About
Ingrid Smette is a researcher at NOVA, section for research on childhood, family and child welfare. Her research interests are parenthood and childhood in a culturally diverse welfare state. She has recently completed a postdoctoral project at the University of Oslo on parenting ideals and practices in the second generation. She is currently working on several projects relating to how welfare state institutions deal with religious difference. She holds a PhD in social anthropology (2015) from UiO and works mainly with qualitative methods.
Field of study
Migration Youth Education Familylife, parenting, child-care Students with minority background Youth, gender, violence High School Social control Sexual violence Authonomy Majority-minority relations Secondary school
Research groups
Research projects
Ongoing research projects
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Inequality in Youth – A Qualitative, Longitudinal Research Database
Inequality in youth is a qualitative, longitudinal research database on youths in Norway, intended to be a parallel to the quantitative Ungdata surveys.
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Support Services and Their Work with Conflict, Control and Violence
This project led by NOVA investigates the Norwegian support services and how they handle conflict/violence in families.
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The Domestic Violence Research Programme
The programme studies time trends in the prevalence of violence and assault, violence as phenomenon, and how violence is approached by the welfare- and justice systems.
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Tomorrow’s Inequalities in the Making: Processes of Life Chance Differentiation within and outside of Education (LIFECHANCES)
In LIFECHANCES we investigate how differences between young people may become inequalities in life chances over time.
Completed research projects
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Descendants of Immigrants and the Concerned Welfare State
This project examines the ongoing, relational negotiations between the welfare state and the public's understanding of problems, on the one hand, and processes of change in the minority population, on the other.
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Evaluation of minority counsellor pilot projects in upper secondary schools and adult learning centres
NOVA researchers will evaluate two pilot projects placing minority counsellors in secondary schools in vulnerable urban areas and adult learning centres.
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Norwegian Schools’ Experiences with and Handling of Exemptions and Absences on Religious Grounds
In this project, we aim to investigate how schools handle requests for exemption from teaching and school activities based on religion and life stance.
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Parental Restrictions and Violence – A Study Based on UngVold 2023
The project aims to map the relationship between growing up with strict parental restrictions and domestic violence based on data from the YouthViolence 2023 survey.
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Parenting in Ethnic and Religious Minority Contexts in Norway
The aim of the project is to develop research-based knowledge about different forms of parenthood that co-exist in Norway, based on parents’ own perspectives.
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Upbringing, Family Life, and Seeking Help in 'Closed' Religious Communities
This project aims to build knowledge about upbringing and family life in religious communities that can be understood as closed, and the significance of this closed nature for children's rights.
Publications and research
Scientific publications
Smette, Ingrid
; Hegna, Kristinn
(2025).
Understanding Rural Young Women’s Pathways Towards Settledness in Norway: A Longitudinal Perspective.
Vehkalahti, Kaisa; Eriksen, Ingunn Marie; Østergaard, Jeanette (Ed.).
Growing Up Rural: Qualitative Longitudinal Explorations of Young People Living in the Nordic Countries. p. 233-255.
Palgrave Macmillan.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-96-7127-4_10
Smette, Ingrid
; Awan, Aqsa Umme
(2025).
Exemptions and Absences from School Based on Religion: What Can a Civil Culture Perspective Contribute?.
Tidsskrift for samfunnsforskning (TfS).
Vol. 66.
https://doi.org/10.18261/tfs.66.2.1
Smette, Ingrid
;
Eriksen, Ingunn Marie
(2023).
From Gendered Borderwork to Ethnic Boundaries: The Case of Two Norwegian Schools.
Oeur, Freeden Blume; Pascoe, C. J. (Ed.).
Gender replay: On kids, school and feminism.
New York University Press.
https://hdl.handle.net/11250/4216062
Smette, Ingrid
;
Aarset, Monica Five
(2023).
Parenting in the second generation. The changing family figurations of descendants of Pakistani, Indian and Sri Lankan Tamil immigrants in Norway.
Ethnic and Racial Studies.
https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2023.2232454
Eriksen, Ingunn Marie
;
Stefansen, Kari
;
Smette, Ingrid
(2022).
Inequalities in the making: the role of young people’s relational resources through the COVID-19 lockdown.
Journal of Youth Studies.
https://doi.org/10.1080/13676261.2022.2144716
Østby, Lene;
Stefansen, Kari
;
Smette, Ingrid
(2022).
Overgrepsutsattes erfaringer med spesialiserte lavterskeltilbud: Symbolsk anerkjennelse, solidariske fellesskap.
Tidsskrift for velferdsforskning.
Vol. Årgang 25.
https://doi.org/10.18261/tfv.25.1.3
Smette, Ingrid
;
Hyggen, Christer
;
Bredal, Anja
(2021).
Foreldrerestriksjoner blant minoritetsungdom: omfang og mønstre i og utenfor skolen.
Tidsskrift for samfunnsforskning (TfS).
Vol. 62.
https://doi.org/10.18261/issn.1504-291X-2021-01-01
Rosten, Monika Grønli
;
Smette, Ingrid
(2021).
Pragmatic, pious and pissed off: young Muslims girls managing conflicting sexual norms and social control.
Journal of Youth Studies.
https://doi.org/10.1080/13676261.2021.1981841
Smette, Ingrid
; Hegna, Kristinn
(2021).
Selvbestemmelse og selvregulering: Nye elevidealer for ungdomsskolen.
Ødegård, Guro; Pedersen, Willy (Ed.).
UNGDOMMEN. p. 113-134.
Cappelen Damm Akademisk.
https://doi.org/10.23865/noasp.142.ch5
Aarset, Monica Five
;
Smette, Ingrid
;
Rosten, Monika
(2021).
Thinking through generation: On parenting and belonging among adult children of immigrants in Norway.
Falch-Eriksen, Asgeir; Takle, Marianne; Britt, Slagsvold (Ed.).
Generational Tensions and Solidarity Within Advanced Welfare States. p. 79-95.
Routledge.
https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003129592-7
