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Johanna Annerbäck

Assistant Professor

My research is conducted at the intersection between different fields of research. I am theoretically interested in issues concerning children and agency and methodological questions concerning children’s participation, perspectives and voices.

Children, participation, and agency

What does it mean to listen to children, how do we listen, and what consequences does it have for the visibility and invisibility of different groups of children in research? These are important questions in my research.

I conduct qualitative research at the intersection between different fields of research such as child and childhood studies, family studies and economic sociology. In my research, I mainly work with ethnographic methods such as participant observations and qualitative interview methods. Among other things, I am interested in methodological issues concrning children's voices, participation and perspectives. My research interests are also interwoven by the theoretical interest in issues concerning children and agency, parenthood, and family life.

Current research

I am at the moment involved in two research projects relating to school, Sustainable encounters in large preschool playgrounds, and The teacher rebellion group on Facebook. Among other things and as a part of one of the projects I focus on the toddlers and their activities at the playgrounds. I explore how children’s activities and movements are both invited and excluded by the playgrounds as places (for children), and how children and place mutually shape each other.

Previous research projects

Family adoption return trips

My dissertation explores adoption return trips conducted by families with young children. The study focused on questions relating to how children and their parents reason about the decision to conduct an adoption return trip, the planning of the trip’s content and their experiences of the trip. The study shows that both children and parents are involved in planning and implementing the adoption return trips. Adoption return trips are created in interactions between children and their parents, involving recommendations for adoption return trips, hopes, conditions, opportunities, risks and, not least, individual fears. In addition, the study shows that family adoption return trips are the result of dynamic family processes that create and actualise values and ideas about family life, parenthood, children, holidays and money – and that children are part of how such values and ideals are created.

Foster care

I have also been working on projects related to foster care in the Swedish context. Together with a colleague, I carried out an evaluation of a joint foster care organisation in 2021.

Publications

2024

Alex Orrmalm, Johanna Sjöberg, Anna Sparrman, Rebecka Tiefenbacher, Joel Löw, Johanna Annerbäck, Johanna Sköld, Emilia Strid, Sanna Hedrén, Lina Lago, Olga Anatoli Smith, Yelyzaveta Hrechaniuk, Alan Prout, Marek Tesar (2024) Centring children in research: A collaborative exploration into child-centredness as method and theory Child Studies, Vol. 6, p. 11-32 (Article in journal) Continue to DOI
Annika Manni, Johanna Annerbäck, Håkan Löfgren, F. Mårtensson (2024) Encounters with ice and snow in preschool outdoor practices - and the becoming of (un)sustainability values Journal of Adventure Education and Outdoor Learning (Article in journal) Continue to DOI
Judith Lind, Cecilia Lindgren, Johanna Annerbäck (2024) Adoption from care, the reunification principle and consensual placements: the political promotion of a controversial child protection measure in Sweden European Journal of Social Work (Article in journal) Continue to DOI
Johanna Annerbäck, Annika Manni, Håkan Löfgren, Fredrika Mårtensson (2024) Toddlers' engagements with preschool playgrounds: ethnographic insights from Sweden Children's Geographies, Vol. 22, p. 810-825 (Article in journal) Continue to DOI
Annika Manni, Johanna Annerbäck, Håkan Löfgren, F. Mårtensson, A. Fröberg (2024) Places, spaces and encounters with nature - socio-material discourses in Swedish preschools International Journal of Early Years Education (Article in journal) Continue to DOI

CV

CV in short

  • 2014
    Linköping university, Linköping. PhD-student Child Studies.
  • 2012-2014
    Linköping University, Linköping. Degree of Master of Social and Welfare studies, 120 credits
  • 2009-2012
    Linköping University, Linköping. Degree of Bachelor of Tourism studies, 180 credits

Teaching

I mainly teach in courses at the International Master Program in Child Studies and at the Teacher Training Program. I am the assistant course director of the single subject course School and sexuality – from child to youth and the course director of Research methods in Child Studies.

Assignments

  • Editorial board for Sociologisk Forskning [Sociological research].
  • Network for social and cultural research on babies and young children. I am the coordinator of an international network that gathers researchers engaged in social and cultural research on babies and young children. The network has a focus on a broad range of issues concerning the youngest children in child and childhood research. 

News

family in sunset

Return trips of adopted children fill a need for the adoptive parents as well

It used to be common that adopted children made return trips to their birth countries. Today such trips are made where the entire family travels. A doctoral thesis has studied return trips and found that in many ways the focus is also on the parents.

Organisation

Silhouettes of several children in the sunset

Child Studies (TEMAB)

Education and research at Child Studies is about childhood and family with a focus on interaction and language, children's culture and consumption, and childhood over time and space, all to better see the perspectives of children and young people.
Drone image of the Tema building at Campus Valla

Department of Thematic Studies (TEMA)

In an increasingly complicated world, there is a need for researchers that can handle both breadth and depth, and can collaborate across disciplinary borders. Major societal questions are studied from an interdisciplinary perspective at TEMA.
Studenthuset on Campus Valla in Linköping

About LiU

Linköping University, LiU, offers innovative education and boundary-crossing research. The students are among the most desirable in the labour market and international rankings consistently place LiU as a leading global university.

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