Kategoriarkiv: Doktorsavhandlingar

Public defence with Paul Sherfey: Cultivating Responsible Citizenship: Collective Gardens at the Periphery of Neoliberal Urban Norms (2024)

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Paul Sherfey defends his thesis ”Cultivating Responsible Citizenship: Collective Gardens at the Periphery of Neoliberal Urban Norms”

When? 22 March 2024 15:00-17:00

Doctoral thesis: ”Cultivating Responsible Citizenship:
Collective Gardens at the Periphery of Neoliberal Urban Norms”
Research area: Historical Studies
Research school: The Baltic and East European Graduate School (BEEGS)
External reviewer: Katarina Saltzman, docent in Ethnology , Institutionen för kulturvård, Göteborgs universitet
Language: English

Abstract
As the growing human population becomes concentrated in urban environments across the globe, these environments have increased in both overall population and population density (OECD, 2020). Consequently, political debates and social movements concerned with urban planning and land use have become ever more pertinent. One way of problematising and scrutinising dominant rationales of urban land use is to examine in them in relation to activism and collective action by which they are challenged.

Among the many such examples available are what proponents in some countries refer to as collective gardens, a subset of community gardens distinguishable by their explicit emphasis on collective management and publicly oriented educational and cultural programming – typically with an expressed intent or mission involving social change and environmental stewardship (cf. Rosol, 2006; Villace, Labajos, Aceituno-Mata et al., 2014). Geographically situated in social environments shaped by capitalism, they can be considered pericapitalist places, “simultaneously inside and outside capitalism” (Tsing, 2015, p. 63) to the extent that their use of urban land and collective forms of social organisation appear inconsistent with the proclivity towards privatization and a free-market economy characteristic of neoliberal capitalism (cf. Mouffe, 2018). Studying collective gardens in relation to neoliberal capitalism thus has implications for understanding how these places represent political forms of sensemaking, expressing grievances and demands that respond to the dominant political-economic context of contemporary urban life.

Based on this understanding, the aim in this study is to explore discourses about what collective gardens signify politically as places where alternative norms of urban life are nurtured. What sense of place can be understood to be nurtured in relation to collective gardens, and what does this convey about citizenship and experiences of urban life in the context of neoliberal capitalism? This question is investigated through the application of a political discourse framework, supplemented by discursive theories of aesthetics, narratives, and sensemaking to learn about the meanings attributed to collective gardens and how these are constituted in relation to their social contexts. The aesthetics of collective gardens are explored through multi-sited research undertaken at gardens across Germany and Sweden, in order to analyse how the materials and design of these gardens reimagine urban space.

The study then turns to individual case studies in both nations to explore a range of narratives – first to understand how the history of each garden sets up a problem that is solved by the establishment of the garden, and later to analyse how each garden is situated in discourses about contemporary urban development, as well as work and social life. Through these multiple perspectives on the construction of their meaning and relevance as places of political activity, the study offers an interpretation of how collective gardens represent a particular ethos of democratic citizenship through the social critiques being fostered in these places. Additionally, it provides an exploration of complex relationships and different interpretations of responsibility, whereby collective gardens can be seen to resist neoliberal capitalist rationalities while also fulfilling or contributing to their objectives.

Read more about the event here

The thesis can be found in diva-portal

When the Dam Burst: Perspectives on Genre and Tellability in Testimonies of Rape (2023)

Doktorsavhandlingar, Publikationer,

Sofia Wanströms doctoral thesis When the Dam Burst: Perspectives on Genre and Tellability in Testimonies of Rape has recently been published. The dissertation defence will be held on 24 november 2023 (read more here). The thesis can be found here.

Abstract:

In 2017, the #MeToo movement called attention to the prevalence of sexual violence in all corners of the world, including the Swedish-speaking parts of Finland. A feminist campaign titled Dammen brister published 950 testimonies of sexual harassment and assault that had occurred within the minority, while the call published with the campaign demanded the silence around sexual violence to be broken. Beyond merely breaking a silence, however, the testimonies provide personal insight into the experience of this violence, a valuable aspect that this thesis argues is often overlooked. The campaign does not merely call attention to the problem but also provides knowledge that can broaden our understanding of it. By starting from a folkloristic assumption of a connection between the form, content, and meaning of stories, this thesis moves to consider how these stories are presented. The thesis seeks to provide insight into the social and cultural context that frame and inform how rape is narrated and experienced.
The aim of this thesis is to study how women narrate stories of rape within the campaign, and hence, it focuses on 360 testimonies describing experiences of rape. The breadth of the scope of the campaign meant that a variety of different experiences of rape are presented among the testimonies, conveying the diversity of possible experiences as well as the ambiguity that can surround an experience of rape. Through using a method of close reading and listening, the thesis stays close to the material and proceeds from the ways in which the writers narrate and construct meaning from their experiences. By proceeding from the assumption of tellability as depending on the audience’s ability to hear the stories in the intended way, the Dammen brister campaign is perceived as a space of increased tellability, as it represented a place in which writers could share with the assumption of being believed and validated, rather than questioned and blamed. The concepts of genre and positioning provide theoretical insight into how various narrative structures and strategies are used to convey certain meanings, as well as how the tellable space of Dammen brister allowed the writers to deviate from and challenge narrative expectations, telling both little and a lot.
This thesis provides important insight into the variety of ways in which raped women can narrate their experiences. As a subject that can be difficult to tell, it is argued to be crucial to allow those victimized space to narrate as little or as much as they find necessary in that time and space without requiring them to adhere to a specific structure or discourse. Such understanding of the narration of rape would increase tellability of the subject and hence allow women to interpret and recreate their experiences in their own voice. Thus, this thesis contributes to making women’s own stories of rape to be rendered hearable and respected.

Abstrakt på svenska:

Hösten 2017 uppmärksammade MeToo-rörelsen förekomsten av sexuellt våld i alla hörn av världen, inklusive de svenskspråkiga delarna av Finland. En feministisk kampanj med namnet Dammen brister publicerade 950 vittnesmål om sexuella trakasserier och övergrepp som hade upplevts inom minoriteten, medan uppropet som publicerades i samband med kampanjen krävde att tystnaden kring sexuellt våld skulle brytas. Utöver brytandet av tystnaden ger vittnesmålen även en inblick i upplevelsen av våldet, en viktig aspekt som denna avhandling hävdar att det ofta bortses från. Kampanjen uppmärksammar inte bara problemet, utan ger också kunskap som kan bredda vår förståelse av det. Med en folkloristisk utgångspunkt, som förutsätter ett samband mellan berättelsers form, innehåll och mening, undersöker avhandlingen hur berättelserna presenteras. Därigenom ämnar avhandlingen ge insikt i de sociala och kulturella sammanhang som ramar in och informerar om hur våldtäkt berättas och upplevs.
Avhandlingens syfte är att studera hur kvinnor berättar om våldtäkt inom kampanjen, och fokuserar därför på 360 vittnesmål som beskriver upplevelser av våldtäkt. Kampanjens räckvidd innebär att många olika erfarenheter av våldtäkt presenteras bland vittnesmålen, vilket förmedlar mångfalden av möjliga erfarenheter samt den tvetydighet som kan omge en upplevelse av våldtäkt. Med metoderna närläsning och lyssnande håller avhandlingen sig nära materialet, och utgår från skribenternas sätt att berätta och skapa mening från sina erfarenheter. Genom att utgå från en uppfattning om berättbarhet (eng. tellability) som avhängigt publikens förmåga att höra berättelsen på det avsedda sättet, uppfattas kampanjen som en plats med ökad berättbarhet, eftersom den erbjöd skribenterna en plats där de kunde dela sina upplevelser med antagandet om att de skulle bli trodda och validerade, snarare än ifrågasatta och anklagade. Begreppen genre och positionering ger teoretisk insikt i hur olika berättarstrukturer och strategier används för att förmedla vissa betydelser, samt hur det berättbara utrymmet i Dammen brister tillät skribenterna att avvika från och utmana narrativa förväntningar.
Denna avhandling ger insikt i de olika sätt våldtagna kvinnor kan berätta sina erfarenheter. Som ett svårt ämne att berätta om, hävdas det vara avgörande att låta de utsatta få utrymme att berätta så lite eller så mycket som de vid det tillfället anser nödvändigt, utan att kräva att de följer en specifik struktur eller diskurs. En sådan förståelse av berättandet om våldtäkt skulle öka ämnets berättbarhet och därmed ge kvinnor möjlighet att tolka och återskapa upplevelsen på eget sätt. Därav bidrar denna avhandling till att göra kvinnors egna berättelser om våldtäkt hörbara och respekterade.

 

Disputation: Förhandlingar på dansgolvet. En etnologisk studie av lindy hop och polska – två svenska dansscener (2023)

Disputationer, Doktorsavhandlingar, Publikationer, , , , , , ,

Linnea Helmersson disputerar i etnologi vid Umeå Universitet med avhandlingen Förhandlingar på dansgolvet. En etnologisk studie av lindy hop och polska – två svenska dansscener. Opponent är Oscar Pripp.

När? Fredag 17 november, 2023 kl. 13:00 – 15:00 UTC+1/CET
Var? Humanisthuset, HUM.D.230 (hörsal G)

Abstrakt på engelska:

In Sweden today, many different dances are practiced within distinct scenes, which all have their specific characteristics, norms and ideals. This thesis analyses two of these scenes, polska and lindy hop. They share a similar background of revitalisation and revival. The aim of the thesis is to describe and analyse meaning-making processes within the scenes formed around these dance forms. It includes descriptions of historical revival processes but above all analyses of practitioners’ understandings and practices.

The main research data consists of interviews with practitioners, and observations on dance events and courses. Theoretically, the study is based on a view of dance and dancing as cultural expressions whose meanings and forms are constantly being created and recreated. The analysis draws on a wide variety of theories and concepts within the humanities and performing arts research.

The findings show that beliefs about the past emerge as a framework for practice in the two scenes. In the data, tradition and authenticity are important themes, and there is a shared discourse of preservation. Nevertheless, how important history is for today’s practitioners, and how the past is enacted and what meanings are ascribed to it, differs between and within the scenes. Discourses about the past, as well as processes of authentication, are much more prominent within the lindy hop scene, as compared to the polska scene. This includes aspects such as clothing and the making of and expression of gender. A notable difference between the scenes is that learning to dance is formalised through workshops in the lindy hop scene, whereas it is more informal among polska dancers.

The thesis adds to the growing field of studies of revivals of music and dance, and shows how scenes formed around revived dances bear traces of the revival processes while at the same time creating something new in the present.

Avhandlingen kan hittas på diva portal.

Dissertation Defence: Kun kunta lakkasi olemasta: Kylä- ja kotiseutuyhdistykset kuntarakenteen muutoksiin reagoivina toimijoina (2023)

Disputationer, Doktorsavhandlingar, Publikationer, ,

Niina Koskihaara is defending her thesis in ethnology at University of Turku on November 10, 12:00-16:00 at Arje Scheinin -sali, DENTALIA, Lemminkäisenkatu 2, 20520, TURKU. The defence can also be followed online.

Read more here

English abstract:

When the municipality ceased to exist. Village and local heritage associations as reactive actors to municipal mergers

The topic of this study is the restructuring of local government and services in the early 2000s (PARAS project) and its impacts on communities operating at the local level. The research project examines how the reform, initiated at the highest level of state administration, affected the activities and operational environment of village and local heritage associations as well as the cultural processes resulting from the municipal mergers at the local level. The actors involved with village and local heritage associations have most clearly focused their efforts on specific villages and local regions. During the municipal restructuring, concerns were expressed at the local level about the villages and home regions being left behind as neglected and remote villages, causing the sense of place and local identity to disappear.

The study focuses on nine village and local heritage associations that operate in municipalities where the reform was carried out in 2007 and 2009: Mynämäki (Mynämäki and Mietoinen in 2007), Pälkäne (Pälkäne and Luopioinen in 2007), Salo (Salo, Halikko, Kiikala, Kisko, Kuusjoki, Muurla, Perniö, Pertteli, Suomusjärvi and Särkisalo in 2009) and Hämeenlinna (Hauho, Hämeenlinna, Kalvola, Lammi, Renko and Tuulos in 2009). The main data for the research project consists of thematic interviews conducted with association actors. In addition, the interviews include discussions with the main actors in LEADER groups and cultural associations. The method employed for analysing the data is close reading. The theoretical framework guiding the research and shaping the close reading approach is based on Lefebvre’s triad of social space, which adopts the perspective of viewing the municipality as a conceptualised, perceived and lived space.

The study demonstrates that the restructuring of local government and services was not merely about administrative reorganisation but also concretely impacted community activities and the operational environment as a whole. Municipalities are important partners for village and local heritage associations. The municipal restructuring brought about alterations in the forms and prerequisites of such relationships. The operational methods of the new municipality required the associations to adapt, redirect their approaches and engage in advocacy with respect to the municipality. The municipal mergers also triggered processes whereby village and local heritage associations became subject to new expectations, leading them to reconsider the contents of their activities, their (geographical) scope and their inter-associational collaboration. The removal of municipal borders also revealed the ways in which the former ‘boundaries’ between communities had impacted municipal relations.

The characteristics of places, family and friendship ties, as well as involvement in associations, serve as factors emotionally connecting associational actors at the local level. The interviewees’ descriptions of their personal local identities appear more fluid and shifting in the study than their identities at the community level, whose modes and areas of operation are defined more narrowly. People are the most significant resource in association activities, but they also pose a threat to the continuation of operations if associations fail to attract new participants. Changes that impact residents’ everyday lives at the local level motivate people to participate in association activities.

The thesis can be found here.

Kutsu osallistua tieteelliseen toimintaan. Etnografisia näkökulmia monitieteisen kyselytoiminnan yhteistyöhön ja käytäntöihin (2023)

Disputationer, Doktorsavhandlingar, Publikationer

Anna Kirveennummi is defending her doctoral thesis ”Kutsu osallistua tieteelliseen toimintaan. Etnografisia näkökulmia monitieteisen kyselytoiminnan yhteistyöhön ja käytäntöihin” in ethnology at University of Turku 16 June 2023 at 12:00.

Read more here.

English summary of the thesis:

An invitation to participate in scientific activity: ethnographic perspectives on collaboration practices in multidisciplinary questionnaire activity

Qualitative thematic inquiries form a specific method for creating research material, comparable to fieldwork, interviews and semi-structured questionnaire forms. The idea behind this method of collection was to send questionnaires published in printed leaflets to people who assisted researchers in providing information about their observations, experiences and memories connected with folk life. The basis of this study is the multidisciplinary and collaborative process of inviting citizens to create a new set of ethnological and sociological collections at the University of Turku. It took shape through the series of questionnaire leaflets Tiedusteluja kansallisten tieteiden alalta (Inquiries from the field of national sciences).

The starting point for my work is the University of Turku TYKL-Collections of the Archives of the School of History, Culture and Arts Studies (HKTL-archives). I examine the series of questionnaire pamphlets as well as related archive materials and discussions. I contemplate how questionnaire activity directed at citizens was planned and realized and on what kinds of social and intellectual interaction, circumstances and practices these forms of collaboration were based. By studying the processes from various ethnographic perspectives I attempt to deepen understanding of the many connections between the methods applied in questionnaire activity, on the one hand, and cultural, societal and scientific changes, on the other.

The series of questionnaire pamphlets was initiated in 1958 by Esko Aaltonen (1893-1966), Professor of Sociology, while he was serving as head of the Department of Sociology and the new Department of Ethnology in the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Turku. I have identified the most active period for multidisciplinary collaboration to be 1958–1962, during which time 14 questionnaire pamphlets appeared. They contained a total of 28 questionnaires, of which 12 came from sociology and 13 from ethnology, sometimes in parallel and sometimes consecutively. Three questionnaires intended for rural workers in specific trades were implemented in closer collaboration between the two disciplines. The basis for scientific co-operation was formed through regular work on the methodology of questionnaire leaflets. The invitation process was intended to be accessible and engaging for the respondents as well as to fit the research profiles of the institutions.

Esko Aaltonen and other researchers in the so-called national sciences participated actively in the Finnish Local Heritage Federation (Kotiseutuliitto) and other rural and museum organizations. It was also through these organizations that citizens were familiarized with the process of collecting materials and responding to questionnaires as aspects of knowledge creation and circulation. Prompts and practical instructions for amateur scholars who collected and wrote down responses to the questionnaires were shaped in the guides to local work (Kotiseututyön opas, 1948, 1953, 1963) published by Esko Aaltonen. During the 1950s and 1960s the methodological attention shifted from collection of material to new use contexts for the materials connected with rural sociology and planning the emerging modern society. The polyphony of questionnaire activity can be read in the various research programs that I recognize in the formulation of the questionnaires and prompts. During the 1950s and 1960s as well the significance of field work gradually began to be emphasized and questionnaire activity was modified to be a kind of passive field work conducted in rural communities.

Finally, using selected examples of personal data forms, I contemplate what preconditions for responding were created in survey activity. In the closing discussion I explore the opportunities for analyzing and developing methods of asking in connection, for example, with emerging areas of practice in sustainability and citizen science.

Translation by Kendra Willson

The thesis can be found here.

Desires of Decoloniality and Museal Logics: Encounters between the Swedish Museum of Ethnography, democratic ideals, and contemporary audiences (2023)

Disputationer, Doktorsavhandlingar, Publikationer, , , , ,

Charlotte Engman disputerar den 5 maj 2023 i etnologi vid Umeå Universitet med en avhandling vid namn Desires of Decoloniality and Museal Logics: Encounters between the Swedish Museum of Ethnography, democratic ideals, and contemporary audiences. Opponent är Anna Rastas.

Tid: Fredag 5 maj, 2023 kl. 10:00 – 12:00
Plats: UB.A 240, Lindellhallen 4, Samhällsvetarhuset, Umeå

Avhandlingens abstrakt:

‘Decolonisation’ is a frequently used expression in museum contexts, and a growing museal practice. In ethnographic museums, such attempts are usually performed in the shape of projects that seek to establish new relationships with source– or diasporan communities. However, little research has been produced about how these practices relate to the political demands and expectations set on state museums, and how they are shaped in a Swedish context. By following the project Ongoing Africa at the Museum of Ethnography in Stockholm, Sweden, the thesis aims to explore how different museal logics condition activities, are reproduced, and relate to each other. The empirical data consists of interviews with museum staff and collaborators engaged in the project, observations of project activities, and written data such as policy documents and government publications.

The findings show that tension and ambivalence characterise museal decoloniality. Along with ideals of social inclusion, co-creation and decolonial agendas, the museal economy is being eroded and activities market-adjusted, at the same time as the museum is also expected to be educative and authoritarian. While museum professionals struggle with creating relevance for the museum and the collections, the latter has been discursively fragmented through contemporary investments in heritage justice and repatriation discourse. To external stake holders, the ethnographic collection symbolises ongoing forms of colonial violence and heritage items that contribute to diasporan identity formation. Furthermore, the public museum is today a place where contemporary anti-racist ideology manifest itself through silences performed in relation to racialisation, and knowledge is at the museum a contingent and relational practice.

Avhandlingen kan läsas i diva-portal.

The Kink Community in Finland: Affect, Belonging, and Everyday Life (2023)

Disputationer, Doktorsavhandlingar, Publikationer, , , , ,

Johanna Pohtinen is defending her doctoral dissertation in ethnology at University of Turku, 25 February 2023 klo 12.00 – 16.00 (UTC +2). The title of the dissertation is The Kink Community in Finland: Affect, Belonging, and Everyday Life and it can be found here.

From the abstract:

This research explores the relationship between kink and everyday life, how affects are related to kink, and how community and belonging are important for kinky individuals. The main research material consists of themed writings, which deal with kinksters’ relationship to the community and their own kinkiness. The materials also include photographs of kink objects and homes, as well as participant observation and interviews on kink events. The materials are understood as dialogical: they are in dialogue with each other and with the researcher. The research methods are based on cultural analysis and draw on theories on affect, community, and everyday life.

Time Warps. Refugees and the Experience of Waiting in Rural Sweden (2023)

Doktorsavhandlingar, Publikationer

Time Warps. Refugees and the Experience of Waiting in Rural Sweden is a doctoral dissertation written by Rikard Engblom at the Department of Cultural Anthropology and Ethnology at Uppsala University.

From the abstract:

This thesis explores the ways in which refugees’ experience of time is warped when they come to Sweden. It is based on fourteen months of ethnographic fieldwork in Avesta, a small municipality in rural Sweden. Refugee reception and immigration control in Sweden is characterized by humanitarian ideals that exist in tension with practices and policies aiming to restrict immigration in the name of security and stability. Each chapter of this thesis documents a different combination of these ideals and concerns, examining how they generate particular configurations of waiting. For many refugees in Sweden, everyday life is characterized by waiting—waiting to have their asylum application processed; to receive a residence permit, which grants them the right to work; to be reunited with their families to find a place in Swedish society. This process often takes several years, during which the conditions for receiving residence permit may suddenly change or be made more difficult. The thesis is a contribution to the recent “temporal turn” in migration studies through its focus on waiting as a productive phenomenon in vulnerable circumstances. The increased presence of refugees has given rise to anti-immigrant sentiments in Sweden, but it has also generated welcoming, compassionate responses. By addressing not only how refugees cope with living in a continual state of waiting under precarious conditions, but also how bureacracies, civil societies, and individuals respond to this waiting, the thesis discusses the sociological and ethical implications of refugees’ waiting. Time Warps demonstrates the importance of unpacking combinations of humanitarianism and securitarianism when developing a deepened understanding of refugees experience of waiting in rural Sweden.

Kalevalan kirjallista nykykäyttöä (2022)

Disputationer, Doktorsavhandlingar, Publikationer

Merja Leppälahti is defending her doctoral thesis Kalevalan kirjallista nykykäyttöä (Contemporary literary use of the Kalevala) at University of Turku on Saturday 3 December 2022 at 12:00. You can read more here (in Finnish).

The thesis can be viewed here.

Short excerpt from the English abstract:

”Right from its publishing, our national epic Kalevala has been an inspiration to artists, authors, and composers. Interest in the Kalevala has continued to this day, and it still continues.

Here I research how material from the Kalevala is used in new texts. The main material consists of fiction literature published over three decades, and I also look at metal music lyrics. This research consists of five articles and a summary section, where I also present the research material. The research touches the interface between literary studies and folkloristics. The material is literature, but the perspective is that of cultural studies.”

”Sillä ainahan merimies sentään on erimies”: Merimiesidentiteetit muuttuvassa maailmassa (2022)

Disputationer, Doktorsavhandlingar, Publikationer, , ,

Ulla Kallberg is defending her doctoral thesis in ethnology ”Sillä ainahan merimies sentään on erimies”: Merimiesidentiteetit muuttuvassa maailmassa (in english ”For always a sailor is a different man”: Seaman identities in a changing world) at University of Turku on Saturday 12 November 12:00-16:00. More information can be found on University of Turku’s website.

The thesis can be found here.

An short excerpt from the english summary:

”This study, which is part of the field of ethnology, examines the manifestation of the self and self-understanding of Finnish sailors in the working communities of steamers transporting freight. Central to it is the experience of an individual working as a sailor on an ocean liner about his own self and how he understands himself. The events described in the study date to between 1910 and 1955.”