Project: Metatheoretical analyses of social and educational concepts in welfare and educational contexts (MASEC)

Project information

Project leader
Goran Basic, Linnaeus University

Participating organisations

Sweden:
Linnaeus University, Kristianstad University, Mälardalen University, Linköping University, Lund University, Stockholm University

Croatia:
Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek

Bosnia and Herzegovina:
University of Sarajevo, University of Tuzla

Japan:
Hiroshima University

Ukraine:
Zaporizhzhia National University

South Africa:
University of the Western Cape, Stellenbosch University, University of the Free State

Funding
Participating universities
Timetable
1 January 2026 – 31 December 2035
Subject
Educational Sciences, Sociology, Social Pedagogy, Special Education, Social Work, Linguistics, and Criminology (Department of Education, Faculty of Social Sciences)
Research groups
Project leader: Research in Inclusion, Democracy and Equity (RIDE)
Project members: Research in Inclusion, Democracy and Equity (RIDE), Research on Educational Professions and Practices (PEPP), Studies in Teaching and Education (SITE), Centre for Police Research and Development (CPU)
Knowledge environments
Linnaeus Knowledge Environment: Education in Change and A Challenged Democracy

More information

In an era characterized by global migration, democratic tensions, digital transformation, and increasing social fragmentation, there is a growing need for critical analyses of the concepts that shape education, welfare systems, and social life. Despite extensive research on education, social work, and welfare practices, systematic analyses of how central social and educational concepts are defined, applied, and transformed across different fields of research and societal contexts remain limited. This constrains the development of cumulative knowledge and hinders meaningful comparisons across studies and contexts.

The overall aim of the project is to develop a deeper theoretical and empirical understanding of how central social and educational concepts are shaped, applied, and transformed within research and practice across educational and welfare contexts and countries.

Particular attention is devoted to examining how concepts function as analytical tools, normative reference points, and practical forms of governance within educational and welfare contexts shaped by social change, global migration, increasing inequality, technological transformation, and democratic challenges.

The project seeks even to develop theoretical conceptual models and analytical frameworks that can be used by researchers and practitioners to understand complex social and educational phenomena in contemporary educational and welfare systems.

The project addresses the following overarching research questions:

• How are central social and educational concepts constructed, applied, and reconstructed across different research fields and institutional practices?
• How do the meanings of these concepts change across national, cultural, and organizational contexts?
• How do social and educational concepts function as normative and practical forms of governance within educational and welfare practices?
• What analytical and inferential roles do concepts play in qualitative data analysis and interpretation?
• How can metatheoretical analyses and qualitative syntheses contribute to the systematic conceptualization of these notions and thereby strengthen theoretical coherence, rigor, and credibility in research?

The project is conducted through qualitative metasyntheses, meta-ethnographies, and discursive and metatheoretical analyses of previous empirical studies, peer-reviewed journal articles, doctoral dissertations, policy documents, and institutional texts and other relevant documents. Through comparative and synthesizing analyses, the project investigates how concepts are employed across different national, cultural, and organizational settings and how they relate to issues of power, identity, control, recognition, participation, and social order.

The analytical scope of the project includes, but is not limited to, the following concepts and theoretical domains:

Identity, belonging, and social relations

• Recognition
• Community and belonging
• Participation
• Identity and identity formation
• Ethnification and belonging
• Ethnicity, nationalism, and collective identity
• Trust and confidence
• Stigma and victim identity
• Violence

Power, norms, and social order

• Power and resistance
• Social control and surveillance
• Order and disorder
• Norm formation and categorisation
• Responsibility and responsibilisation
• Moral disengagement and moral order

Education, learning, and knowledge processes

• Bildung, education, and learning
• Cognitive mechanisms and learning processes
• Action and interaction
• Meaning and meaning-making
• Social and educational meaning
• Educational practices in the age of artificial intelligence and digital transformation

Migration, diversity, and intercultural processes

• Migration and integration
• Interculturality and multilingualism
• Inclusion and exclusion
• Translanguaging
• Language policy
• Language ideologies

Professions, organisations, and welfare practices

• Collaboration and interprofessional cooperation
• Professional competence
• Emotional labour
• Evidence-based practice
• Research-informed and experience-based knowledge
• Systematic quality assurance

Democracy, justice, and social sustainability

• Democracy and social justice
• Social justice
• Social sustainability
• Conflict, peace, and reconciliation

Vulnerability, health, and recovery

• Health and well-being
• Trauma, vulnerability, and resilience 

Epistemology and methodology

• Knowledge, epistemology, and philosophy of science
• Narrative, discourse, and symbolic interaction

The project draws on theoretical perspectives from symbolic interactionism, social constructivism, ethnomethodology, critical pedagogy, social pedagogical theory, the sociology of education, discourse theory, intercultural education, linguistics, and sociological theories of power, norms, and institutional practices. It is further inspired by previous research on social pedagogical identities, social pedagogical recognition, ethnified educational contexts, vulnerability, resilience, migration, multilingualism, and post-conflict societies.

A central objective is to develop new analytical models and metatheoretical concepts that can contribute to a deeper understanding of contemporary educational and welfare practices. The project also seeks to strengthen international research environments in which scholars from different disciplines and national contexts collaboratively develop knowledge about how social and educational phenomena are shaped by institutional, cultural, and political transformations.

The project addresses topics such as:

• Newly arrived and multilingual students’ experiences of schooling and inclusion;
• Social pedagogical practices in educational institutions;
• Identity, recognition, exclusion, and violence in school settings;
• Vulnerability and resilience among children and young people in socially disadvantaged environments;
• War, victim identity, post-war narratives, and post-conflict experiences;
• Collaboration between schools, social services, and other welfare institutions;
• The relationship between education, democracy, and social sustainability;
• Professional identity work and organizational conditions;
• Educational implications of digitalization and the development of artificial intelligence.

Through international comparisons and interdisciplinary analyses, the project aims to generate new knowledge on how education, social work, and welfare institutions can be developed in democratic, inclusive, and socially sustainable ways. It also contributes to methodological innovation through the development of qualitative meta-ethnographic and metatheoretical analytical frameworks for educational and social science research.

The project is expected to result in international publications, edited volumes, conferences, doctoral networks, and long-term research collaborations among participating universities and research environments worldwide. Its overarching goal is to contribute scientific knowledge that supports the development of inclusive, reflexive, and democratic educational and welfare systems in a period marked by global uncertainty, migration, technological transformation, and increasing social complexity.

The project forms part of the research conducted within the research groups Research in Inclusion, Democracy and Equity (RIDE), Research on Educational Professions and Practices (PEPP), Studies in Teaching and Education (SITE), Centre for Police Research and Development (CPU), and within the Linnaeus Knowledge Environment: Education in Transition and Democracy in Question.

Project members at Linnaues University