attract the attention of the students and visitors. Aesthetical quality of the campus can also be created by the architectural design of the buildings and the urban design of places and spaces. This is in addition to landscape design as well [7]. The aestheticization of the campus

enhances its attractiveness and improves its education environment [5]. This attractiveness exerts an important effect on the students to decide where to meet and entertain, what activities to do and how, their social behavior and interaction, and their sport activity [4]. attractiveness strongly affects the students' attitude towards the university and their sense of belonging [31]. Attractiveness is also influential in attracting and affecting the staff and the visitors [32]. Zhao et al. studied the attractiveness of campus landscape using indicators like visual forms of the landscape [33]. Increasing vegetation coverage and natural waterscape on campus would improve both aesthetic quality and recreational preference. Landscape, therefore, has a strong attractiveness for the students and deeply affects their academic and social development. They referred to aesthetics pleasure as a drive of attractiveness that encourages the students to spend more time in the university and to improve their academic and social conduct [34]. They also made a link between aesthetics appreciation of landscape design of the campus and outdoor recreation activities of the students and proposed several measures for attractive landscapes like shapes, colors, and spatial arrangements. No reference was made to EA or its applications. As a result of this shortcoming, they argued that recreation activities have a preference for aesthetics appreciation and therefore their hardscape design requirements have preference for landscape aesthetics requirements. This highlights the need of introducing EA as a design framework to improve the quality of everyday life where functionality does not mean decreasing the aesthetics quality. There is a need to introduce aesthetics in the curriculum to enhance aesthetics thinking and behavior of the students [35]. This would make a shift in the students' understanding of attractiveness dimension of their university campus. The urban environment of the university campus represents the everyday life atmosphere for the students. To what extent this everyday environment is considered attractive for the students is a problem that needs to be subjected to empirical examination. As it has been considered before, attractiveness is an indicator of EA that represents the tool for measuring the appreciation of the aesthetical quality. It helps to understand the aesthetical environment and its relationship with the users. As far as research methods are concerned, the study of the aesthetics experience and appreciation of university students for their campus can only be possible and practical by dividing the campus into different zones according to spatial or functional differentiation. The everyday life activities inside a university campus are numerous and they happen on daily bases in same places and spaces with the same persons for a long period of time. They include lessons in the classes, labs, auditoriums, and open spaces. All these functions fulfill the conditions of everyday aesthetics as outlined in the above framework.

#### **9. EA in Engineering Campus, University of Bahrain**

The Engineering Campus (EC) of the University of Bahrain (UOB) was established in 1965 in Isa Town and gradually it accommodated all faculties of the university (**Figure 1**). It continued until 1987 when a new modern and large campus was established in Skhair 16 km to the southwest. All faculties moved to the new campus except the engineering faculty which continued in Isa Town until recently. The campus' architecture reflects 20th-century modern contemporary style (**Figure 2**). The landscaping is very poor with many areas left with bare untreated soil. Pavements, sidewalks, and shading elements are old-fashioned and outdated (**Figure 3**). Softscape includes large old trees of different types and palm trees with small areas of grass and

**Figure 2.** *Building of the Deanship of Engineering.*

**Figure 3.** *Hardscape elements.*

shrubs (**Figure 4**). Some works of art and architectural models are temporarily placed through the campus at the end of semesters when students of architecture and interior design finish their projects (**Figure 5**).

#### **10. Methodology for measuring EA and attractiveness in EC, UOB**

#### **10.1 Variables of measurement**

In search of a suitable means to examine the attractiveness of the EC at UOB, there was a need to simplify the general EA framework as presented in **Table 1** outlined above. This was necessary due to the level of existing aesthetics knowledge and awareness of the students. The simplified framework presented in **Table 2**. A physical object was thought to be more easily perceived by the students as EA object than activities or phenomena. It was decided to study Bashayer Cafeteria, its building, and the space in front of it. EA characteristics and processes apply to this building and its space. From the measures of EA cognitive object, historicity, and rhythm were used. The schema representations of these measures would be easily perceived by the students. A group of EA pleasure determinants was chosen including attractiveness. Direct, simple, and clear measures of these determinants will thence be used in the questionnaire given to the students.

**Figure 4.** *Softscape elements.*

**Figure 5.** *Student's works of art at public display in EC.*


#### **Table 2.**

*simplified framework of EA applied to the study of EC at UOB.*

#### **10.2 The object: Bashayer Cafeteria**

Bashayer cafeteria is a small humble and minimal single space single floor building (it will be referred to as a "building" hereunder) that was constructed temporarily to provide food and beverages services for the students and the staff. The building has a wooden structure with rectangle plan and pitched roof (**Figure 6**).

The structure rests on bare soil with large trees around and concrete pavements leading to it and providing setting areas with tables and chairs for the students.

**Figure 6.** *Form of Bashayer Cafeteria.*

**Figure 7.** *Bashayer Cafeteria main entrance and front space.*

Everything in the building and the surrounding space is quite spontaneous without any indication of visual or art design or any planned settings. The only different thing in this setting is the color of its main façade which is bright navy blue (**Figure 7**). An interior partition has also the same color that distinguished it from the white color of the whole interior space around (**Figure 8**).

The space in front of the cafeteria and around it (it will be referred to as "space" hereunder) is an ordinary un-designed space distinguished by large old trees (**Figure 9**). A paved area with interlocking concrete paver blocks is provided with plastic tables and chairs for the use of students. These tables and chairs can normally be found on the bare soil anywhere around the cafeteria. The cafeteria opens at 8:00 am and closes at 18:00 pm with the end of the academic day. No restriction of any kind is imposed on the use of the cafeteria or the space around it. The cafeteria and its space are always busy with male and female students from all levels and

**Figure 8.** *Bashayer Cafeteria interior.*

**Figure 9.** *The space in front of Bashayer Cafeteria showing its naturalness with softscape and hardscape.*

specializations. Some social and cultural activities are organized from time to time. For the special mixture of the Bahraini society of nationals and expatriates and Sunni and Shiite Muslims, it is normal to find students of different ethnic, social, religious, and cultural backgrounds. No discrimination of any kind can be found in all campuses of UOB. Bashayer cafeteria is no exception.

#### **10.3 Students' sample**

Quasi-experimental research was used to study the aesthetical experience of the students at Bashayer Cafeteria. The aim was to investigate their appreciation for its EA and to measure its attractiveness.

Non-probabilistic convenience sampling was used to determine the sample of the students participating in the research [36]. Despite the disadvantages of this sampling, it was used to suit the limited resources of the research team. This is in addition to the fact that the main purpose of the research was to arrive at tentative conclusions that would be subject to further testing in the future. The size of the sample was 60 students used randomly from the total number of students in the college of engineering which was 4200 students. This number represents 14% of the engineering students which is quite an acceptable sample size [36]. No consideration was given to differences of any kind between students in the sample including gender, academic level, or cultural, economic, and social backgrounds.

#### **10.4 The experiment**

Likert questionnaire was used with a scale from 1 to 5 where 1 is the lowest and 5 is the highest. The main purpose of the questionnaire was to study the EA in the building


**Table 3.**

*Independent samples t-test comparing engineering and architecture students for different variables (N = 60).*

and space and to measure their attractiveness. The questionnaire included general questions on the specialization of the students and their knowledge of aesthetics and EA. The main variables used in the questionnaire are presented in **Table 3**. The experiment took place in the space on the same day to avoid spontaneous remission of the students or any change in their attitudes. The experiment included students in the different specializations of the faculty of engineering and architecture students. It was intended to arrive at equal number of students in each group of students. These two sample groups were independent with no relationship or influence between the subjects in each sample. The students in each sample were randomly chosen from the population of engineering and architecture students.

#### **11. Results and analysis**

The results of the survey were analyzed using statistical Independent Samples t-Test using IBM SPSS Statistics version 26. Two hypotheses were presumed. The Null hypothesis (H0) assumes that there was no difference between the means of architecture students and engineering students (H0: μ section 1 (Engineering students) = μ section 2 (Architecture students) or the difference of the means is equal to zero). The alternative hypothesis assumed that there were differences between the means of architecture and engineering students (H1: μ section 1 (Engineering students) 6¼ μ section 2 (Architecture students) or the difference of the means is not equal to zero). μ<sup>1</sup> and μ<sup>2</sup> are the population mean for section 1 and section 2 respectively.

#### **11.1 General observations**

**Table 3** shows the means of students' evaluations of their EA knowledge and their appreciation of EA and attractiveness of Bashayer cafeteria. Engineering

students were far beyond architecture students in their knowledge of EA. Engineering students also gave less appreciation for the building EA and attractiveness compared to architecture students. In contrast, engineering students' appreciation for the space came closer to that of the architecture students. Their appreciation of the attractiveness of the space came also greater than that of the building and closer to architecture students. It is also noticed that the standard deviation of architecture students is less than 1 in all the variables except building color, space landscape aesthetics, and space hardscape aesthetics. This explains that their evaluations were closer to the means. On the opposite, the standard deviation of engineering students is greater than 1 in all the variables which explains that their evaluations where further apart from the means

#### **11.2 Testing the hypothesis**

**Table 3** shows the results of t-test comparing variables of interest between students of engineering and architecture. In other words, there was a statistically significant difference between the means of engineering and architecture students' evaluations of EA knowledge and EA attractiveness of Bashayer cafeteria.

#### **12. Conclusion**

EA has been getting increased attention and proved greater importance in the analysis and modeling of aesthetics in real life. This research aimed to provide a simplified model for EA that can be easily understood and used especially by architecture researchers. The dilemma of theoretical and philosophical discussions between contemporary aestheticians and art philosophers has been going on for long without providing well-defined framework for the practical and empirical analysis of EA in real-life settings like architecture and urban design. Disciplines like experimental psychology, psychology of aesthetics, and industrial design have been dealing with a different aspect of EA more precisely and practically but without considering the general framework of EA. The proposed comprehensive model benefited from the works of both sides and brought several of their factors together. Still, this model is in needs of further examination and development to clarify and fix the connections and interrelationships between its parts. The model also provides a chance for the development of a well-articulated theory of EA. The case study of the EC of UOB proved the importance of the model for the study of attractiveness on university campuses but within a defined framework of EA. Although both architecture and engineering had approximately the same frequency of daily use of the cafeteria and its space, the results of their appreciation of EA came totally different. Engineering students were very little aware of building's aesthetics. Engineering students rated the attractiveness of the building below average while the attractiveness of the space came above average. On the contrary, architecture students show considerable awareness of aesthetics and EA and its importance. This can be referred to as the special visual and aesthetical education and training they have in the department of interior design and architecture. The research opens the door for future research to develop EA and to provide the necessary details for the study of attractiveness within it.

#### **Thanks**

The author would like to express his special thanks to the architect Mariam Haider for her distinguished role in the research team. Thanks also to architects Fatima Sayed and Amani Jabbar for their work in the research team.

#### **Conflict of interest**

The author declares no conflict of interest

#### **Author details**

Abdurrahman Mohamed Department of Architecture, Antalya Bilim University, Antalya, Turkey

\*Address all correspondence to: a.mohammed@antalya.edu.tr

© 2022 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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### Section 3
