This article analyses cultural meanings given to LGBTIQ+ break-ups in a separation support group in Finland. It examines how the cultural meanings produced in the group participate in the process of aligning LGBTIQ+ relationships with heteronormative relationship culture, and resistance to this normalization. Based on an analysis of the group's structure, therapeutic framework and peer discussions between participants, we argue that the group added to the normalization of LGBTIQ+ relationships by emphasizing an individualized perspective and sidelining the importance of societal positions. Simultaneously, however, the group created space for LGBTIQ+ community and culture by maintaining ties to politics of the LGBTIQ+ movement. Our analysis shows that instead of fully succumbing to the heteronormative model, therapeutic services for LGBTIQ+ people can be complex processes involving both normalization and resistance.
This position paper examines the growing dominance of health economics in Swedish healthcare governance and argues that its elevated epistemic authority produces significant risks for the sustainability and ethical integrity of care systems. Drawing on feminist theories of care and critical political economy, the paper interrogates the assumption that care can be adequately represented, valued, or prioritized through economic models. Three core critiques are developed. First, the commodification of care imposes rationalizing logics onto practices that are intrinsically relational, affective, and resistant to market measurement. Second, prevailing economic theories of value-rooted in neoclassical assumptions-fail to recognize the substantial social, reproductive, and moral value generated by care work, while enabling exploitative labour conditions and rent-seeking behavior in medical industries. Third, the integration of financial incentives into governance structures crowds out ethical commitments embedded in Swedish health legislation, creating moral distress for care workers and policy contradictions that undermine equitable care provision. While acknowledging the role of economic expertise, the paper ultimately argues for more pluralistic forms of knowledge in healthcare decision-making.
This article explores how the practice of "matching" sperm donors and recipients is interpreted and negotiated among fertility clinic staff and queer parents in Scandinavia. Drawing on qualitative research, we frame donor conception in Scandinavia as a technology of race that requires and relies on careful documentation of colours and origin whereby parents and donors are assigned national, racial and familial belonging. Furthermore, we show how matching naturalizes, universalizes and privileges whiteness as a range of hues, whilst racialised donors, imagined as carrying "dominant" colours are understood as both particular and "scarce". We then discuss how queer parents of colour extend, rework and resist the idea of matching within and beyond normative state regulations. As gametes become charged with promises of affective and intimate attachments to race and nation, we argue that Scandinavian donor conception both invokes historical legacies and actively (re)produces race through idioms of colour and origin. Adding to literature on global fertility markets, we show how welfare state regulations of donor conception, when put into (public) practice, are increasingly entangled with the logics of the market. To conclude, we discuss how restrictions around state-regulated donor conception illuminate the eugenic and biopolitical dimensions of queer assisted reproduction.
This article examines the role of leadership for preventing abuses of power through harassment and bullying in the Swedish performing arts, highlighting the significance of feminist and anti-oppressive leadership. Previous studies of harassment and bullying in workplaces across sectors have identified the role of leadership as central. For example, passive leadership has been found to increase the likelihood of sexual harassment, work cultures of bullying have been found to begin at the top of an organization, and leadership has been found to be the best opportunity to prevent sexual harassment and assault. The article aims to understand the impact of leadership on prevention strategies against harassment and bullying. It is based on interviews with leaders, recorded observations of rehearsals and written policies from two Swedish performing arts institutions. Understanding organizational structures and processes as always already gendered and shaped by inequality regimes of gender, class, and race, we focus here on how harassment and bullying is approached in practice and on paper. Our conclusions are that feminist and anti-oppressive leadership is highly significant for the institutional ability to live up to the written policies in practice, and the analysis describes successful ways of working to prevent harassment and bullying.
Intersectionality has been at the centre of intense debate among feminist scholars. In this article, we revisit selected dimensions of this debate and argue that it is characterized by inadequate reflexivity regarding the centrality of context to intersectional analysis. Context here should be understood in its more radical meaning, implying that contextualization always implies adaption, rethinking and retheorization. Intersectional mechanisms and processes should thus be expected to unfold in ways that depend on the societal context. Thinking from this contextual perspective, we discuss men as intersectional subjects and the long-standing debate on the relevance of the concepts of race and ethnicity in Europe. We then move on to illustrate the centrality of context to intersectionality through an analysis of ethnic minority men in Denmark. We focus on three political and discursive constructions of ethnic minority men: The patriarchal adult ethnic minority man, the criminal young ethnic minority man and the male Islamist terrorist. We demonstrate that these constructions condition and shape the level of identities and social practice and that this plays out in a way that is dependent on context.
The assisted reproductive technology (ART) industry, along with national biopolitical agendas, have contributed to a reconfiguring of the historical entanglements of race and reproduction. In this article, we interrogate this phenomenon by exploring the practice of gestational surrogacy through the lens of racial capitalism. Focusing on surrogates in India and intended parents in Sweden - parties that represent opposite nodes in the "global fertility chain" - we aim to contribute to the understanding of racial capitalism as it articulates in the present, by including biological (in addition to social) reproduction. Our analysis builds on previous research on India and Sweden, including our own ethnographic work on Indian surrogacy. We depart from observations of how policies and discourses of mobility and national belonging reflect hierarchical relations to socially valued reproduction, linked to gender, race, caste, class and migration status. While the reproduction of some families is privileged through cross border mobility for access to ARTs and transnational adoption, and in-migration of reproductive workers, reproduction among other families is denounced in public discourse. Women who are discouraged from reproducing are at the same time made "bio-available" through processes of dispossession, and engaged as bio- and reproductive labourers upholding the reproductive needs of more privileged groups.
LGBTQ+ students are exposed to student violations and discriminatory acts in secondary school to a much higher degree than non-LGBTQ+ students. In this article, we investigate how different spaces in school interact with processes of social inclusion and exclusion and how this affects LGBTQ+ students' experiences of belonging and safety at secondary school. The analyses in the article are presented as movements through classrooms, corridors, canteens, changing rooms, toilets, and outside areas and examine LGBTQ+ students' experiences of the interplay between spaces, actions, relations, and norms of gender and sexuality. The article is based on 42 qualitative individual interviews with 15-18-year-old LGBTQ+ teenagers in Denmark and Sweden in a research project on student violations and wellbeing among LGBTQ+ students at schools in the two countries. Theoretically, the analyses employ a perspective of space as relational, performative, affective, and socially produced. The article examines the complex social interactions to reveal not only the extensive risk faced by LGBTQ+ students of violation and discrimination through all school spaces, but also how, in subtle ways, physical and digital social interactions create spatial limitations that leave some LGBTQ+ students struggling to achieve a sense of belonging.
This paper focuses on a particular case of contested child custody between a mother and the Norwegian state that became a transnational cause c & eacute;l & egrave;bre in 2011 and more recently the subject of a Hindi language film (Mrs Chatterjee vs. Norway, directed by Ashima Chibber, Zee Studios 2023). Using this example to explore Nordic parenting, a key interpretive frame is identified: Child as method. Using this, discourses of gender, class/caste, culture, family and nation are shown to be both interrogated and consolidated by the transnational and national dispute, compromise and apparent resolution. It is argued that, while the clash between seemingly universal child rights and particular familial cultural practices destabilizes received gender and familial norms, only focusing on these risks occluding dominant institutional surveillance and regulatory practices around children-including such institutions as the law, psychiatry and psychology. Beyond the prevailing transnational binaries at play, this case helps pose wider questions about how parenting practices figure within the current cultural and political economies of nationalisms and corresponding geopolitics.
This article examines the discursive trope of "the wheat girl" in Nordic radical nationalist Telegram channels, exploring how white femininity is constructed within far-right ecologist imaginaries. The wheat girl-typically depicted as a conventionally attractive white woman in grain fields-embodies a paradoxical blend of feminine passivity and political agency. Drawing on feminist theory, affect theory, and scholarship on far-right ecologism, the study situates this trope within broader historical narratives where women symbolize both nation and nature. In the Nordic context, where gender equality is often framed as a cultural value, the wheat girl offers insight into how radical nationalists may mobilize gendered imagery to advance ecofascist ideologies. Through visual analysis and discourse studies, the article contributes empirically by highlighting the role of gender in far-right ecological communication, and theoretically by expanding discussions on affect, ideology, and constructions of white femininity in digital far-right spaces. The findings underscore how seemingly benign representations of women and nature serve exclusionary nationalist agendas, shaping how radical nationalist actors attract and engage audiences through constructions of beauty, spirituality and tradition.
The trend of rapidly declining birthrates in Europe has led to the rise of population-political discourse on reproduction and family politics, particularly in the Nordics, where institutional support for families and parenthood has been driven by egalitarianism. Of the Nordic Welfare states, Finland has shown the steepest decline in fertility. In this paper we analyse two Finnish population policy reports, published in response to the historically low fertility projection at the turn of the 2020s. We discuss the contemporary population-political framing of reproduction, parenthood and family formation in the policy recommendations, which are based on demographic expertise. Using the 'What is the problem represented to be?' method, we analyse how the phenomenon of less children being born is defined as a political problem demanding rapid measures. We identify the presented causes of and suggested solutions to the declining birthrate and investigate the values, ideologies and presuppositions that the presentation of the problem comprises. Drawing on feminist critique of population control, we demonstrate how focusing on individual capacities when problematizing the low birthrate promotes individualized demographic governance in the form of selective neoliberal pronatalism.
Drawing on pre-birth and post-birth interviews with women in lesbian couples, this study addresses a change in how these women talk about roles and scripts in two-mother families. Before they became mothers, the women constructed their relationships as positively absent of predefined roles and scripts. In the follow-up interviews, the lack of scripts for their type of family was largely approached as a disadvantage. This change in narrative is explored through the meanings the women attach to being two mothers, and what type of motherhood ideals underpin these meanings. The findings show that many of the women adhered to an intensive motherhood ideal. Gendered norms in motherhood was sometimes viewed as a positive resource for the lesbian-headed. While being two mothers was conveyed as an advantage-as the burdens of motherhood were spread across two individuals-it also brought challenges of its own. The challenges relate to the absence of scripts. These findings are discussed in relation to sociological perspectives on "negotiated" and "democratic" families. Since these concepts also capture underlying beliefs and discourses around gender equality, the findings not only challenge late modern sociological theories but also contemporary gender equality ideals from the perspective of lesbian families.
Drawing on interviews with 24 heterosexual young men in Sweden, this paper explores their experiences of sexual encounters, consent, and violations of sexual integrity. The interviewees idealized consent and sex based on reciprocity, attempting to take active responsibility for securing consent before engaging in sexual activities. This was often driven by a desire to be respectful, but at times, these safety measures appeared to be attempts to portray themselves as progressive or to protect themselves from potential rape accusations. Analysing the participants' experiences of consent processes and sexual violations through Berlant's theory of friction as an inevitable part of all social relations, we showcase how sex and intimacy are far from straightforward. Despite genuine efforts to obtain consent and maintain mutual respect in sexual encounters, some of the young men had nevertheless violated their partners' sexual integrity, while others had experienced having sex against their own will but often without seeing this as sexual violations. Despite its promise of regulating the inconvenience of sexual intimacy, we demonstrate how consensual sex may be awkward and fraught with difficulties in understanding one another, especially in moments of excitement and pleasure, as encountering the other challenges the fantasy of sovereign masculinity.
Norway consistently ranks high on international gender equality indexes. Yet sexual violations, particularly against young women, remain a pressing concern, with reported cases increasing in recent years. Universities are positioned to play a key role in preventing sexual misconduct, but institutional cultures may also reproduce the conditions that enable it. This exploratory study analyzes 340 handwritten anonymous student notes from the 2024 inviting students to post green (acceptable) and red (unacceptable) flags representing sexual behaviours in public spaces on campus. Drawing on sexual script theory and concepts of power, gender and embodied agency, the analysis explores how students construct meanings around sexuality, consent and ethical boundaries. The findings illustrate tensions between enduring gendered norms that normalize coercion and perspectives that emphasize mutual sexual consent and care. The study contributes to research on campus sexual cultures by exploring how student-generated notes reflect tensions between gendered norms and expectations of mutual consent within an institutionally framed campaign. The findings may inform reflections on consent education in higher education.
Swedish parents today raise their children in a welfare state, where childcare is both accessible and affordable, and often within dual-income households. At the same time, they have witnessed a challenged welfare state affected by cutbacks, privatizations, and the demands of an increasingly flexible working life. Previous research has shown that Swedish grandparents are more involved in their adult children’s family lives today, and that grandparental involvement is often understood as crucial for parents’ everyday lives and their children’s upbringing. Given this background, this article aims to analyse intergenerational care and relationships, with a specific focus on negotiations and responsibilities between adult children and their parents. It is based on a qualitative study on intergenerational care in Sweden involving grandparents, adult children and grandchildren (63 interviewees), and focuses specifically on the narratives of adult children, examining how they navigate their role as the link between grandparents and children. It explores the paradox between “having it all” and “needing more”, highlighting the increasing dependence on the grandparent generation in everyday life, as well as changing ideals around both parenting and grandparenting. This, we argue, contributes to and also partly challenges the contemporary parenting ideology of “intensive parenting” in the Nordic context.
This article examines how parenting and citizenship become intertwined in the everyday lives of migrant mothers in Finland. Drawing on thematic interviews with 17 mothers with migrant backgrounds, the study explores how civic expectations, ideals of "good" parenting, and gendered responsibilities for care intersect. The analysis is grounded in sociological and feminist theories of citizenship, which conceptualize citizenship as a lived, affective, and contested experience rather than a merely legal or formal status. The findings show how migrant mothers navigate tensions between cultural expectations of "good parenting" and the conditionality of citizenship within Finnish society. Parental presence was narrated as emotional availability and responsibility for their children, yet constrained by labour market exclusion, unequal gender relations, and racialized expectations. Mothers also voiced anxieties about their children's future, reflecting the politicization of migrant youth in public discourse. These accounts illustrate how mothering becomes a site in which citizenship is enacted, evaluated, and negotiated under unequal conditions. By focusing on the lived experiences of migrant mothers, the article contributes to critical understandings of how migration, racialization, and everyday citizenship intersect in the shaping of contemporary parenthood.
This article examines how expectant and new Danish parents are positioned within gendered frameworks in universal-access parenting courses. We argue that these courses, despite claims of gender-neutrality, reproduce gender as an absent-present history. On the one hand, the discourse of shared parenting remains prominent, emphasizing the equal importance of both parents. On the other hand, unequal ideals of fatherhood vis-& agrave;-vis motherhood continue to persist. Notably, fathers are, to some extent, positioned as needing specialized "father-friendly" support, while mothers are guided towards intrasubjective evaluation, aligning with normative ideals of "intensive motherhood". These gendered framings create not only a "stickiness of care"-capturing how both the practical and emotional responsibilities of caregiving cling disproportionately to mothers- but also generate "sticky emotions" that adhere differently across gender. While emotions such as autonomy and playfulness tend to "stick" to fatherhood, feelings of inadequacy and self-doubt are more readily attached to motherhood. However, moments of resistance also emerge. Some mothers refuse to engage in the intrasubjective self-evaluation, instead asserting their own authority and rejecting the framing of mothers as emotionally vulnerable. Following this, we propose the concept of "standing firm feminism" to capture how mothers may assert self-reliance in the face of institutionalized maternal ideals.
Social work, as a profession rooted in social justice, advocates for marginalized groups. However, social work literature and curricula often depict Black communities through controlling images that emphasize social problems over resilience. The concept of Nordic exceptionalism portrays Finland as a welfare society, largely ignoring its colonial history, neoliberal influences, and ongoing racism. Despite this, contemporary austerity measures in Finland align with the processes identified by abolitionist social work as foundational to the development of a carceral welfare state. This article introduces the concept of Black joy as a counter-narrative to these controlling images within Finnish society. It examines Black joy through the experiences of African mothers living in Helsinki, using their own words and images. By analyzing texts and photographs provided by these mothers, the article employs thematic analysis to understand how these mothers view African motherhood in Finland. Key themes identified include the significance of embracing African culture, resilience, unconditional love, and viewing children as the future. The article concludes by discussing the implications for enhancing Finnish social work education by challenging controlling images of African mothers.
