Tag: everyday life

Pardue, Derek, Are You in the Club? The Contested Role of the Night for Muslim Immigrant Youth in Aarhus, Denmark. (2022)

~ mortenstinus

Pardue, Derek, Are You in the Club? The Contested Role of the Night for Muslim Immigrant Youth in Aarhus, Denmark, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 2022, 1–17

This article investigates spatial belonging and how qualifiers of the night and darkness inform policies and experiences of migrant living in contemporary Denmark. I focus on ‘youth clubs’ (Ungdomsklubber), a network of state and community sponsored buildings located in periphery neighbourhoods within Aarhus, the second largest city in Denmark. My approach to the youth clubs is in terms of nocturnal geographies, as ‘the night’ is not only a temporal category but also a spatial one. Beyond the specificities of this case study, I argue that migration scholars should give critical attention to nocturnality, within a strategic intersectional approach, as a contested ecology that generates differentiated value. As a time–space, the night helps define the legitimacy of occupations, passages, visibilities and other kinds of presence in the city thereby providing insight into migrant experiences and the problematic nature of immigration and ‘integration’ policies.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2022.2077181

Lenneis, Verena, and Sine Agergaard, Enacting and Resisting the Politics of Belonging through Leisure. The Debate about Gender-Segregated Swimming Sessions Targeting Muslim Women in Denmark. (2021) [PDF]

~ mortenstinus

Lenneis, Verena, and Sine Agergaard, Enacting and Resisting the Politics of Belonging through Leisure. The Debate about Gender-Segregated Swimming Sessions Targeting Muslim Women in Denmark, in Leisure, Racism, and National Populist Politics, ed. by Ratna Aarti, Erica Rand, Daniel Burdsey, and Stanley Thangaraj (Routledge, 2021), pp. 59–73

In 2016 women-only swimming sessions targeting Muslims made the headlines in the Danish media, precipitating great discussion about whether such sessions contributed to or impeded social integration. This article focuses on the debate in the city council of Aarhus concerning women-only swimming activities that had existed for 10 years and had been well attended. Yet, after a year of discussion, the city council voted for a municipality-wide ban on women-only swimming during public opening hours. The popularity and longevity of the sessions pose the question: Why and how has women-only swimming become a ‘problem’, in other words a leisure time physical activity that challenges current discourses on immigration and integration? The debate on women-only swimming is an interesting case to study as it testifies not only to an increasing focus on the civic integration of ethnic minorities, including their leisure practices, but also to strong resistance by the general public and the women affected. Drawing on a postcolonial feminist perspective, our analysis shows how perceptions of Danishness, gender equality and non-religious leisure become central arguments in the debate, pointing to various ways in which understandings of gender, sexuality, ethnicity, religion and nation intersect in the current restrictive politics of belonging.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003172390-5

Koefoed, Lasse, Kirsten Simonsen, and Anniken Førde, Everyday Hospitality and Politics. (2021) [PDF]

~ mortenstinus

Koefoed, Lasse, Kirsten Simonsen, and Anniken Førde, Everyday Hospitality and Politics, Nordic Journal of Migration Research, 11.4 (2021), 444–58.

The article explores everyday hospitality and politics through inclusive forms of integration initiatives in everyday life and urban communities in Denmark and Norway. It investigates how local initiatives and creative social strategies by local actors can empower and include refugees and immigrants in local communities. This article is based on participant observations of urban communities in Denmark and Norway working to welcome refugees and create new cross-cultural meeting places. We argue that people mobilize and take action when faced with emergency, and that the many welcome initiatives organized around theatre, food, dance and music can rework difference. The cases relate to the discussion of hospitality, the production of meaningful meeting places in a local context and the embodied encounters promoted by these activities. This article discusses everyday hospitality and politics in light of the transition in the Nordic welfare states, which has made the debate around inclusion of refugees and immigrants in local communities and the welfare state centre.

PDF: https://doi.org/10.33134/njmr.387

Hassani, Amani. Navigating Racialised Spaces. (2022) [PDF]

~ mortenstinus

Hassani, A. Navigating Racialised Spaces. Nordic Journal of Social Research, 13(1), 2022, 67–79.

The post-9/11 political climate in Denmark has become explicit in its differentiation between white citizens and racialised Muslim citizens in political rhetoric, public policies and media debates. This article looks at how this differentiation trickles down to public spaces affecting young Muslims’ social and spatial experiences. Drawing on an ethnographic study of young Muslims in Copenhagen, the article examines young Muslims’ ability to navigate through racialised spaces. The cases presented depict the social navigation processes required to achieve a middle-class position in a political context that often seeks to ‘otherise’ Muslims within Danish society. How do these young people engage, negotiate and challenge an ethnonationalist perception that sees them as the racialised Other? The research draws on qualitative interviews, participant observations and spatial tours to understand how young Muslims navigate explicit and implicit racialisation in everyday life. The ethnography demonstrates how these young adults create counter-narratives to the construction of the ‘Muslim Other’ by emphasising their middle-class positioning. Keywords Muslims Denmark racialisation spatialisation minorities ethnonationalism social navigation social mobility Islamophobia.

PDF: https://doi.org/10.18261/njsr.13.1.6

Jensen, Tina Gudrun. Sameksistens: hverdagsliv og naboskab i et multietnisk boligområde. (2016)

~ mortenstinus

Jensen, Tina Gudrun. Sameksistens: hverdagsliv og naboskab i et multietnisk boligområde. 2016.

I den offentlige debat om indvandring og integration tales der ofte om ghettodannelse og parallelsamfund , og der skelnes tydeligt mellem os og dem . Her fremstilles etniske grupper som segregerede enklaver i samfundet, men virkeligheden er langt mere nuanceret. Mange af de boligområder, der hentydes til, er nemlig multietniske boligområder, og her bor bl.a. mange etniske danskere.  I både den offentlige debat og i forskningen om indvandring og integration i urbane rum i Danmark overser man ofte den interaktion, der foregår mellem mennesker med forskellige etniske baggrunde. Denne bog handler netop om interetniske relationer i sociale boligområder.  Hermed udfylder bogen et hul i dansk forskning om indvandring og integration og lægger sig op ad den fremvoksende internationale antropologiske, sociologiske og humangeografiske litteratur om udfoldelsen af interetniske relationer i hverdagsliv.  Bogen er baseret på et etnografisk feltarbejde i Grønnevang i form af deltagerobservation og interview med beboere og andre personer i området. Grønnevang er et større multietnisk socialt boligområde i København, som er beboet af omkring 50 procent etniske danskere og 50 procent etniske minoriteter. Gennem autentiske historier beskriver bogen de personer, der lever i boligområdet, og deres indbyrdes relationer.  Bogens omdrejningspunkter er naboskabets forskelligartede relationer og hverdagspraksisser samt magtforholdet mellem beboere, som udgør etnisk minoritet og majoritet.

https://samfundslitteratur.dk/bog/sameksistens.

Jensen, Tina Gudrun. Naboskab i multietniske boligområder. (2016) [PDF]

~ mortenstinus

Jensen, Tina Gudrun. Naboskab i multietniske boligområder. København: Boligsocialnet, 2016.

Denne bog stiller skarpt på naboskab blandt beboere med forskellige etniske baggrunde, som lever i et såkaldt ’multietnisk boligområde’. ’Multietnisk’ er en betegnelse, som anvendes om boligområder, hvor andelen af beboere med etnisk minoritetsbaggrund overstiger 40 %.  Bogen henvender sig først og fremmest til forskellige praktikere på området, som for eksempel er beskæftiget inden for det boligsociale område, byplanlægning, arkitektur samt aktører på lokale og nationale politikområder.  Bogen er et resultat af et forskningsprojekt, der omhandler interetniske naboskabsrelationer. Projektet er en del af en forskningsalliance om ”social sammenhængskraft og etnisk diversitet”, som blev gennemført i 2010-2015.  Bogen beskæftiger sig med de sociale hverdagspraksisser, som beboere i multietniske boligområder deler, blandt andet som naboerne. Fokus ligger i den forbindelse især på sted, rum, hverdagsliv og sociale relationer. Hermed bidrager bogen med ny empirisk såvel som teoretisk viden om, hvad det indebærer at leve sammen i et multietnisk boligområde. Emnet fremhæves indledningsvist som et overset emne i nyere forskning og i den offentlige debat om indvandring og integration i byrum i Danmark.  Et af bogens hovedargumenter er, at livet i et multietnisk boligområde indebærer mindre drama end mange fremstillinger ofte peger på.  Bogen peger i stedet på, at denne slags boligområder omfatter en indre styrke og robusthed, fordi der er mange forskellige former for dagligdagskontakt mellem beboerne, hvor det at ’dele steder’ kan medvirke til at fremme relationer.

PDF: https://viden.sl.dk/media/8933/naboskab-i-multietniske-boligomraader.pdf

Jacobsen, Malene H. ‘The Everyday Spaces of Humanitarian Migrants in Denmark.’ (2013) [PDF]

~ Dansk Racismeforskning

Jacobsen, Malene H. The Everyday Spaces of Humanitarian Migrants in Denmark. MA Thesis. University of Kentucky.

Through an analysis of the Danish Immigration Law and asylum system, this research illustrates how the Danish state through state practices and policies permeates and produces the everyday space of humanitarian migrants. Furthermore, it examines how humanitarian migrants experience their everyday life in the Danish asylum system. An examination of state practices in conjunction with humanitarian migrants’ narratives of space and everyday practices, offers an opportunity to explore what kind of politics and political subjectivities that can emerge in the space of humanitarian migrants. This research contribute to our understanding of first, how the securitization of migration has direct impact on the everyday life of humanitarian migrants, second, second, how the state through practices and space governs and de-politicizes humanitarian migrants, and third, humanitarian migrants are able to act politically. Furthermore, this research problematizes the categorization of humanitarian migrants as “asylum seeker” in order to illustrate how the group of humanitarian migrants is a very diverse group of people from different places with various skills and education-, social-, and economic backgrounds. Even though “asylum seekers” are often portrayed as a homogenous group of vulnerable people we cannot assume that these people understand themselves as vulnerable docile “asylum seekers”.

PDF: https://uknowledge.uky.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1007&context=geography_etds.

Jaffe-Walter, Reva. ‘Coercive Concern: Nationalism, Liberalism, and the Schooling of Muslim Youth.’ (2016)

~ Dansk Racismeforskning

Jaffe-Walter, Reva. Coercive Concern: Nationalism, Liberalism, and the Schooling of Muslim Youth. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 2016.

Many liberal-minded Western democracies pride themselves on their commitments to egalitarianism, the fair treatment of immigrants, and the right to education. These environments would seem to provide a best-case scenario for the reception of immigrant youth. But that is not always the case. Coercive Concern explores how stereotypes of Muslim immigrants in Western liberal societies flow through public schools into everyday interactions, informing how Muslim youth are perceived by teachers and peers. Beyond simply identifying the presence of racialized speech in schools, this book uncovers how coercive assimilation is cloaked in benevolent narratives of care and concern.  Coercive Concern provides an ethnographic critique of the ‘concern’ that animates integration policy in Danish schools. Reva Jaffe-Walter focuses on the experiences of Muslim youth at a public school where over 40% of the student body is of immigrant descent, showing how schools operate as sites of governance. These efforts are led by political leaders who promote national fears of immigrant take-over, by teachers in schools, and by everyday citizens who are concerned about ‘problems’ of immigration. Jaffe-Walter exposes the psychic and material costs immigrant youth endure when living in the shadow of social scrutiny, but she also charts a path forward by uncovering the resources these youth need to attain social mobility and success.

https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=24789

Vinther-Jensen, Kirsten, Rikke Primdahl, Danmark, and Sundhedsstyrelsen. Etniske minoriteter i det danske sundhedsvæsen: en antologi. (2010) [PDF]

~ Dansk Racismeforskning

Vinther-Jensen, Kirsten, Rikke Primdahl, Danmark, and Sundhedsstyrelsen. Etniske minoriteter i det danske sundhedsvæsen: en antologi. Sundhedsstyrelsen, 2010.

Forord:

Selvom etniske minoriteter talmæssigt kun udgør en mindre del af det samlede an-tal patienter i det danske sundhedsvæsen, oplever ansatte inden for sundhedsvæse-net ofte etniske minoriteter som en særlig udfordrende patientgruppe. Dette skyl-des en bred vifte af faktorer såsom kulturbestemte sygdomsmønstre, forskellige sygdomsopfattelser samt de sproglige og kulturelle barrierer, der opstår i mødet mellem sundhedspersonalet og patienten med anden etnisk baggrund.

Mødet mellem personale og patienter med anden etnisk baggrund kan være præget af forestillinger og usikkerhed fra begge parter, som blandt andet bunder i forskel-lige forventninger til mødet mellem patienten og sundhedsvæsenet. For patienten kan det føre til en uhensigtsmæssig brug af sundhedsvæsenet og –ydelser samt håndtering af egen sygdom. For personalet kan det skabe frustrationer og magtes-løshed.

Sundhedsloven fastsætter, at alle skal sikres let og lige adgang til sundhedsvæse-net. For at leve op til dette i forhold til etniske minoriteter er det vigtigt at identifi-cere de særlige udfordringer, der er forbundet med denne gruppe patienters møde med sundhedsvæsenet og finde relevante løsningsmodeller for indsatsen i fremti-den.

Denne publikation tager afsæt i fem regionale seminarer, som Sundhedsstyrelsen holdt i 2009 i samarbejde med de fem regioner med henblik på at styrke kommu-ners og regioners indsats rettet mod etniske minoriteter. Publikationen er udarbej-det som en antologi med artikler fra nogle af de oplægsholdere, der deltog ved seminarerne samt enkelte øvrige forskere.

Publikationen præsenterer forskellige oplevelser og erfaringer med etniske minori-teter i sundhedsvæsenet ud fra både personalets og patientens perspektiv. Der sæt-tes fokus på udfordringerne i forbindelse med kulturmødet og på, hvor arbejdet med etniske minoriteters sundhed befinder sig og bevæger sig hen. Alle artiklerne er udtryk for forfatternes egne erfaringer og vurderinger.

Målgruppen for antologien er alle, der beskæftiger sig med etniske minoriteter en-ten som praktikere, forskere, planlæggere eller beslutningstagere, og som vil opda-tere deres viden eller lade sig inspirere af udvalgte aktiviteter – primært med ud-gangspunkt i det regionale sundhedsvæsen.

Vi håber, at publikationen vil bidrage til den nødvendige debat om etniske minori-teters møde med sundhedsvæsenet og udvikling inden for området.

PDF: https://www.sst.dk/~/media/9FFE65223C8A47328A51CD7DBAFA7466.ashx

Keskinen, Suvi, Mari Toivanen, and Unnur Dís Skaptadóttir. Undoing homogeneity in the Nordic region: migration, difference and the politics of solidarity. (2019) [PDF]

~ Dansk Racismeforskning

Keskinen, Suvi, Mari Toivanen, and Unnur Dís Skaptadóttir. Undoing homogeneity in the Nordic region: migration, difference and the politics of solidarity. 2019.

This book critically engages with dominant ideas of cultural homogeneity in the Nordic countries and contests the notion of homogeneity as a crucial determinant of social cohesion and societal security. Showing how national identities in the Nordic region have developed historically around notions of cultural and racial homogeneity, it exposes the varied histories of migration and the longstanding presence of ethnic minorities and indigenous people in the region that are ignored in dominant narratives. With attention to the implications of notions of homogeneity for the everyday lives of migrants and racialised minorities in the region, as well as the increasing securitisation of those perceived not to be part of the homogenous nation, this volume provides detailed analyses of how welfare state policies, media, and authorities seek to manage and govern cultural, religious, and racial differences. With studies of national minorities, indigenous people and migrants in the analysis of homogeneity and difference, it sheds light on the agency of minorities and the intertwining of securitisation policies with notions of culture, race, and religion in the government of difference. As such it will appeal to scholars and students in social sciences and humanities with interests in race and ethnicity, migration, postcolonialism, Nordic studies, multiculturalism, citizenship, and belonging.

Table of contents: 1. Narrations of Homogeneity, Waning Welfare States, and the Politics of Solidarity   Part 1: Histories of Homogeneity and Difference  2. Forgetting Diversity? Norwegian Narratives of Ethnic and Cultural Homogeneity  3. Myths of Ethnic Homogeneity: The Danish Case  4. Finnish Media Representations of the Sámi in the 1960s and 1970s  Part 2: Governing and Negotiating Differences  5. Knowledge about Roma and Travellers in Nordic Schools: Paradoxes, Constraints, and Possibilities  6. Problematising the Urban Periphery: Discourses on Social Exclusion and Suburban Youth in Sweden  7. Welfare Chauvinism at the Margins of Whiteness: Young Unemployed Russian-Speakers’ Negotiations of Worker-Citizenship in Finland  8. Starry Starry Night: Fantasies of Homogeneity in Documentary Films about Kvens and Norwegian-Pakistanis  Part 3: Questioned Homogeneity and Securitisation   9. From Welfare to Warfare: Exploring the Militarisation of the Swedish Suburb  10. “Living in fear”—Bulgarian and Romanian Street Workers’ Experiences With Aggressive Public and Private Policing  11. A ‘Muslim’ Response to the Narrative of the Enemy Within  12. Being Unknown: The Securitisation of Asylum Seekers in Iceland

https://www.routledge.com/Undoing-Homogeneity-in-the-Nordic-Region-Migration-Difference-and-the/Keskinen-Skaptadottir-Toivanen/p/book/9780367727789

PDF: https://helda.helsinki.fi//bitstream/handle/10138/316709/Undoing_Homogeneity_in_the_Nordic_Region.pdf?sequence=1.

Koefoed, Lasse. ‘Majority and Minority Nationalism in the Danish Post-Welfare State’. (2015) [PDF]

~ Dansk Racismeforskning

Koefoed, Lasse. ‘Majority and Minority Nationalism in the Danish Post-Welfare State’. Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography, vol. 97, no. 3, Sept. 2015, pp. 223–232.

The future of the nation and the Danish welfare state is one of the most important political issues today. The transition in neoliberal governance from welfare state to security state, the ongoing securitization of global and European mobility, the restructuring of public services and the re-scaling of political and economic power has made the debate around the welfare state central. In this article I take an approach to the welfare nation state that is based on the practices and narratives of everyday life. The argument is that narrative practices in everyday life constitute a central sphere inviting studies of the struggle over the welfare community and meaning. The empirical material draws on two recent research projects that include narratives and perspectives from minority and majority population in Denmark. By analysing different perspectives on the nation the article intends to open up for both shared narratives on the welfare state but also differences in the ongoing struggle over the right to the nation.

doi:10.1111/geob.12077.

PDF: https://rucforsk.ruc.dk/ws/files/60402615/GAB201309_7final_7.pdf.

Lapina, Linda. Making Senses of Nordvest Tracing the Spaces, Bodies and Affects of a Gentrifyingneighborhood in Copenhagen. (2017) [PDF]

~ Dansk Racismeforskning

Lapina, Linda. Making Senses of Nordvest Tracing the Spaces, Bodies and Affects of a Gentrifyingneighborhood in Copenhagen. Roskilde: Dissertation. Roskilde University, 2017.

This thesis emerges from an ethnographic study of Nordvest, a district in Copenhagen. I came to know Nordvest as an area undergoing multiple changes. Nordvest was known, sensed and experienced as, among other things, “diverse” and multicultural; socially disadvantaged; a “municipality garbage bin”; an up-and-coming, gentrifying area; and peripheral and outside, or not quite “Copenhagen.” These modalities of knowing and experiencing Nordvest were mutually interlinked and emotionally polyvalent. I set out to examine how everyday social spaces in Nordvest constrained and shaped inequalities, processes of in- and exclusion, and processes of majoritization and minoritization, in particular pertaining to racialization, class, and Danishness. This thesis revolves around four research articles. Each article can be conceived as an optical device, a prism, that sheds and breaks different kinds of light on various spaces, presences and social processes in Nordvest.

https://forskning.ruc.dk/en/publications/making-senses-of-nordvest-tracing-the-spaces-bodies-and-affects-o

PDF: https://www.academia.edu/32196657/Making_Senses_of_Nordvest_Tracing_the_spaces_bodies_and_affects_of_a_gentrifying_neighborhood_in_Copenhagen

Lenneis, Verena, and Sine Agergaard. ‘Tilhørsforhold og danskhed. Debatten om kønsopdelt svømning’. (2018) [PDF]

~ Dansk Racismeforskning

Lenneis, Verena, and Sine Agergaard. ‘Tilhørsforhold og danskhed. Debatten om kønsopdelt svømning’. Dansk Sociologi, vol. 29, no. 3, 3, 2018, pp. 45–63. rauli.cbs.dk,

I 2016 og 2017 skabte kvindesvømning – et tilbud, der tiltrækker mest, men ikke udelukkende etniske minoritetskvinder – intens debat i hele Danmark. Denne artikel fokuserer på den politiske debat i Aarhus Byråd, der førte til en beslutning om, at der i kommunens svømmehaller ikke må være kønsopdelt svømning i den offentlige åbningstid. Formålet med artiklen er at undersøge, hvordan en fritidsaktivitet som kvindesvømning blev til et problem i 2016, som krævede en langvarig debat og et politisk indgreb. Med udgangspunkt i Nira Yuval-Davis’ begreber om politisering af tilhørsforhold viser vores analyse, hvordan forestillinger om danskhed og dertilhørende danske værdier gøres til centrale argumenter i den politiske debat, som fører til politisk regulering af en velbesøgt sundhedsfremmende fritidsaktivitet. Debatten om kønsopdelt svømning understreger, at værdier såsom individuel valgfrihed eller religionsfrihed, som indtil for nyligt prægede den politiske praksis i nordiske velfærdsregimer, afløses af danskhed som den altoverskyggende værdiramme.   

The debate about gender-segregated swimming: belonging and Danishness  In 2016 and 2017, women-only swimming – an initiative that attracts mostly, but not exclusively minority ethnic women – caused considerable discussion across Denmark. This article focuses on the year-long political debate in the city council of Aarhus which subsequently led to a ban on women-only swimming activities during public opening hours in the municipality’s indoor swimming pools. The aim of this article was to examine why a leisure time activity such as women-only swimming became a ‘problem’ in 2016, and how it became subjected to political regulation. Drawing on Nira Yuval-Davis’ politics of belonging, our analysis shows how imaginations of ‘Danishness’ and, in particular, Danish values became central arguments in the political debate that led to the regulation of a well-attended and health-promoting leisure activity. The debate on gender-segregated swimming emphasizes that values such as freedom of choice or freedom of religion, which until recently have dominated the political practice in Nordic welfare regimes, are replaced by ‘Danishness’ as the paramount political concern.  Keywords: gender, ethnicity, religion, belonging, integration.

doi:10.22439/dansoc.v29i3.5804.

PDF: https://rauli.cbs.dk/index.php/dansksociologi/article/view/5804.

Mørck, Line Lerche. ‘Studying Empowerment in a Socially and Ethnically Diverse Social Work Community in Copenhagen, Denmark’. (2011)

~ Dansk Racismeforskning

Mørck, Line Lerche. ‘Studying Empowerment in a Socially and Ethnically Diverse Social Work Community in Copenhagen, Denmark’. Ethos, vol. 39, no. 1, 2011, pp. 115–137.

In this article I analyze empowerment in Copenhagen’s “wild” social work community and I develop the role of expansive learning to understand how to transcend marginalization. The notion of expansive activity developed by Engeström and Holzkamp contributes to the further development of Cultural-Historical Activity Theory. I use a social practice theory of boundary communities to analyze empowerment as a dialectic between individual and collective movement. I define boundary communities as communities that overlap two or more groups and thereby offer potential for border crossing and collaboration among communities. I analyze the personal trajectory of a social street worker, Anas, focusing on dilemmas and possibilities for expansive learning. The “wild” social work community to which he belongs is constituted by an overlap of different groups in Copenhagen such as the social street workers, professionals from the “established welfare system,” and local street communities of young men with ethnic minority and Muslim backgrounds. Social street work is analyzed at the time of the street riots that occurred in Copenhagen in February 2008; social street workers facilitated meetings of opposing factions, parties who usually do not enter into dialogue. I discuss how boundary communities may support empowerment of individuals and groups by moving these parties in expansive directions.

doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1548-1352.2010.01174.x.

https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1548-1352.2010.01174.x.

Rytter, Mikkel, and Marianne Holm Pedersen. ‘A Decade of Suspicion: Islam and Muslims in Denmark after 9/11’. (2014)

~ Dansk Racismeforskning

Rytter, Mikkel, and Marianne Holm Pedersen. ‘A Decade of Suspicion: Islam and Muslims in Denmark after 9/11’. Ethnic & Racial Studies, vol. 37, no. 13, Dec. 2014, pp. 2303–2321.

In 2011, al-Qaeda leader, Osama Bin Laden, was killed in Pakistan and the US president, Barack Obama, concluded a decade of global ‘war against terror’. In light of this, it seems only sensible to explore what implications the post-9/11 international developments have had on a local basis in specific national contexts. With this in mind, this article focuses on Denmark and discusses how the critical event of 9/11 motivated a security/integration response, including various pre-emptive measures that have cast the Muslim population as the usual suspects. It will discuss how these changes have affected the everyday lives of ordinary Danish Muslims over the last ten years and changed the relationship between majorities and minorities. Finally, it will also examine how and why recent national and international events have created the potential for another shift in majority–minority relations.

doi:10.1080/01419870.2013.821148.

Simonsen, Kirsten. ‘Encountering Racism in the (Post-) Welfare State: Danish Experiences’. (2015) [PDF]

~ Dansk Racismeforskning

Simonsen, Kirsten. ‘Encountering Racism in the (Post-) Welfare State: Danish Experiences’. Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography, vol. 97, no. 3, Sept. 2015, pp. 213–222.

Racism, xenophobia and in particular Islamophobia have gained terrain in the European continent during the latest decades, and Denmark has taken a position as one of the iconic cases of this development. In this article, I approach this issue from the point of view of everyday life – from the infinitude of encounters through which we make the world and are made by it in turn. Drawing on material from two recent research projects carried out in Copenhagen, I analyse experiences and feelings generated in cross-cultural meetings in the city. The analysis is informed by theories of embodied encounters, postcolonialism, strangers and emotions, and it addresses experiences and imaginations raised amongst majority and minority populations alike. As a conclusion the article aims to lift the view from everyday life to a more systemic level and contextualize the analysis in the broader processes of the neoliberalizing welfare state.

doi:10.1111/geob.12076.

PDF: https://rucforsk.ruc.dk/ws/files/60402622/GAB201309_8final.pdf

Skadegård, M. C. ‘With Friends Like These, Who Needs Enemies?: Structural Discrimination and Good Intentions in Danish Everyday Contexts’. (2017) [PDF]

~ Dansk Racismeforskning

Skadegård, M. C. ‘With Friends Like These, Who Needs Enemies?: Structural Discrimination and Good Intentions in Danish Everyday Contexts’. Nordic Journal of Migration Research, vol. 7, no. 4, Dec. 2017, p. 214.

In this article, I address structural discrimination, an under-represented area of study in Danish research. In particular, I introduce the concepts of microdiscrimination and benevolent discrimination. These are proposed as two ways of articulating particular and opaque forms of structural racial discrimination, which have become normalised in everyday Danish (and other) contexts. I present and discuss discrimination as it surfaces in data from my empirical studies of discrimination in Nordic (Danish) contexts. These studies underscore how everyday assumptions and norms contribute to discriminatory practices in particular ways. The article, in introducing the terms micro-discrimination and benevolent discrimination, hopes to identify and acknowledge attitudes and behaviours that fall outside the purview of everyday understandings of discrimination and racism. In addition, it is my hope that these terms can be of use with regard to addressing and reducing challenges within antidiscrimination and social exclusion frameworks.

doi:10.1515/njmr-2017-0033.

PDF: https://vbn.aau.dk/ws/portalfiles/portal/287475396/_1799649X_Nordic_Journal_of_Migration_Research_With_Friends_Like_These_Who_needs_Enemies_.pdf.

Skadegård, M. C.,. ‘Sand Negro’. (2016) [PDF]

~ Dansk Racismeforskning

Skadegård, M. C.,. ‘Sand Negro’. Social Eksklusion, Læring Og Forandring, Ed. Annette Bilfeldt, Iben Jensen, John Andersen., Annette Bilfeldt, Aalborg Universitetsforlag, 2016, 168–182.

M. C. Skadegård undersøger og diskuterer i kapitel 10, Sand Negro, hvordan racial diskrimination er indlejret i tilsyneladende neutrale situationer i hverdagen i en dansk kontekst. Kapitlet indledes med en beskrivelse af en hverdagssituation i et festudvalg på et universitet, hvor en hvid mandlig studerende kalder sin studiekammerat for Sandneger. Studiekammeraten modsætter sig denne benævnelse, men resten af gruppen støtter den hvide mandlige studerende i, “at det bare var for sjov”, og at “man skal kunne tage en spøg”. For at forklare denne interaktion benytter forfatteren den postkoloniale forsker Gayatri Spivaks begreb om et suverænt subjekt. Begrebet refererer til en hegemonisk, diskursiv og situeret (vestlig) magt, som beskrives gennem abstrakte positioner, som repræsenterer den dominerende sociale orden. Det kan ses som en form for autoritativ, normative magt eller som en konstruktion – hvorfra ‘den anden’ er formet. Kapitlet adresserer, hvordan identitet og labeling (racial navngivning) bliver forhandlet mellem personer, som er racielt minoriseret og majoriseret, og hvordan sådanne forhandlinger er knyttet til eksklusion og diskrimination. Forfatteren argumenterer for, at sådanne interaktioner trækker på strukturel diskrimination (underliggende diskriminerende strukturer). Videre argumenteres der for, at spændingen i det ovennævnte eksempel opstår, fordi både de majoriserede og de minoriserede deltagerne er vidende om, at der finder diskrimination sted. Selvom aktørerne alle er politisk aktive og deler en social og ideologisk forståelse, positioneres de i kraft af deres kroppes position henholdsvis som majoriseret og minoriseret i en asymmetrisk magtrelation. Overordnet argumenterer forfatteren for, at eksemplet illustrerer diskrimination, og at dette fører til en stadig dybt rodfæstet form for asymmetri mellem venner (fx studiekammerater).

PDF: https://vbn.aau.dk/ws/portalfiles/portal/244658839/Social_eksklusion_l_ring_og_forandring_online.pdf. https://vbn.aau.dk/ws/portalfiles/portal/244658839/Social_eksklusion_l_ring_og_forandring_online.pdf.

Skadegård, M. C., and Christian Horst. ‘Between a Rock and a Hard Place: A Study of Everyday Racism, Racial Discrimination, and Racial Microaggressions in Contemporary Denmark’. (2020)

~ Dansk Racismeforskning

Skadegård, M. C., and Christian Horst. ‘Between a Rock and a Hard Place: A Study of Everyday Racism, Racial Discrimination, and Racial Microaggressions in Contemporary Denmark’. Social Identities, Routledge, Sept. 2020, pp. 1–22.

In this article, we explore how individuals navigate in seemingly neutral contexts where discrimination occurs while it is simultaneously denied. We address how structural discrimination (implicit, underlying) is so deeply imbricated within day-to-day forms of communication, interaction, and within language, that it has become part of social normality and, as such, nearly invisible. Further, we argue that structural discrimination is part of a shared knowledge that must be negotiated and navigated within, but which changes with place and context. In the article, we dissect and explore some of the ambivalences embedded within racialized and discriminatory interactions. We do this in our discussion of the following: (1) Complex, shared underlying knowledge of discrimination which encompasses systematized stratifications of difference. (2) ‘A knowing the inside/being the outside position’ which, for some individuals, may contribute to challenges in regard to navigation within discriminatory contexts.

doi:10.1080/13504630.2020.1815526.

https://doi.org/10.1080/13504630.2020.1815526.

Galal, Lise Paulsen, and Louise Lund Liebmann. Magt og (m)ulighed Forhandlinger af konformitet, autoritet og mobilitet blandt etniske minoritetsborgere i Danmark. (2020) [PDF]

~ Dansk Racismeforskning

Galal, Lise Paulsen, and Louise Lund Liebmann. Magt og (m)ulighed Forhandlinger af konformitet, autoritet og mobilitet blandt etniske minoritetsborgere i Danmark. Roskilde: Roskilde Universitet, 2020.

Forskningsprojektets fokus: Forskningsprojektet Magt og (m)ulighed har fokus på etniske minoritetsborgere og deres erfaring med og udlægning af begrænsninger i hverdagslivet. Særligt undersøges, hvordan begrænsninger hænger sammen med andres (og egne) forventninger til og forsøg på at tilvejebringe og kontrollere en særlig, normativ adfærd i minoritetsetniske miljøer. Hvor afsættet for projektet er at undersøge adfærd, der i Styrelsen for International Rekruttering og Integrations terminologi kaldes ’æresrelaterede konflikter og negativ social kontrol’, har forskningsprojektet valgt en undersøgende tilgang og et intersektionelt perspektiv med henblik på en bred og nuanceret forståelse af, hvad vi har valgt at kalde ’konformitetspres’. Ud over et hverdagsperspektiv er forsknings-projektets særlige fokusområder:

• Et ikke-institutionaliseret hverdagsperspektiv. I stedet for at fokusere på etniske minoritetsborgere, der i kraft af oplevelser med konflikt, kontrol og/eller vold har været i kontakt med myndigheder og hjælpe-indsatser, har vi talt med borgere, som ikke har modtaget en sådan assistance. På den måde inddrager vi ’almindelige’ hverdagserfaringer med og perspektiver på konformitetspres frem for at undersøge højspændte volds- og konfliktsituationer.

• Strategier og ressourcer. Frem for at have fokus på at måle omfang af et givent konformitetspres, undersøger vi, hvordan etniske minoritetsborgere forhandler, og hvilke strategier de trækker på, for at imødegå eller håndtere pres for at blive mere konforme.

•Tilskrivning af betydning til ære som begreb. Hvor æresrelaterede konflikter i myndighedssprog henviser til en specifik forståelse af ære knyttet (primært) til kvindens ærbarhed som betegnende for hele familiens ære, undersøger vi så åbent som muligt, hvordan etniske minoritetsborgere forstår og anvender ære som begreb, og hvordan de tillægger det betydning og relevans i deres eget, dagligt levede liv. Sammenfatning 8• Religions betydning for erfaringer med konformitetspres. Medborgerskabsundersøgelsen peger på, at unge med en religiøst praktiserende baggrund (og bosat i multikulturelle boligområder) i større grad rapporterer oplevelser med negativ social kontrol. Derfor undersøger vi, hvordan etniske minoritets-borgere anvender religion i forhandlinger af selvbestemmelse og lighed. Da flertallet af vores informanter har muslimsk tilhørsforhold, undersøger vi i praksis, hvordan de forhandler værdier og praksisser med islam. 

• Bosætningens betydning for erfaringer med konformitetspres. Medborgerskabsundersøgelsen viser også, at minoritetsetniske borgere – og særligt kvinder – oftere møder negativ social kontrol, hvis de er bosat i multikulturelle boligområder. Derfor undersøger vi, hvordan etniske minoritetsborgere anvender sted og mobilitet som ressource i forhandlinger af selvbestemmelse og lighed.

PDF: https://forskning.ruc.dk/files/67849011/RUC_MagtOg_M_ulighed_rapport_web.pdf.

Andreassen, Rikke, and Uzma Ahmed-Andresen. ‘I Can Never Be Normal: A Conversation about Race, Daily Life Practices, Food and Power’. (2013) [PDF]

~ Dansk Racismeforskning

Andreassen, Rikke, and Uzma Ahmed-Andresen. ‘I Can Never Be Normal: A Conversation about Race, Daily Life Practices, Food and Power’. European Journal of Women’s Studies, vol. 21, Feb. 2013, pp. 25–42.

This article focuses on the doing and undoing of race in daily life practices in Denmark. It takes the form of a dialogue between two women, a heterosexual Muslim woman of colour and a lesbian white woman, who discuss and analyze how their daily life, e.g. interactions with their children’s schools and daycare institutions, shape their racial and gendered experiences. Drawing upon black feminist theory, postcolonial theory, critical race and whiteness studies, the two women illustrate inclusions and exclusions in their society based on gender, race, class and sexuality – and especially pinpoint to how these categories intersect in processes of inclusion and exclusion. The article argues that the lack of a Nordic vocabulary for the term ‘race’ – as ‘race’ is associated with biological racism which dominated in the nineteenth and first half of the twentieth century, and hence is viewed as a historical phenomenon left behind – prevents contemporary people from addressing existing patterns of racial discrimination, inclusion and exclusion in their daily lives, as well as from connecting their contemporary struggles to historical struggles and inequalities. Furthermore, they illustrate how food, class and race intersect with an analysis of the so-called New Nordic Kitchen, exemplified by the world famous Copenhagen restaurant NOMA. The article interprets the New Nordic Kitchen, which has become very popular in the Nordic countries in recent years, as a culinary project performing whiteness, and connects the New Nordic Kitchen’s obsession with ‘the authentic Nordic’ with historical race science in the nineteenth century and early twentieth century.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1350506813507716

PDF: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1350506813507716