Conference Program

School absence is a growing concern in Europe and beyond (Kreitz-Sandberg & Fredriksson, 2023). Research points to significant and rising levels of absenteeism and its serious consequences for young people’s academic, social and mental health outcomes (Heyne et al., 2020) with the risk of absence being especially pronounced among children who lack family support and those with neuropsychiatric and other disabilities (Connolly et al., 2023; SOU 2016:94). School absence research has predominantly been conducted in psychiatry and psychology, often conceptualising school absence in terms of individual factors (Kreitz-Sandberg & Fredriksson, 2023) such as anxiety and neuropsychiatric disability. Few studies examine how broader social forces influence school absence (Kearney, Childs & Burke, 2023) or young people’s own experience of school withdrawal (Forsell, 2020).

Drawing on Hartmut Rosas sociological theory on our relationship to the world this study explores resonance and alienation in educational and school withdrawal trajectories among young people. While alienation refers to a relation in which subject and the world meet each other with indifference or even hostility, resonance is a responsive, affective and bodily relation in which the subject feels affected by the world. These modes of relating to the world are, according to Rosa, influenced by the social acceleration of modern life that many times undermines resonant relationships (Rosa, 2019).

The study builds on interviews with eight young people in Sweden with experience of long-term school withdrawal. Five of the interviews were digital and three were conducted on site. They were carried out in two research projects on long-term school absence, one conducted 2021-2022. The other project started 2024 and will end 2028. Both research projects were approved by the Swedish Ethical Review Authority.

In the study school withdrawal is conceptualised as a phased process including pre-withdrawal, withdrawal, continued withdrawal and, for some young people, return to school. The findings highlight a complex interplay between forms of alienation and resonance across these phases, including attempts to foster resonance, experiences of muteness and of resonant relations within school. The results also indicate shifts from one type of resonance to another as well as from resonance in school to resonance in other social contexts such as digital environments. From a resonance perspective, school withdrawal may be interpreted as an attempt to regain control and transition towards contexts where resonance is possible, in an institutional school context experienced as alienating. While such strategies may restore a sense of control and agency, and include elements of resonance, they also risk deepening alienation and reduce exposure to potentially resonant encounters.