Meet our project team

Anita Borch is the Belong project coordinator. She holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Helsinki. Borch is currently working as a researcher I at SIFO. She has worked on various topics among others food security, energy use at home, Christmas gifting, consumption among young people, economic equality, advertisement, and digital media use among kids and youth.

Mari Rysst is a professor in social science/social anthropology at Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences. She is director of the ph.d.program Children and Youth Participation and Competence development (BUK) and teaches on MA and ph.d. levels. She also holds a part-time position at SIFO/OsloMet. Her professional interests are children, youth, consumption, gender, ethnicity, race, and social inclusion/exclusion.

Ingun Grimstad Klepp is a professor in clothes and sustainability at SIFO, OsloMet. Her education comprised a technical part with textiles and a PhD in ethnology. For the past 20 years, Klepp has been a leading expert in the field of how clothes are used and washed with a starting point in environmental and political questions. She has also varied experience for the meaning of cloth for integration, equality, health and in a broader sense for societal participation.

Check out the website of the clothing research group: https://uni.oslomet.no/klesforskning/belong/

Silje Elisabeth Skuland holds a PhD in sociology from the University of Oslo. She has researched food practices and economic differences, packed lunch, health and safe food practices, loan problems, and children’s and youth consumption. Silje is especially interested in children’s and young people’s lives.

Clara J. Reich is a PhD candidate in the BELONG project. She will research children’s belonging on social media scrutinizing practices, places, and people. She holds a master’s degree in Development, Environment, and Cultural Change from the University in Oslo

Christer Hyggen is a sociologist and researcher I at the section for youth research at NOVA. Hyggen works mainly with questions regarding marginalization and social exclusion among young people.

Asher Ben-Arieh, is the Haruv Chair for the study of Child Maltreatment at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, a Prof. of Social Work and the Dean of the Paul Baerwald School of Social Work and Social Welfare as of September 2021.

Asher is also the director of the Haruv Institute in Jerusalem. He served for 20 years as the associate director of Israel’s National Council for the Child.

Asher has published extensively on children’s well-being, child maltreatment and indicators of children well being. He has also founded and edited various Journals on children and their well being.

Asher is one of the leading international experts on social indicators, particularly as they relate to child well-being.

Marthe Hårvik Austgulen is a political scientist and works at SIFO. Marthe’s main areas of research are consumer politics, sustainable consumption, and social and economic inequalities. Marthe is responsible for SIFO’s referansebudsjett.

Ingrid Haugsrud is a fashion designer who holds a Master’s degree in Fashion and Society from OsloMet. She is a research assistant on the clothing research group at SIFO. Ingrid is working on the research projects CHANGE and BELONG.

Mette Løvgren is a researcher in the section for youth research. She holds a PhD in professional studies from the center for professional studies at Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences. She is currently working with Ungdata Junior and Children’s Worlds, which are both surveys with children.

Henry Mainsah isa researcher at SIFO. Henry has a PhD in Media and Communication and he conducts research interdisciplinary on subjects such as digitization, consumption, social media, smart living, creative research methods, participatory design, and digital literacies.

Ola Røed Bilgrei is a trained sociologist and holds a PhD from the University of Oslo and works as a researcher II at SIFO. Ola has previously researched among other things digital communities, drug use and youth culture.

Sabine Andresen investigates in empirical studies on children’s rights, childhood vulnerability and child well-being in Germany and from an international perspective. Children and young people’s perceptions affected by marginalized topics in the field of childhood research are vital part of her research. Her research includes historical perspectives on childhood and youth (e.g. about Janusz Korczak or Ellen Key). She is a member of the Scientific Board of the IDeA Research Centre in Frankfurt.

During the last decade she also intensively focused on sexual abuse of children and young people, on sexual abuse in families as well as on transitional justice. She was chairwoman of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse in Germany for 5.5 years.