Spring 2023
Critique of the Freedom of Art: The Contemporary Far Right and the Uses of a Concept
Seminar and book launch. What could a long-term, progressive, and anti-racist cultural policy be in Sweden today, in a situation where conservative, xenophobic, and anti-intellectual forces are gaining political influence? Short interventions by Gustav Strandberg, Kim West, and Josefine Wikström, Södertörn University; and Madina Tlostanova and Stefan Jonsson, Linköping University.
REMESO's 15th anniversary: What research on migration, ethnicity and society? Critical scholarship on an increasingly critical field.
Panel discussions with colleagues, board members, alumni, and affiliates.
Cosmopolitanism and Welfare Chauvinism in Sweden
Max Jerneck, Affiliated researcher , PhD, Stockholm School of Economics. Jerneck discussed the dominant paradigm underpinning the discussion of the “costs” of immigration. Most parties have accepted the idea that because immigrants, as a group, have a relatively high level of unemployment and get more from the welfare state than what they pay in taxes, they make up a an economic burden. However, Jerneck argues, through the lens of “functional finance” and a critical look at the dominating discourses, that immigrants contribution through taxes to the state budget is of little relevance for the Swedish economy.
Revolution after Hegemony
Mikkel Bolt Rasmussen, professor of political aesthetics, University of Copenhagen.Where and what is fascism today? What if it can’t be confined to political parties or ultranationalist politicians but has become something much more diffuse that is spread across our societies as cultural expressions and psychological states? Professor Bolt Rasmussen discussed his recent book Late Capitalist Fascism (Polity) and work in progress.
Digital Citizenship Ideals in the Swedish Welfare State
Ahmed Kaharevic, PhD candidate; Helena Iacobaeus, PhD candidate; Mariana Gustafsson, Lecturer and Associate Professor, Division of Political Science, Department of Management and Engineering, Linköping University.
This article answers to the call for more critical perspectives on digital citizenship. Inspired by Isin and Ruppert’s (2020) conceptualization, Laclau & Mouffe’s (1985) discourse theory, and Schou and Hjelholt’s (2017) citizenship framing in the Danish context, we identify and unpack imagined digital citizenship in the Swedish (digital) welfare state. The data consists of the Swedish national digitalization strategy, the Swedish Library Act, and interviews with library staff.
To Measure Racism
Edda Manga, Researcher, Mångkulturellt centrum and Mattias Gardell, professor, CEMFOR, Uppsala University. Edda Manga and Mattias Gardell presented their new book which examines the question on how to “measure” racism, from a set of theoretical and historical perspectives. They also offer a practical suggestion for how to measure the effects of racism for different groups: the so called: Balingsholmsmodellen.
Trade Unions, Refugees and Immigrant Labour: has the Attitude Changed? The Stance of Swedish Blue-Collar Trade Unions as Evidenced by Sentiment Analysis
Aliaksei Kazlou, Assistant Professor, Department of Management and Engineering, Linköping University.
Aliaksei Kazlou presented an article co authored with Lin Lerpold and Örjan Sjöberg, Center for Sustainability Research and Department of Marketing and Strategy, Stockholm School of Economics, Stockholm.
The attitude of trade unions towards migration and migrants, be it of asylum seekers or those in search of jobs and better incomes, differs quite substantially across European countries. In this investigation the authors use sentiment analysis to assess whether there are any changes, such as structural breaks or polarisation, to be discerned in the opinion of the representatives of thirteen blue-collar trade unions and their national confederation. At its most general, the trend appears to turn more negative over time, yet the influence of defining events and legal changes is not so easily discerned, therefore closer studies was undertaken the union representing workers in the industry with the largest proportion of immigrant labour, the Hotel and Restaurant Workers’ Union.
Building Europe’s Next Generation Digital Infrastructures: the Reconfiguration of Sovereignty and Imagined Communities
Mauricio Rogat, postdoc, REMESO. Recent post-pandemic recovery plans in the EU and the UK, involving considerable investments in digital infrastructures, evoke questions about potential reconfigurations of sovereignty and the boundaries of imagined communities. This presentation will elaborate on the relationship between the expanding digital infrastructures, bordering practices and the social fabric of the everyday.
Autumn 2022
Panel discussion - Colonialism and Modern Social Theory
Book presentation by visiting professors Gurminder Bhambra, University of Sussex, and John Holmwood, University of Nottingham. Commentary by REMESO professors Peo Hansen and Claudia Tazreiter. Moderator: Stefan Jonsson.
“Taurus in the Arena of Life: Toussaint L'Overture's "Grievous Error" and Black Radical Ruptures in the Wake of Slavery and Colonialism”
James R. Walker, PhD, ADN, Honors Program, DePaul University, Chicago.
The seminar discussed Walker's essay, "COVID-19 and Dreams of a Radical Re-visioning of Global Health Engagement," and it´s suggestion to re-vision our engagement with global health inequity through the work of Black Radicals C. L. R. James, Walter Rodney, Paul Gilroy, and Christina Sharpe.
“The concept of race.”
Discussion on Loïc Wacquant’s article “Resolving the Trouble with ’Race’” (2022), which suggests a new notion of ethnicity and race and problematizes the idea of structural racism. Introductory comments by Anna Bredström and Anders Neergaard.
Geographies of Commemoration in a Digital World: Anzac @ 100
Danielle Drozdzewski, Dep. of Human Geography, Stockholm University. Danielle Drozdzewski talked about her reccent book, co-authored with Shanti Sumartojo and Emma Waterton, and the suggestion that the digital constitutes opportunities to influence how we remember. She will moreover introduce a new epistemology of memory, which tackles the complexity of geographies of commemoration. Integral to her approach has been an embodied and mindful cognisance of positions within/on memory research (including about Anzac).
Book release: Contending Global Apartheid: Transversal Solidarities and Politics of Possibility
Carl-Ulrik Schierup, professor emeritus, REMESO, presented his new book, co-authored with Martin Bak Jörgensen (Brill 2022). Commentary by Stefan Jonsson, REMESO.
“The Legal Expriences of Turkish Women Migrants in Sweden”
Duygu Hatipoglu Aydin, REMESO guest researcher, Associate Professor at Hacettepe University, Faculty of Law, Ankara.
"The contribution of young migrant men to building potentially sustainable, and sexual and reproductive health beneficial social integration in Johannesburg Inner city."
Oncemore Mbeve is a Doctoral Candidate at Wits University, African Centre for Migration and Society (ACMS) and a visiting Doctoral Candidate at REMESO, LiU. Comments from Anna Bredström, Associate Professor, REMESO.
”Feeling difference: Race, migration, and the affective infrastructure of a Danish detention camp”
Annika Lindberg, School of Global Studies, University of Gothenburg. Guest seminar with REMESO International Graduate School.
“Late Capitalist Fascism”
Mikkel Bolt Rasmussen, Dep. of Arts and Cultural Studies, Copenhagen University. Rasmussen will give a presentation based on his new book Late Capitalist Fascism, (Polity Press, 2021)