About
Ellen Oftedal Schwencke is a PhD candidate in sociology at the University of Oslo. She works for the Section for Youth Research at NOVA. The doctoral project is about sexual norms and boundaries in youth, where the aim is to get a better understanding of the boundaries between desired and unwanted sex. What is sex for in youth? How do youth construct sexual boundaries, and what happens when they are transgressed? Schwencke is mainly concerned with how gender, drugs and social inequalities play into this. The doctoral project is part of the research program on violence at NOVA.
Schwencke holds a masters degree in sociology from the University of Oslo (2021). The masters thesis explored cannabis use among adolescents from the west end of Oslo, and the thesis was a part of UiOs research centre PROMENTA. After completing her studies and until 2023, Schwencke was employed as a research assistant and researcher at NOVA, where she worked with Ungdata, UngVold and a qualitative research project on sexuality and sexual culture in youth. Schwencke was also the editor-in-chief of www.sosiologen.no. from 2022-2024
Field of study
Gender Young people and drugs Sexuality Youth culture Sociology
Research groups
Research projects
Ongoing research projects
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Sexual Culture in Youth
The project will investigate how young people negotiate, experience and handle issues related to sexuality, sexual health and risk - in light of both contemporary youth culture, and other social and societal conditions.
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Young in Oslo 2023
Young in Oslo is the City of Oslo’s Ungdata survey – a unique study that has been conducted since the mid-1990s. The 2023 survey will provide answers to what it’s like for children and young people to grow up in Oslo – after living with a pandemic for almost two years.
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Youth Sexuality and Sexual Risk in a Digital Era (DIGISEX)
The project will shed light on how digital media has created both new opportunities and new forms of risk concerning youth sexuality.
Completed research projects
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UngVold 2023 – Trends in Exposure to Violence
In 2023, NOVA collected new data for the Youth Violence survey from more than 16,000 Norwegian youth, mapping Norwegian children and adolescents’ experience of violence and abuse during their upbringing.
Publications and research
Scientific publications
Schwencke, Ellen Oftedal
; Berger, Eirik Jerven;
Pedersen, Willy
(2024).
«Vi er jo ikke stonere»: bruk av cannabis og symbolske grenser blant ungdommer vest i Oslo.
Norsk sosiologisk tidsskrift.
Vol. 8.
https://doi.org/10.18261/nost.8.1.2
