“Eihän ne ihmisiä kummempia oo” : etnografinen tutkimus kansalaisopiston yhteisöteatterihankkeista sosiaalisen pääoman vahvistajina

Abstract

This ethnographic study in the field of liberal adult education examined the social capital produced by community theater projects at the Järvilakeus Adult Education Center , focusing on the factors that strengthened social capital and its effects. The study focused on three community theater projects, including performances that moved people from one municipality to another, and a local movie. The data consists of interviews, surveys, research diary, documents and recordings. The model of cultural circles developed by Juhila was used as a method to analyze the data. Four layers of discourses were found in the data: welfare-related and instrumental resources, factors that promoted the creation of social capital (networks and trust), and binding and bridging social capital. The strengthening of social capital provided both expressive, welfare-related resources and instrumental, utility-related resources. Communication, good spirit and originality of the community theater projects promoted the creation of social capital. In addition, the central network position of the director of theatrical performances and the adult education center had a positive impact on the creation of social capital. The study gave evidence that an adult education center can simultaneously promote binding and bridging social capital, a combination which has been indicated to be effective from the perspective of development. The results can be utilized for developing course activities of the adult education center. It is particularly important to invest in bridging social capital. The community theater projects indicated that the flexible model of action of the adult education center offers many opportunities for bringing together different people and different actors to work together on common activities. In order to benefit from the potential of adult education centers for impacting society in this way, sufficient resources should be directed towards planning, recruitment of new students and development of cooperation between different actors.