Musikk - Fortelling - Fellesskap. En kvalitativ undersøkelse av ungdommers perspektiver på deltagelse i samfunnsmusikkterapeutisk praksis i barnevernsarbeid

The present work explores how adolescents living under the care of Norwegian child welfare use music in different settings. The study aims to gain knowledge based on how young people describe their use of music in settings which include everyday situations and participation in organized Community music therapy activities. Reasons for doing research in relation to child welfare and music therapy can be found in the contemporary research literature. Both in relation to child welfare as an academic field and within recent discussions of Community music therapy, there are several writers who emphasize the importance of listening to young people in order to create good enough practices. The present work aims to give answers to the following main research question: How can community music therapy be described as an approach in child welfare setting based on stories from adolescents created through qualitative research? I base the work on how adolescents who have participated in Community music therapy activities create stories related to different themes. The construction of themes is inspired by a form of Constructing Grounded Theory (CGT). CGT is not a strict approach but allows for a more hermeneutic understanding of the research process and opens up for the researcher to create new understandings in relation to existing literature and theory. The researcher's own subjective understanding is part of how reality is constructed and is thus part of the research results. CGT includes theoretical sensitivity which is a way to gain perspectives from multiple perspectives, and to make comparisons in relation to different positions of subjectivity. Theoretical sensitivity is a form of openness to seeing the possibilities with the data in relation to the researcher‟s own pre-understanding. It is about seeing the familiar with new glasses in such a way that one can see something new in the familiar. The first secondary research question highlights the young people's descriptions of their own stay at the child protection institution: How do the young people describe their own child protection identity? This issue is related to stories that do not necessary have to do with music. This issue is about listening to what young people tell about their own experiences of having identity as child welfare children and the challenges associated with this. I focus on how the young people describe their own experiences of being placed under the care of child welfare. Secondly, I highlight stories that show how the adolescents use music in everyday life situations: How do the young people describe the role of music in everyday life situations? This issue is related to the adolescents' descriptions of music use, such as listening to music or talking about music. The influence of popular culture and the experience of music use in social contexts come into play as factors I look at. As the third specific issue I focus on the young people's descriptions of participation in organized activities offered as Community music therapy: How do the young people describe their own participation in music activities such as song writing, bands play and cabaret participation? The third issue involves descriptions of participation in activities such as songwriting, playing in a rock band, performance, and studio recordings. I focus on the connections between the ways young people talk about their own institution stays and how they use music in everyday life situations. The purpose is to see if there are ways to describe transitions between practices where music is used as activity