What’s time got to do with it? Young immigrants and the power of temporalities

Anna Lund, Stockholms universitet

Almost every word and concept related to immigration is connected to time. Being newly arrived; temporary and permanent residency; fast track to work; direct immersion; introductory classes; first generation immigrant, second generation immigrant, and so forth. Living in and through distinct temporalities is a reality for young immigrants as time norms migrate together with people. On the threshold to adulthood, young immigrants are often kept in an uncertain limbo: at the crossroads between diverse bureaucratic temporalities, varied interactional rhythms, and distinct socially and culturally (self)imposed time. My paper will investigate the possibilities of using the sociology of time-perspectives – for example, Merton’s thoughts on socially expected durations (SED) – to illuminate the varied dimensions of the everyday life encountered in Swedish society as a young immigrant. Research questions will include attention to the ways that time can be seen in the light of power dynamics and differentiation, social change on an individual level, and the potential of challenging the taken-for-granted cultural time norms of host societies. Time is, at one and the same time, part of our cultural structure – something that we take for granted – as well as our institutional affairs, and it is highly emotionally laden.

953-A-1823

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1034-A-1823

Vicissitudes of the Civil: Democracy and the Civil Sphere in Sweden

Henrik Enroth, Malin Henriksson, Linnaeus University

This paper makes use of Jeffrey Alexander’s civil sphere theory to identify and analyze shifts in the discourse and institutions of democracy in Sweden from the late nineteenth to the early twenty-first century. We also use the Swedish case to highlight challenges facing civil sphere theory when applied beyond the American context in which it was conceived. The paper is focused on three areas that are closely related theoretically in civil sphere theory, and historically in the formation and transformation of democracy in Sweden: first, the relation between state and society; second, the role of social movements and political parties; and third, the attributes associated with the civil. Empirically, these have been subject to change, sometimes dramatically, in the period we focus on. Theoretically, these prompt questions about what should be regarded as essential and accidental in civil sphere theory as it travels beyond its context of emergence. Normatively, this lets us diagnose and discuss what has happened to the discourse of democracy in Sweden as “the Swedish model” has become an object first of ideological critique, then of material and institutional retreat, then of xenophobically inflected nostalgia, and, possibly, at present, of something akin to civil repair.

981-A-1823

Living in the darks of Dubai’s paradise.

Jonathan Ngeh, University of Bamenda

In the literature on migration to the states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), authors generally mention that labour migrants, predominantly from south and south-east Asia, live in overcrowded, low-class accommodation, sharing rooms, ‘doing bed-space’, yet without giving a clearer picture of this practice. This paper is an auto-ethnographic account of what it actually means to live in bed-space accommodation in Dubai. It explores how west African migrants in this situation cope with the difficulties in a playful way, deploying tactics which appear to simultaneously endorse and undermine exclusionary practices that relegate them to the margins of society. The paper builds on a one month of fieldwork in 2015 and draws on Achille Mbembe’s ‘provisional notes on the postcolony’. The analyses reveal that African migrants, through strategic responses to challenges in their everyday lives, are undermining/modifying specific structures of domination against them.

Key words auto-ethnography, Achille Mbembe, bed-space, housing, Dubai, African migrants, gender relations.

Malleable Perceptions of the Other: Dual-Process Model of White Norwegians’ Fluid Engagements with CulturalDifference

Nina Høy-Petersen, University of Oslo

Applying concepts from cultural sociology and cognitive psychology to in-depth interviews and quantitative survey data, this paperdevelops a dual-process model of white Norwegians’ visceral, attitudinal, and practical responses to cultural difference.Globalization has produced new anxieties, opportunities, and curiosities, leaving most people juggling conflicting objectives of self-preservation and self-realization. Recognizing cognitive work, code-switching and performative fluidity as central aspects ofcontemporary life, the first part of this paper empirically maps the ontology of transcultural relations. Instead of identifyingxenophobic and cosmopolitan attitudes at opposite ends of a spectrum, it is argued that within everyday understandings of culturaldifference, they intermingle and cross-cut. Indeed, people’s schemas for reasoning are often ambiguous and contextuallymalleable - for example in cases when private perceptions of Otherness appear incompatible with one’s identity projects ordominant cultural expectations. The latter half of the paper then explores expressions of xenophobia and cosmopolitanism within inthe Norwegian population. Findings indicate that attitudes associated with the far right are mainstream – even among people whoappear cosmopolitan in their rationales and practices.

977-A-1823

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Being and openness. The relationality of cosmopolitanism and anti-cosmopolitanism.

Ian Woodward, Nina Høy-Petersen, Universitetet i Oslo

Being cosmopolitan is often defined as being open and openness is posited as an emergent form of cultural capital, but what type of cultural and emotional work does ‘being open’ entail? Openness evokes attitudes of acceptance and engagement rather than distance and rejection, and is a common conceptual theme connecting conceptions of cosmopolitanism. The idea of openness serves as an epistemological principle and a vaguely specified empirical beacon which limits and fixates the definitional horizon of the cosmopolitanism and un-cosmopolitan. Yet, the place of openness in discussions of cosmopolitanism remains curiously glossed over: openness is implicitly rather than explicitly spoken about; it refers to an abstract ideal rather than something concrete and articulated; it effectively captures the ‘spirit’ of cosmopolitanism rather than its manifestations. Exploring 80 in-depth interviews concerning perceptions of cultural difference, we find that our interviewees express multiple conflicting repertoires of openness and parochialism which are utilised flexibly and contextually. Being open refers to ways of talking honourably using ideals, desires and imagery. In patterns of openness talk we also observe that openness is fragile and fragmented, rather than a consistent, coherent construct. In conclusion, the methodological uses of talk and narrative in cosmopolitanism studies are critically considered.

985-A-1823

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The sensing eye – intimate vision in couple dancing

Tora Holmberg, Maria Törnqvist, Uppsala universitet/Institutet för framtidsstudier

The current project expands on intimacy studies and asks what kinds of practices of closeness people engage with beyond iconic forms. The paper points to a somewhat blind spot within intimacy studies, namely that of vision. The eye is symbolically about distance and creating difference, but could also enclose intimate meaning. We wish to add the vision dimension to the debate on closeness practices as redominantly about touch. Empirically, we investigate the culture of popular couple dancing: jitterbug and foxtrot. Even though couple dancing primarily involves two parties, it takes place in relation to - among other actors - the music, the floor, other dancers and not least the audience. We wish to investigate the role of bystanders, fellow dancers who stand or sit and watch as couples float by. Can it be viewed in terms of voyeurism from a distance, or is the gaze on the contrary a facilitator of dance intimacy? Analyzing ethnographic and interview data, the paper develops a phenomenological approach on dance and gaze, analytically divided in three themes: object/subject relation, multi-sensoriality, and flows of desire.

1025-A-1823

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Beyond Euphemism: Cultural Sociology and Everyday Approaches to Managing Problematic Differences

Andrea Voyer, University of Connecticut

Sociologists are cyclical in their attention to culture and its relationship to social inequality. The history of the sociology of inequality encompassing phases in which culture-based explanations of social inequality (e.g. “culture of poverty”) are accepted and other times in which the emphasis on culture is trumped by materialist and structuralist accounts of the working of social inequality. In this paper I argue that, at present, sociologists are open to culture-based explanations of social inequality. However, culture in relationship to inequality is typically considered a distinctive characteristic of (primarily lower-class) groups. Contemporary sociological work, therefore, risks devolving into a new “culture of poverty” perspective reinforcing the view that inequality persists as a result of pathological and maladaptive qualities of groups. In this paper, I offer a cultural sociology of inequality that recognizes the futility of locating inequality in the cultural differences associated with groups. Instead, the proposed theory acknowledges that group boundaries and their associated behavioral markers are the product of cultural processes of inequality and cultural processes of justification. These cultural processes are examined. Empirical examples illustrate the theory.

1048-A-1823

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Kulturarbetets födkrok? Att kombinera läraryrket med kulturarbete

Henrik Fürst, Erik Nylander, Linköpings Universitet

Det sägs att folkbildningen utgör Sveriges största arbetsmarknad för kulturarbetare. Folkhögskolor, studieförbund och folkbibliotek är spridda runt om i landet och bildar en central institutionell infrastruktur för bredd och spets inom svenskt kulturliv. Tidigare forskning har visat att kulturarbetare för sin försörjning ofta verkar som lärare. Vårt bidrag fördjupar denna bild genom att närstudera lärare på estetiska kurser och kombinationen av kultur och utbildning som arbetsmarknad för personer verksamma i kulturen. Vi undersöker vilka lärarna på folkhögskolornas estetiska kursutbud är och hur de förenar lärarrollen med sitt eget kulturarbete. Med stöd i enkätdata från verksamma folkhögskollärare inom det estetiska verksamhetsområdet tecknas en bild av lärarnas plats i de kulturella fält som förekommer på Sveriges 155 folkhögskolor. Utifrån material från platsbesök och intervjuer med estetlärare kompletteras denna övergripande bild av kopplingen utbildning/kulturell arbetsmarknad med fördjupningar i och jämförelser mellan tre ämnesinriktningar: konst, musik och litteratur.

1070-A-1823

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Farming and Material Culture: Practice and Organization in how Societies Feed Themselves

Jonas Bååth, Uppsala University

This abstract concerns a research proposal for a historical-comparative study of farming as material culture. Food consumption has been granted an increased attention in sociology since the 1980’s, all the while its production is sparsely studied. However, the practices contemporary and historical societies use to feed themselves are a promising field of sociological research. As food is fundamental for human life, its supply shows how material culture is intertwined in social organization, e.g. as land ownership, and the cultural effects of liberating people from directly feeding themselves.

I have identified two cases which hold a particular value for comparison: contemporary agriculture in the global north and the first agricultural societies of the Neolithic era, based in the fertile crescent. These cases are extremes in terms of population size, technological complexity, and net. surplus per unit of labor power. To compare these two extremes of agriculture I approach farming in terms of practice theory, distinguishing farming both as a practical and socially organized activity. Such a theoretical approach enables me to ask questions of how material and symbolic boundaries are produced between farmers and non-farmers; what it means to farm in relation to being dependent on others’ farming.

1084-A-1823

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Taking One’s Self to Work and Back Again: The Role of Social Interventions in Alternative Entrepreneurship

David Redmalm, Annika Skoglund, Uppsala University

Scholars increasingly pay interest to the way companies strive to build a brand by encouraging employees to cultivate their personal values and viewpoints within the frames of their occupation. The idea is that by bringing one’s self to work the employee will contribute to a creative work environment and, consequently, help to make the employer brand attractive. This paper focuses on how the IT-company Prezi, founded in Hungary in 2009, works to engender outlets for the employees’ personal dimensions at work. Prezi seeks to attract employees who share liberal and cosmopolitan views while also bringing a fresh perspective to the company. In our analysis, we find that employees describe their workplace as a privileged “bubble,” protected from a wave of right-wing populism and nationalist sentiments in Hungary. But we also see efforts by Prezi to breach the bubble; for example, by encouraging employees to engage in a number of social interventions. By studying one specific event—a yearly charity renovation project in a Roma community—this paper draws on a sociological understanding of inclusion and exclusion to discuss the normative implications of this dynamics of outside-in and inside-out on the company, the employees, and on those who receive the support.

1095-A-1823

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Understanding trade union representation

Mai Lundemark, Uppsala university

Due to migration, national working populations become increasingly diversified in terms of ethnic and migrant backgrounds. Ideologically, trade unions claim to represent their working class position, regardless of their ethnic and national background. Like other organisations, unions nevertheless in- and exclude whom and what they represent both through formal criteria and unofficially through its organisational culture and practice. What do unions mean when they say that they represent the working class? How do such meanings translate into practice? How are cultural boundaries of in- and exclusion to the formal community of unionism (re)produced or challenged in times of migration and increasing ethnic diversity? These questions are addressed in an ongoing project about trade union representation and boundary making work in Danish unionism. The paper focuses on the methodological part of selecting and generating several types of materials to answer those questions through participant observations, interviews, and collecting texts. It argues that we need to understand union perceptions, constructions and practices of representation qualitatively, and that the selection of particular trades within two Danish unions constitute a fruitful within-case comparison that can contribute to the literature on union revitalisation in the Global North.

1110-A-1823

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Scandinavian Unease? Negotiations of Tradition at Elite High Schools

Pal Halvorsen, Nord university / Yale university

There has been identified a wide array of mechanisms at work in elite high schools, documenting how privilege is acquired and legitimised within the school context – in countries such as the USA, Britain, France and Germany. While there is rich register-based research documenting how those who come from initially privileged families benefit the most from an apparent egalitarian school system in Norway, the question of how privilege is acquired and legitimised within a Scandinavian context still needs to be explored. This paper as such aims at “zooming in” at how acquirement of privilege is done in what has been termed an exceptionally egalitarian culture, where sophisticated cultural taste allegedly does not work as distinction. Through interviews with 73 adolescents (aged 17 or 18) at two inner city elite high schools in Oslo, the headmasters, focus groups interviews with former students, in addition to some participant observation, I aim at nuancing the concept of "ease", considered a specific and embodied attitude towards the world which is a key competence at elite high schools. I suggest that "ease" have been used too deterministic and 'critical', and has to be reformulated in a cultural sociology.

1132-A-1823

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Social Production of Gendered Space in the Tophane Neighborhood

Özge Altin, Uppsala University

This study explores the social production of gendered space, by focusing on the multi-cultural and multi-ethnic structured Tophane neighborhood in Istanbul. The study questions how the inhabitants produce public space as a gendered space, and therefore how gender is linked and intertwined in their spatial practices and experiences to space. By investigating various gender identities’ experiences in the Tophane neighborhood, social relations and power relations are explained. The findings of the study tries to contribute to the literature on the gendered production of space with an example of the relationship between gender and spatial divides in urban spaces. In Tophane gender identities are clearly visible and contested because of the prevailing power relations, conflicts, community perceptions, and identities. By using an ethnographic approach, interviews and participant observation are used as empirical material. Data is gathered in Tophane over a period of five years with some intervals of absence (2009-2014). In particular, female inhabitants as a disadvantaged group in the neighborhood are the main subject of the study. The findings shows that women in the neighborhood are exposed to a regular and violent control by male gaze, which is due to the persistence of patriarchal relations in the neighborhood. The specific urban context of Tophane indicates that changes in its social and class demographics, and the fluidity between public and private spaces influence the ways gender is displayed. Most of the female residents of Tophane are subordinated, but not subservient; they are able to subvert patriarchal relations in daily life through the complexity and variety of gender by reshaping the links between gender, class position, ethnic origin, and cultural belonging.

Keywords: gender, gendered space, production of the space, urban space

1136-A-1823

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Modern Football and the Spirit of the Folk Game - A Historical Cultural Sociology

Dominik Döllinger, Uppsala University

Football is a cultural phenomenon with many facets: from hoologanism and violent behavior, racism and other forms of discrimination to relatively recent turns towards capitalism and neoliberalism. When sociologists attempt to analyze those aspects, they tend to rely on ethnographic or quantitative material. Very few attempts have been made to understand them from a historical perspective.

In my presentation, I want to complete the picture by adding this historical perspective. I want to demonstrate that many aspects of modern football are a continuation of its folk football version (before the foundation of the Football Association in 1863, which is seen as the beginning of modern football) and as such were inscribed in it from the very beginning. In a somewhat Weberian way I want to uncover the 'spirit of folk football' and demonstrate how it lives on in modern football.

I will do so based on a substantial archical research which led to an analysis of about 800 British newspapers that have been published between 1800 and 1899 and which contain roughly 15,400 articles and reports about football. Aside from the empirical contribution I, then, also want to demonstrate the fruitfulness of a historical perspective when it comes to understanding contemporary cultural phenomena.

1155-A-1823

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Hygien är hänsyn: Teaching and learning the Swedish body

Alison Gerber, Lund University

Schools are among the most important of our civilizing institutions, aiming to produce citizens for a democratic and egalitarian society by teaching all children the intellectual and social skills necessary for civic participation. But because they aim both to strengthen democratic nations and to teach specifically local norms and values, tensions between increasingly diverse societies and the often more-homogeneous context where slow-changing norms and values developed – between democratic ideals and culture as it is lived – are inevitable. This paper, with an empirical focus on a fast-changing and diversifying national context, investigates how students, teachers, and institutions manage the civilizing process an increasingly diverse society through a unique lens: smell, an especially social sense. It draws on a study of the ways that civility is constructed and maintained in practice in Swedish elementary schools. A historical analysis of legal documents and textbooks illuminates continuity and change in the national compulsory school curriculum’s regulations on the teaching of biology and physical education (human development and hygiene), and home economics (cooking, cleaning, and what is today called “the development of knowledge about cultural variation and traditions in diverse homes”), while 150 years of teachers’ association newsletters and other intraprofessional communications show how teachers manage their roles as civilizing agents. I show how educational institutions and the actors within them have developed and disseminated a body of broadly held, specifically Swedish beliefs, norms, and values around homes, food, and bodies that have significant repercussions for the inclusion and valuation of diverse others. The paper offers both empirical and theoretical insights into inequality through a unique object of study that provides new leverage on issues of moral, political, and economic recognition, inclusion, and valuation.

1199-A-1823

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Narcissist Ironic Nostalgia and Pseudo Meta Reflexivity. The Hipster Figure as a Post-Theoretic Projection in Late Capitalist Culture and Theory

Pär Engholm, Uppsala, Sweden

This paper addresses the fugitive character of the hipster as a symbol of both interruption and introspection of contemporary projects of identity; of narcissist post-irony in an era in which the ironic gesture itself as gone stale. The hipster exhibits a dialectic between subculture and high culture, between counterculture and commercialist culture, in which outwardly incompatible attitudes towards the popular, the past, tradition are merged in ways which seems to defy theorisation: as if even Geertz’ concept of thick description fails to capture the post-post-modern transgression of game and seriousness; work and play; concealment and exhibition, back- and frontstage, practice and performance; and the normal preventive disposition towards cognitive and practical dissonance seems to have been suspended. Thus, the hipster stands as the epitome of the hyper-reflexive, but at the same time ironically embracing as well as seriously rejecting the labelling process in which (s)he is both the subject and object.

The hipster’s search for authenticity is pursued in a neo-narcissist society where cognitive and practical dissonance has become normalised and institutionalized, and selves are compartmentalized both aesthetically, ethically and epistemologically as the hipster/ironist attempts to cope with the simultaneity of irony and seriousness, detachment and commitment.

1222-A-1823

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A "Worthy" Reception?

Åsa Trulsson, Kristina Gustafsson, Jesper Johansson, Linnéuniversitetet

Contemporary migration policies in liberal democracies are marked by ambivalence between seemingly contradictory jurisdictions and claims (cf. Andersson 2014; Gibney 2004, Ottosson and Lundberg 2013). The ambivalence can be seen in public debate, as evident in themes such as human rights vs. security or the rights of refugees vs. the right to protect the institutions of the national welfare state. In Sweden, such ambivalence became even more accentuated with the implementation of a new law that severely restricted the possibilities for permanent residency and family reunion for asylum-seekers. This presentation focuses on how various actors in the so-called reception structure, make sense and negotiate the divergent claims and shifting circumstances that mark their professional and voluntary activities. Such actors are obliged to act in accordance with the new legislation, thus sending a symbolic message that asylum seekers are not welcome. On the other hand, they are trying to provide a welcoming reception in line with the ambitions of a social democratic welfare state regime. Through the narrated experiences of people working in government agencies, municipality agencies, private entrepreneurs and civil society organisations involved in the reception structure, the presentation explores the moral affective structures that shape the reception measures. By using the concept of“worthy”, we analyse how actors negotiate tensions within reception measures and their everyday work, but also imagine and produce the refugee and migrant that is worthy of a certain kind of reception.

1224-A-1823

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