Fragmentation of Hope through Tiny Acts of Bureaucratic Cruelty - Another Kind of War on Afghan People Seeking Asylum in Sweden

This article analyzes the micro-powers of Swedish “cruel” and “non-cruel” bureaucrats using various logics of control, “tiny acts” enacted with pens, computers, and imposed assignments to condition asylum-seeking peoples’ lives and fragment their hope. Based on interviews with asylum-seeking Afghans and observations of their meetings with authorities, I argue that the bureaucratic treatment of Afghans in Sweden is a form of state-sanctioned racist violence and “departheid” executed to exclude discredited people from the welfare state. The article draws attention to a rapid downhill slide regarding asylum rights in Sweden since 2015 and the harm caused to asylum-seeking people

Othering through genderization in the regional press

By far, most of the research into processes of discrimination and ethnification in Sweden considers urban settings. This article focuses on how the regional press in a rural area of south-east Sweden represents immigrants in a residential area in the outskirts of the Kalmar township. It points at the urgent need for researchers and decision-makers to take into account both subtle and palpable stigmatizing processes that meet immigrants who reside the countryside. An analysis of two local newspapers shows a continuous construction of `otherness' through pictures and texts, in which the identities of minority ethnic groups are stereotyped and subverted. One of the most persistent themes in this work of representation is the brutalization of the masculinity of `others', stressed even further by a `traditionalization' and feminization of a weak, caring female other. Both these gendered images serve a higher purpose, that of maintaining a positive image of a taken-for-granted Swedishness

Taking Time and Making Journeys: Narratives on Self and the Other among Backpackers

This work addresses the phenomenon of long-term, so-called ‘independent’ travelling, or backpacking, often to destinations described as the ‘third world’. It regards backpacker journeys as arenas for identity work, for expressing individuality and a ‘strong character’. Rather than merely being a parenthetic detour in time and space a backpacker’s trip to the tropics can be understood as a creative effort by the individual to regain the control over time and space thought to be lost in places travellers call home. Yet, at the same time, backpacking reproduces structures of power, through (re)constructing the image of a ‘primitive other’ upon which much of a successful ‘western identity’ rests. The success is, however, not only dependent upon inventing and encountering ‘primitive’ others but also upon the gender of the traveller as well as the competence in mastering manifestations of adventure and risk. The work argues, for instance, that stereotype expectations of femininity (and masculinity) make female ‘adventurism’ into a challenge beyond the actual (or faked) ordeals encountered on the road. Adventurous women are forced to negotiate and balance between expectations placed upon them as (non-adventurous) females and as adventurous travellers. The arguments rest upon the ontological and epistemological conviction that individuals are creative, making the most out of the tools for identity work which society supplies them with. However, in the process of individual self-articulation, structures are both maintained and altered. Consequently, it is through studying individuals and their products/expressions (such as media texts or choice of clothing, food or ‘proper’ transport) that information can be gathered concerning individual thoughts and actions and the structures within which these are manifested. Such an undertaking has been accomplished within this project by means of a qualitative, ethnographically influenced approach, including interviews with backpackers, observations in backpacker areas and analysis of travel media

Othering the “other” in court : Threats to self-presentation during interpreter assisted hearings

This paper is based on an ethnographic research project studying interaction processes and rituals; the interplay between speech and social interaction during interpreted hearings in Swedish District Court cases on domestic violence, where opponents have Middle Eastern, Muslim backgrounds. It is argued that a combination of linguistic changes performed by an interpreter – subtractions, additions and content alterations – during interpreted hearings can cause situations of emotional drainage and contagion, leading to further ”othering” of parties that already are culturally and linguistically ”othered”, both inside and outside the courtroom context. Ultimately, their loss of control over self-presentation is a matter of unequal power distribution and a potential threat to the principle of legal security. Thus, the view of the interpreter as merely a context-bound supportive drummer at the back of the orchestra is challenged and related to social order and stratification processes on an abstract societal level.The research informing the article has been funded by Riksbanken (Malmö University) as well as Barometernstiftelsen, Concurrences and the social science faculty (all at Linnaeus University). Thus, it is based on work carried out both at Malmö University and Linnaeus University. Förhandlingar i rätten och likhet inför lagen En etnografisk studie av hur kultur, etnicitet, kön och ålder förhandlas under rättegångar som rör gatukriminalitet. Malmö HögskolaDiscursive relationships between the judicial system and journalism. A study of notions of culture and gender in criminal justice and journalism. Linnéuniversitetet

Projekt Norrliden : Om småstadspressens etnifiering och genderisering av en förort

The Norrliden project. Genderisation and ethnification of a low status residential area in the local press Media often contributes to segregation by constructing low status residential areas as “different” from what is “normal” and “Swedish”. Research into media representations of these residential areas often focuses big city contexts. Furthermore, research tends to be preoccupied with the construction of ethnic differences, paying little attention to the relationship between construction processes of gender and ethnicity. This article is a critical analysis of how the local daily newspapers in a medium sized town, Kalmar, construct stereotypes of immigrants and gendered identities in the low status residential area Norrliden. Two newspapers were studied in search for articles related to the area, published during the year 2005. Despite the newspapers’ claim that they want to contribute to a more nuanced and less stereotyped image of the residential area the consequences of their work seem to be the opposite. The representation sof the area are coded with stereotypes suggesting that the area is unsafe and dangerous and that the people who live there are motivated by affect and emotions rather than by successful socialisation. These representations are also characterised by notions of ethnicity and gender, as well as class. Norrliden is described as an area in need of change and improvement, as an unfinished project dependent upon aid from the outside. A reading of the 2005 media representations of Norrliden exposes an example of “symbolic violence” in that texts and photographs repeatedly degrade the area and its inhabitants.Sociologisk Forsknings digitala arkiv</p

Immigrant mafia or local lads on the binge? The construction of (un)trustworthiness in Swedish district courts

In this article we address the construction of familiarity and distance in Swedish district court cases, involving young men with both immigrant and Swedish backgrounds. Through ethnographic observations of 40 trials related to street crimes, we have found different qualities of social interaction that distinguish immigrant background and Swedish background cases from each other. These distinctions, disfavouring young men with immigrant background, are built up through a series of practices and events that follow taken-for-granted behaviour and details in interaction, such as speech, laughter, choice of words to describe the accused and trust in Swedish witnesses. In conclusion, we argue for the necessity of detailed, close-up studies of courtroom action and interaction to understand statistical findings of discrimination and disfavouring of certain groups of immigrants in court and elsewhere in the judicial process

Projekt Norrliden : Om småstadspressens etnifiering och genderisering av en förort

The Norrliden project. Genderisation and ethnification of a low status residential area in the local press Media often contributes to segregation by constructing low status residential areas as “different” from what is “normal” and “Swedish”. Research into media representations of these residential areas often focuses big city contexts. Furthermore, research tends to be preoccupied with the construction of ethnic differences, paying little attention to the relationship between construction processes of gender and ethnicity. This article is a critical analysis of how the local daily newspapers in a medium sized town, Kalmar, construct stereotypes of immigrants and gendered identities in the low status residential area Norrliden. Two newspapers were studied in search for articles related to the area, published during the year 2005. Despite the newspapers’ claim that they want to contribute to a more nuanced and less stereotyped image of the residential area the consequences of their work seem to be the opposite. The representation sof the area are coded with stereotypes suggesting that the area is unsafe and dangerous and that the people who live there are motivated by affect and emotions rather than by successful socialisation. These representations are also characterised by notions of ethnicity and gender, as well as class. Norrliden is described as an area in need of change and improvement, as an unfinished project dependent upon aid from the outside. A reading of the 2005 media representations of Norrliden exposes an example of “symbolic violence” in that texts and photographs repeatedly degrade the area and its inhabitants.Sociologisk Forsknings digitala arkiv</p

Governing through hope : an exploration of hope and social change in an asylum context

The aim of this article is to elaborate, theoretically, on the ambiguity of hope and its relation to social change in the asylum context. This ambiguity involves two different perspectives of hope. One more mundane view of hope where it is considered an emotion used to overcome complex issues and move towards a better situation in the future. A perspective often used by social and migration authorities to urge people to hope for a future should they submit to the authorities’ logic. The other perspective, more common in some research, challenges such positive connotations and argues that hope can put people in a position of suffering where hope may hinder or slow down the realisation of social change. With the aid of scholars who have theorised about hope and ethnographic cases from our research on hope in the asylum context, we develop a theoretical perspective on hope and social change. Our perspective includes concepts such as the governmentality of hope, fragmentation of hope and glimmers of hope. To grasp the relationship between hope and social change, we must account for several mixed emotions, such as feelings of despair, fear and bitterness, as well as glimmers of hope. Such mixtures of emotions may be essential to initiate and create social change. A central argument in this article is that an analysis of hope when people risk being governed by hope would benefit from a parallel analysis of social change