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- Sandberg, Linda, 1978-
(author)
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Fear of violence and gendered power relations : Responses to threat in public space in Sweden
- 2011
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Several cases of single repeat offenders in urban space have raised public concern in Sweden during recent decades. Few studies have been conducted on consequences of the kind of ‘hostage situations’ that emerge when one individual offender causes fear and affects a larger group of people in a specific place. The concern of this thesis is to examine consequences of the Haga Man phenomenon: the case of a serial rapist operating between 1998 and 2006 in Umeå, a medium-sized Swedish city. This thesis explores some of the ways not only women but also men in Umeå responded to this specific situation, the threat from a single repeat offender, and how fear of crime and changing public crime discourses influenced gendered power relations. The thesis examines different aspects of fear and safety in public space, such as the views of those who are fearful; of those who are feared; perceptions of both women’s and men’s bodies; their emotions and experiences in relation to fear of violence in public spaces; and the significance of space and place for our understanding of fear. The empirical data of this thesis consist of in-depth interviews with a total of 47 women and men in Umeå.The thesis is based on four empirical studies. The first (Paper I) sought to identify similarities and differences across narratives in terms of the major components of young people’s talk about fear. In their stories women positioned themselves as fearful and in need of protection, while men in their stories positioned themselves as fearless protectors. Men and women reproduced ways of speaking considered appropriate to their gender, thus performing masculinity and femininity through their talk. Paper II, examines consequences of the Haga Man phenomenon on constructions of white masculinities. Three masculine positions; the dangerous stranger, the suspect and the protector were identified. These three constructions of masculinity were not clear-cut or ‘belonging’ to specific men – several of the interviewees articulated various forms of masculinities but stressed them in different ways depending on, for instance, age and/or ethnicity/race. Paper III, focuses on changing perceptions and representations of female and male bodies, and illustrates how a change took place; from a focus on how women should conduct themselves to be safe, towards men’s bodily behaviour in order to present themselves in non-threatening ways. In Paper IV, women’s fear of violence is discussed in relation to Swedish gender equality discourses and contextual constructions of femininity. The results show the difficulties of claiming the official position of a gender-equal femininity. Several female respondents expressed an ambivalent attitude about their own fear; they felt afraid, but also felt that as (equal) women they should be able to do what they wanted, whenever they wanted. Result from this thesis shows that this situation produced a shared approach to fear for women of different ages, classes and ethnicities in Umeå. The similarity in the women’s responses to the threat from the Haga Man is as an expression of a normative femininity. The male respondents did on the other hand express complex emotional positions as they talked about their own fears, women’s fear of unknown men and how they felt they were under suspicion and compared to the perpetrator. As this thesis provides an understanding of how men and women responded and reacted to the threat from the Haga man, it contributes to a better understanding of how fear of violence affects people in their everyday lives.
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| 2. |
- Bladh, Greta, 1984-
(author)
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Moving thresholds : body narratives within the vicinity of gym and fitness culture
- 2020
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This thesis investigates thresholds that impede bodies from moving to, and within, gym and fitness sites. Thresholds are here understood as gendered social constructs and norms, which direct bodies in certain ways, and thus circumscribing potential movements and capabilities. The study’s initial entry point was at a gym, here referred to as The Club which had in its statutes proclaimed to work in a norm critical way. This was an attempt to promote a more inclusive environment, and thus lowering certain thresholds for movement, in that members otherwise discouraged to enter other general gyms, found this particular gym open and “chill”. By conducting participatory observations, interviews, and collective memory exercises, this study is an effort to identify experiences otherwise seen as mundane and ordinary, such as working out at the gym, as conditioned under certain power relations.Aided by a theoretical framework combining poststructuralism and phenomenology, a narrative and deconstructive approach directed the analysis of the empirical material. The results showed that the specific case of the Club entailed how the work for inclusiveness, and thus lowering certain thresholds, entailed other forms of thresholding, in that in order to insure an inclusive environment, a certain amount of emotional work from the members of the Club was required. This meant that the cost of an inclusive and open environment is a balancing act on an emotional tightrope, which in turn indicated that the work to be norm critical entailed vulnerable inclusiveness. Further, even though participants were critically aware of repressive gender norms circumscribing their range of movement, the possibility of other movements were still at a threshold. This was due to their corporeal historic background of experiences of hierarchical binary gender norms, which still lingered under the skin. In this thesis, this corporeal background is referred to as body narrative, an attempt to displace a binary gendered framing of the perception of bodies. However, despite the participants’ reflexive stance towards repressive gender norms, their range of motion were still at a threshold, colored by past experiences, which in turn binds our eyes to what is perceivable, signifying how emancipation can never reach an end, but is rather a continuous process, always aiming, little by little, to displace thresholds of movement.
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| 3. |
- Östlund, Lena
(author)
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Att navigera i svåra situationer vid vård och omsorg av personer med demenssjukdom : Vård- och omsorgspersonals inhämtande av samtycke samt resonerande och agerande vid misstanke om förekomstav våld i nära relationer
- 2023
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Licentiate thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Bakgrund: Personal inom vård och omsorg av personer med demenssjukdom står inför många svårigheter. I mötet med personer med demenssjukdomar kan svåra situationer uppstå till följd av den kognitiva nedsättningen. Personer med demenssjukdom kan ha svårt att förmedla sina önskemål eller berätta vad de varit med om. Det finns också organisatoriska svårigheter, som till exempel att det saknas personal med rätt utbildning och att det blir allt fler äldre med komplexa behov som behöver vård och omsorg.Syfte: Det övergripande syftet är att undersöka hur personal inom vård och omsorg resonerar och agerar kring svåra situationer i mötet med personer med demenssjukdom med fokus på att inhämta samtycke (studie I) samt hur de resonerar och agerar när de misstänker våld i nära relationer som begås av anhöriga till personer med demenssjukdom (studie II).Metod: Data insamlades genom totalt 22 gruppintervjuer med 101 personal som möter personer med demenssjukdom och deras anhöriga i sitt arbete. Intervjuerna syftade till att vara interaktiva, vilket innebär att deltagarna hjälper varandra att reflektera kring det givna ämnet. Studie I analyserades med kvalitativ innehållsanalys och studie II med tematisk analys.Resultat: Övergripande resultat från de båda studierna visar att personal inom vård och omsorg om personer med demenssjukdom upplever flera svårigheter gällande att inhämta samtycke till vård- och omsorgsåtgärder samt att agera vid misstanke om våldsförekomst. Studie I visar att personalens strävan är att alltid låta personerna med demenssjukdom vara självbestämmande, men på grund av de funktionsnedsättningar demenssjukdomen innebär är det ibland svårt att få ett samtycke. I dessa situationer kan det hända att personal är de som fattar besluten om en åtgärd. De båda studierna visar också att personal känner sig osäkra på hur de bör handla eftersom det finns brister avseende stöd och hjälp från verksamheten, såsom riktlinjer och rutiner för att ha något att agera utifrån. Detta var särskilt tydligt i studie II, där personal uppger att de därmed känner sig utlämnade till sina egna erfarenheter, normer och värderingar. Vidare är ett övergripande resultat att personal behöver ha god kännedom om vilka personerna är, deras behov, vanor, känslor och preferenser. Om personerna med demenssjukdom inte kan berätta om vad de utsätts för behöver personalen kunna tolka individens beteende och se om något avviker från det vanliga.Slutsats: De nära interaktionerna mellan personal och personer med demenssjukdom ställer höga krav på färdigheter och kompetens. Det råder en känsla av ansvar bland personalen när det kommer till att möta behoven hos personer med demenssjukdom. Personalen upplever osäkerhet när de inte har klar vägledning om hur de ska agera, och förutsättningarna ofta är otillräckliga. För att stödja personalen behövs tydliga rutiner och riktlinjer, kontinuerlig utbildning och handledning samt tid och möjlighet att reflektera över förhållningssätt.
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