| 1. |
- Rodineliussen, Rasmus, 1990-
(author)
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Underwater Worlds : An Ethnography of Waste, Pollution, and Marine Life
- 2023
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- In this dissertation, I investigate relations between humans, waste, pollution, and marine life. I introduce the concept of Aquabiopolitics as a means to understand how humans govern life in water in order to enrich human life on land. The study focuses on the Baltic Sea and Lake Mälaren, using Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, as the connection point. Throughout the dissertation, I explore how human practices over time have had devastating effects on marine life and continue to have so today. The dissertation engages with the marine world through underwater ethnography to provide a perspective on water from below the surface. In this endeavor, I employ the assistance of marine scientists and trash scuba divers who are jointly invested in tracking human maltreatment of water and finding solutions for treating water differently in the future. We will follow the scientists on expeditions at sea and to their laboratories in order to learn about their methods and relations to underwater worlds. Together with the trash scuba divers, we will dive into the dark murky waters around Stockholm—experiencing what it is like to move below water, among sharp and toxic waste, without any visibility. The work of creating a knowing and caring relationship between humans and water is of key importance to both scientists and divers. Therefore, one of the main parts of this dissertation is to analyze how, and if, this relationship can be created: via social media, images, installations, or other means. For as the divers often say: Water is Life. Make it Important!
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| 2. |
- Hedblom, Christina, 1980-
(author)
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"The Body is Made to Move" : Gym and Fitness Culture in Sweden
- 2009
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Ideas about "exercise" and "health" have varied over time and across cultures. With the recent Euro-American fitness trend, a growing number of Swedes now take part in some kind of physical activity at Gyms or Fitness Centers. By applying a phenomenological and constructivist approach, the aim of this ethnographic study is to examine the non-profit but also commercial culture of and around this form of exercise. The focus is on how meaning is created, transformed, embodied, and perceived by gym goers as truth, science, knowledge, or even myth. There are two central overlapping concerns in this thesis, both dealing with the interrelation between categories, and status positions. The first part of the thesis deals with the social aspects of movement, such as the definition and categorization of self and others as different types of gym-goers. Related to this are also what is termed critical norms of interpretation of aims and reasons for exercise, such as gaining strength or aesthetic improvement. The other central concern is more specifically focused on the body itself and deals with ideas about exercise, diet, substances, and physiology, that is, how to exercise and how the body works. "The body is made to move", was a common saying at Gyms and Centers, meaning that the human body is physically built to be active. But the techniques and practices of how this movement is performed vary and are sometimes even contradictory. Here sources in the distribution of ideas about the body and body movement are brought out: the Internet, informal and formal instructors in the Gym, as well as gym machines. The method has been participant observation and in-depth interviews with gym goers and instructors at Gyms and Fitness Centers in two middle size towns in Sweden mainly during a year in 2004-2005. Rather than taking sides in the debate on how to exercise, this thesis raises wider questions about the authority to define reality.
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| 3. |
- Högström, Karin, 1964-
(author)
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Orientalisk dans i Stockholm : Femininiteter, möjligheter och begränsningar
- 2010
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The aim of the dissertation is to describe and analyze the practice and meaning of Middle Eastern dance through the study of a number of performers in Stockholm. In particular, this study emphasises the ways in which the performers seek, create and defend values such as femininity, authenticity, empowerment and respectability in and through their dancing.Data for this study consists of field notes from participant observation in dance classes, festivals and gatherings; in-depth interviews and written material, such as leaflets and Internet material. Field notes from a trip to Lebanon with a group of Swedish dancers are also included.The performance of Middle Eastern dance in Stockholm may be seen as a way for Swedish women to find new femininities. They strive to combine a glamorous hyper-femininity with strength and respectability. This is a difficult task. The dancers constantly have to maintain a balance. While enjoying the hyper-femininity of oriental dance they must avoid being too sexy and thereby running the risk of being reduced to the position of sexual objects. To avoid losing control of the situation performing in public the dancers use different tactics. Many try to make the performance a clearly bounded event and make distinctions between themselves as individuals and the personas they embody on stage. This gives the performers a chance to playfully embody hyper-femininity. Other dancers have changed the dance itself, removing all movements and costumes that could be perceived as sexually inviting or aiming to please.
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| 4. |
- Sarajeva, Katja, 1977-
(author)
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Lesbian Lives : Sexuality, Space and Subculture in Moscow
- 2011
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This study is an exploration of the lesbian subculture in Russia focusing in particular on the subculture as a unique heterogeneous space of social interaction and cultural production that is not self contained or isolated from mainstream society, but incorporates a variety of cultural flows and traditions that are a part of Russian mainstream culture, other Russian subcultures, or global cultural flows. Some of these cultural flows and traditions are more compatible than other ones.The increasingly globalized images and ideas of what a gay and lesbian community is, or perhaps should be like, are only partially compatible with contemporary reality in Russia. The high value placed on visibility and explicitly political, even radical activism, in gay and lesbian subcultures in the West, must in Russia be reconciled not only with the totalitarian past, and the increasingly authoritarian present, but also with the traditions and practices that developed as a response to the repressive regime and enabled people to live and even thrive within it. Using private spaces as public space, and public space as private space established a practice of multilayered spaces that are continuously maintained through social inclusion and exclusion, visibility and invisibility.However, the subculture is not only an intersection of external cultural flows and traditions, it also has it’s own unique traditions, knowledges and practices. Poetry, music, literature and art form the backbone of the flow of activities within the subculture. Visual and grammatical cues, styles, jokes and lesbian genders are integral aspects of the subculture as it is continuously renegotiated by its participants also on an individual level..The study is based on fieldwork, participant observation and interviews, mainly in Moscow, and to some extent in St Petersburg, during 2005 with recurring visits during 2006 and 2007.
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| 5. |
- Sörensdotter, Renita, 1967-
(author)
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Omsorgsarbete i omvandling : Genus, klass och etnicitet inom hemtjänsten
- 2008
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Hemtjänstyrket är ett yrke i förändring. Arbetet har allt sedan hemtjänsten startade sin verksamhet 1950 framför allt utförts av vita svenska medelålders kvinnor med bakgrund i arbetarklassen. De som arbetar inom hemtjänsten idag har dock varierande ursprung, kön, klassbakgrund och ålder. Denna avhandling syftar till att belysa hur diskurser om genus, sexualitet, etnicitet och klass bidrar till att möjliggöra och begränsa hemtjänstpersonalens yrkesroll och arbetsvillkor. De teoretiska utgångspunkterna utgörs av queerfeministiska teorier med fokus på hur olika diskurser samverkar i subjektets positionsbestämning. Det empiriska materialet har tagits fram genom deltagande observation och intervjuer med två hemtjänstgrupper. Den ena gruppen består av vita svenska kvinnor med arbetarklassbakgrund boende i en bruksort i Dalarna. Den andra gruppen arbetar i Stockholms innerstad och består av en blandning av människor utifrån kön, etnicitet, klass och utbildningsnivå. I avhandlingen visas att hemtjänstgruppernas sammansättning påverkar deras arbetsvillkor. I den enkönade gruppen utformar kvinnorna homosociala relationer som ger dem utrymme att skämta om män samtidigt som de enas genom att beklaga sin genusbaserade underordning i samhället. I den blandade gruppen formar männen homosociala relationer sinsemellan och bekräftar sin heterosexualitet och överordning gentemot kvinnor genom skämt om kvinnor. I gruppen överordnas de svenska männen kvinnorna och männen med utomnordiskt ursprung. I det direkta arbetet med vårdtagarna utgör dock svenska kvinnor norm, övriga omsorgsarbetare måste omförhandla sin position utifrån normen. I enlighet med den offentliga jämställdhetsdiskursen uppvärderas män och många önskar sig fler män i yrket. Etnisk mångfald tas däremot upp som ett problem. Trots förändringarna inom hemtjänsten kvarstår att personalens kroppsliga och emotionella arbete inte värderas som en kompetens beroende på att kunskapen kopplas samman med kvinnor.
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