The doctoral dissertation in the field of Social Psychology will be examined at the Faculty of Social Sciences and Business Studies at Kuopio campus. The public examination will be streamed online.
What is the topic of your doctoral research? Why is it important to study the topic?
The topic of my dissertation is intergroup contact and informal segregation. Building on intergroup contact research, I study the everyday encounters between mothers of young children with immigrant and Finnish backgrounds who live in ethnically diverse neighborhoods, and how segregation between ethnic groups was constructed in this context. During this study, we found that intergroup contact between mothers was limited even when there was an opportunity for interaction. Therefore, this study focuses on everyday encounters highlighted as important by minority group mothers, which were often brief contacts in public space or encounters with Finnish-background staff in early childhood education and care. In addition, I study the micro-level segregation between groups among mothers with young children in their everyday context, namely in playgrounds.
It is important to study this topic because it is known that positive contact between groups can improve attitudes towards the outgroup. In addition, parents' attitudes and contacts are linked to their children's attitudes and contacts. Many mothers also experience loneliness and need for social contacts during the early years of motherhood. In ethnically diverse neighborhoods, in principle, these contacts could be intergroup. This could support both the development of group relations and offer the needed peer relations with other mothers. Therefore, it is important to understand what kind of intergroup contacts are formed in mothers' everyday lives, how they are experienced and understood, and how informal segregation is produced.
What are the key findings or observations of your doctoral research?
The key findings of my dissertation show the complexity of contacts that are considered significant in everyday life. The first substudy examined intergroup contacts experienced by a minority group, namely the mothers with an immigrant background, in which their child was involved as a third party. Such triadic contact was found to be a qualitatively specific form of contact, influenced by the bond (i.e., motherhood) between the contact participants and the responsibilities associated with it. Triadic contact can also shift between direct and indirect interactions within the same situation.
The second substudy was an ethnographic study of informal segregation in playgrounds. The separateness between groups of mothers was built and maintained through norms defining intergroup interaction and cultural level parenting norms. Separation was built in time and space: for a large part of the year, groups did not spend time in the playground at the same time, but when this happened in the summer, the groups avoided intergroup encounters and spent time within their ingroup.
The third substudy analyzed discursively how minority group mothers described their intergroup contacts with early childhood education and care institutions’ employees with a Finnish background, and how power and agency were constructed in this talk. Often the source of the unequal power relationship remained unclear, i.e., whether the employee's power was displayed to be based on their institutional role or on group hierarchy. This also made it more difficult to question the unfair power relationship.
How can the results of your doctoral research be utilised in practice?
Actors in the public, private and third sectors can use the results to develop services aimed at families to better consider different groups and interaction between them. For example, a more flexible understanding of good parenting and the related schedules could promote different groups’ use of services. In addition, the importance of small everyday encounters was highlighted in this study. Employees with a Finnish background can act both as contacts with the majority population and as examples supporting interaction between groups for all service users. Also, diversity within staff could afford more positive encounters for both groups. When intergroup interaction is scarce, even brief encounters in a public space may become meaningful.
What are the key research methods and materials used in your doctoral research?
My doctoral dissertation is based on qualitative data that I produced using ethnographic methods in two ethnically diverse neighborhoods in Helsinki in 2018–2020. The data comprise of 11 months of participant observation in the neighborhoods and semi-structured follow-up interviews with 24 mothers of young children with Finnish and immigrant backgrounds, which were carried out thrice over a period of one year.
Different analytical methods are used in each article of the dissertation. Two of the articles are based on interviews with mothers with an immigrant background. Interview talk was analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis and critical discursive psychology. The third article is based on observational data and interviews with all participants, and analyzed ethnographically how segregation among mothers and between groups was built in space and time.
This dissertation is part of a larger MAMANET research project led by Professor Eerika Finell, in which we study intra- and intergroup contact between mothers of young children in residential areas of Helsinki by using qualitative and quantitative methods.
The doctoral dissertation of Paula Paajanen, MSocSc, entitled Intergroup relations in multiethnic neighborhoods: Informal segregation and everyday contact among mothers of young children will be examined at the Faculty of Social Sciences and Business Studies. The opponent will be Professor John Dixon (Open University, United Kingdom), and the custos will be Professor Eerika Finell, University of Eastern Finland. Language of the public defence is English.
For further information, please contact:
Paula Paajanen, paula.paajanen(at)uef.fi