Intersectional Risk Theory in the Age of ambivalence
The objective of the sabbatical is to synthesize and to present the outcome of two interwoven research projects into a monograph with the title Intersectional Risk Theory in the Age of Ambivalence. The book cover a gap in current state of the art research by bridging the epistemological, conceptual as well as empirical divine that exist between gender studies, including intersectional approaches, and social scientific risk research. Therefore, it is likely that the book will be regarded as representing significant scholarship and used as a standard work. By taking intersectional theory as a starting point, the everyday understanding and practices of risk as well as risk 'regimes' and discourses of risk, can be explored and better understood. The book will also include methodological applications, not only for the fields of risk and uncertainty but also more broadly as a means to understand contemporary societies. During the work with synthesizing previously published work and further elaborate the theory, two visits to key international research will be arranged. The aim of the international exchange is not only to present and to receive feedback on the manuscript by world leading researchers in the two fields of research that the book cover, but also to facilitate long term collaboration between these researchers and Forum for Gender Studies as well as Risk and Crisis Research Centre, at Mid Sweden University.
Final report
The aim of my sabbatical was to use the time to write a monograph entitled Intersectional Risk Theory in the Age of Ambivalence, in order to synthesise two related research projects, one recently completed (Normalisation in neoliberal welfare states: Challenges of and for Gender) and one ongoing (To conceptualise the mutual constitution of risk and inequalities: Intersectional risk theory). The monograph, which holds a contract with Palgrave Macmillan, now being in the editing phase, will be published in the autumn of 2018. Most of the sabbatical has been spent writing the book, a process in which my two collaborators, Anna Olofsson and Susanna Öhman, also have had a hand, but I have been the lead author. The writing of the book has been centred on bringing together various strands of thinking; from gender studies and intersectionality to risk research in general, and to governmentality in particular. In the book we depart from a critical perspective of ambivalence to unpack risk, hence the conceptualisations of social as well as material artefacts as risk, and its relation to power. A central perspective in this process is intersectionality, or with other words, the awareness of the simultaneous presence of oppressions and privileges that are historically and contextually embedded. The result is a theoretical framework, which we call intersectional risk theory. We sought to contribute not only to the scientific understanding of risk and inequality, but also to provide tools to trace cracks and openings in the weave of power and to rethink risk governance in contemporary societies. To use the concept of intersectionality is not an attempt to appropriate the concept or claiming it as new theory, instead we want to acknowledge and make use of the knowledges and concepts produced within the fields of gender studies by developing what we have called intersectional risk theory. A more fine-grained distinction between doing, redoing, and undoing risk has been developed -although it has been articulated in previous publications it was necessary to deal with the critique that has been raised to our use or translation of these concepts. This has resulted in a more thorough discussion on the possibility to move concepts across fields and some adjustments of our earlier writings has been made and they will be presented in the book that will submitted here as soon it is published, about a year from now.
Except from concrete writing activities my sabbatical has also been used for international networking activities both in order to present parts of the book for an international audience and in order to explore new areas of collaboration. Extracts from the book has been presented in different international settings, both in seminars with mainly gender scholars and in seminars with risk researchers. Parts has also been presented at the Conference of the Thematic Group Sociology of Risk and Uncertainty of the International Sociological Association in Singapore (April 2017). As an outcome of the discussions that took place at the different seminars we have decided to have our own session at the XIX ISA World Congress of Sociology, in Toronto July 2018. In order to explore new areas of collaboration I have participated in two different events; one at the Gorbachev Foundation in Moscow were we discussed border- crossing scholarly cooperation on the topic ’Girlhood in the Turbulent Times’ (April 2017) and at McGill University (June 2017) where I met with the Transnational gender and rurality action network (TGRAN) that works across four countries (Ethiopia, South Africa, Canada and Sweden).
Departing from my sabbatical activities two new project ideas have been developed. Travelling around meeting gender scholars from around the world at a time when the status of gender studies and the conditions for doing research on gender, due to shifts in political landscapes, changes greatly in different European countries, the need for building a European network for feminist solidarities across regimes of oppression become all the more urgent. Our application for network support in order to develop a COST application has received funding (from RJ) and the first meeting will take place in October 2018. The network wishes to contribute to exploring further what feminist networks that go across borders of nationalism, misogyny and racism can do to resist oppression in current political contexts. The collaboration takes its point of departure from existing contacts among gender scholars in the UK, Poland, Greece, Hungary, Turkey and Sweden. Another research question more clearly departing from the project Intersectional theory in times of ambivalence has to do with the role of risk articulations in a context of health care restructuring. A research application aimed to explore how the restructuring of health and particularly maternity care in Västernorrland relates to a broader societal transformation in terms of risk management, gender (in)equality in health care, resource distribution, and urbanization processes has been developed.
Except from concrete writing activities my sabbatical has also been used for international networking activities both in order to present parts of the book for an international audience and in order to explore new areas of collaboration. Extracts from the book has been presented in different international settings, both in seminars with mainly gender scholars and in seminars with risk researchers. Parts has also been presented at the Conference of the Thematic Group Sociology of Risk and Uncertainty of the International Sociological Association in Singapore (April 2017). As an outcome of the discussions that took place at the different seminars we have decided to have our own session at the XIX ISA World Congress of Sociology, in Toronto July 2018. In order to explore new areas of collaboration I have participated in two different events; one at the Gorbachev Foundation in Moscow were we discussed border- crossing scholarly cooperation on the topic ’Girlhood in the Turbulent Times’ (April 2017) and at McGill University (June 2017) where I met with the Transnational gender and rurality action network (TGRAN) that works across four countries (Ethiopia, South Africa, Canada and Sweden).
Departing from my sabbatical activities two new project ideas have been developed. Travelling around meeting gender scholars from around the world at a time when the status of gender studies and the conditions for doing research on gender, due to shifts in political landscapes, changes greatly in different European countries, the need for building a European network for feminist solidarities across regimes of oppression become all the more urgent. Our application for network support in order to develop a COST application has received funding (from RJ) and the first meeting will take place in October 2018. The network wishes to contribute to exploring further what feminist networks that go across borders of nationalism, misogyny and racism can do to resist oppression in current political contexts. The collaboration takes its point of departure from existing contacts among gender scholars in the UK, Poland, Greece, Hungary, Turkey and Sweden. Another research question more clearly departing from the project Intersectional theory in times of ambivalence has to do with the role of risk articulations in a context of health care restructuring. A research application aimed to explore how the restructuring of health and particularly maternity care in Västernorrland relates to a broader societal transformation in terms of risk management, gender (in)equality in health care, resource distribution, and urbanization processes has been developed.