The topic of menstruation has gained traction in the last couple of decades amongst critical menstruation scholars and feminist theorists, but it was not until 2015 (“The Year of the Period”) that the topic of menstruation entered mainstream conversations, and policymakers across the globe started taking tangible steps towards menstrual equity. Yet, there is little sociological work done on menstruation, an experience that is still shrouded in stigma and taboo in many cultures. To address this gap, this study aims to explore the experiences of menstruation among young women in the Swedish context.  This study uses a phenomenological approach and is based on 10 interviews with 18 young women in a Stockholm high school. From the interview data, four major themes arose: maturity, solidarity, fear & panic, and personal vs. political. These findings shed light on the complexity and situatedness of the menstrual taboo and highlight how strong social bonds and feelings of solidarity help the young women find embodied worth and develop prevention strategies. Overall, this research contributes to our understanding of the social and cultural significance of menstruation in the Swedish context amongst young Gen Z women.

No description available.

Widespread participation in the 1980s Solidarity movement by Polish nationals of both genders, varying ideologies, and differing political backgrounds has led to diverse views of the history and narrative of the movement that today is interpreted in differing ways by groups and individuals. To gain a better understanding of how Poles view this unique time period of their history a survey featuring 54 questions was dispatched to and completed by over 121 Polish nationals. All questions relate to the Solidarity movement in categories covering: Prominent People, Media, Economics, Religion, and Education and concluding with a free-write section for additional comments by participants. The results show near common agreement on some points while in other areas participants expressed conflicting opinions and views. These varying perspectives reflect the ongoing debate concerning the ethos of the Solidarity movement in addition to its effect on contemporary Polish culture.

[pt] A presente dissertação tem por objetivo repensar o conceito de solidariedade. Em minhas pesquisas sobre este conceito já tão arraigado no pensamento político, pude perceber a existência de uma certa constância no modo de pensá-lo. É como se os autores e autoras, por mais concorrentes e antagônicos que sejam seus argumentos, tornassem todos, em uníssono, a um único e mesmo modo de conceber a solidariedade. A solidariedade pode ser tratada como solidariedade universal, solidariedade comunitária ou societária e também como solidariedade liberatória, cada um destes usos possuindo especificidades próprias. Todavia, mesmo nos casos daqueles de um pensamento autodenominado crítico ou radical, nosso modo de conceber a solidariedade está subordinado ao que pode ser chamado de imagem dogmática da solidariedade. A imagem dogmática da solidariedade concebe a solidariedade como uma força centrípeta que aglutina os termos envolvidos na relação em uma unidade mais ou menos harmônica. Nela, a solidariedade está relacionada com a produção de interioridades novas, manutenção das interioridades existentes e recuperação de interioridades consideradas perdidas. Sua principal preocupação não é apenas produzir, manter e recuperar as interioridades, mas também protegê-las e assegurar sua coesão. O problema com esta imagem é que, ao subordinar o pensamento da solidariedade, ela restringe e dificulta a tarefa de pensar a solidariedade diferentemente – nosso objetivo nesta dissertação. É possível pensar uma outra solidariedade? Uma solidariedade expansiva, como uma força centrífuga, que não aglutina tampouco produz espaços interiores? A quais conceitos precisamos recorrer para tanto? Nesta dissertação, definiremos a imagem dogmática da solidariedade, examinaremos seus principais reflexos dentro e fora do campo das Relações Internacionais e, por fim, trabalharemos a ideia de uma solidariedade perigosa, esta definida menos em termos de produção, manutenção e recuperação de espaços interiores e mais em relação a sua capacidade de destruí-los. / [en] The aim of the following text is to discuss and rethink the concept of solidarity. During my research, I could realize the existence of a certain constancy in the way we think about solidarity. However competing and antagonistic the arguments of the authors here analyzed may be, we shall see that there is a common root in the way they conceive the idea of solidarity. Solidarity can be defined as universal solidarity, community or societal solidarity and also as liberatory solidarity, each having its own specific characteristics. Nevertheless, even when it comes to a thought self-defined critical or radical, the conceptions of solidarity are still subordinated to what can be called dogmatic image of solidarity. The dogmatic image of solidarity conceives solidarity as a centripetal force that glues together the terms involved in the relation into a more or less harmonic unity. In it, solidarity is related to the production of new interiorities, maintenance of existing interiorities and recovery of interiorities considered lost. Its main concern is not only to produce, maintain and recover interiorities, but also to protect them and ensure their cohesion. The problem with this image is that, by subordinating the thought of solidarity, it restricts and hinders the task of thinking solidarity differently – which is my goal in this thesis. Is it possible to think of another concept of solidarity? One that reflects an expansive solidarity, like a centrifugal force that does not agglutinate nor does it produce interior spaces? If so, what are the concepts that may help us in that? In this master s thesis, I will scrutinize the dogmatic image of solidarity, analyze its main reflexes inside and outside the field of International Relations, and define what I call dangerous solidarities, which is thought less in terms of production, maintenance and restoration of interior spaces and more in relation to its ability to destroy them.

Old Lahore holds an ephemeral magic in its experiences, lying in the center of not only the city, but also a key component to all religious, spiritual and everyday activities, which expand beyond the horizontal planes. The vibrance of the old city threads itself into the dense urban fabric through its traditional jharokas (balconies) and intricately woven rooftops, these tendrils extend out to the modernized environment from which its identity is unique and unparalleled. There is continuity in its landscape, where individuals capture the spirit of the city through their resilience and solidarity, in refuge for equal rights to the city. Fabricating people driven urban initiatives, creating assimilation and social harmony in their collaborative bottom up effort for a vibrant public realm. Through the use of drawing, film and design interventions as a tool for understanding and communicating the experience of an environment through conscious place-making is a layer in the learning possibilities found in Lahore, something that Stockholm can learn from. The spread of the city of Stockholm, from the affluent old town, to the radial modernist expanse of its urban fabric mimics that of Lahore. Yet, the traits of Stockholm’s historical lineage and cultural integration illustrate the dichotomy within the cities self-proclaimed slogan. It emphasizes on being a leader in inclusivity with fair and equal opportunities for all, though the fragmented archipelago has still to considerably develop further to achieve a cohesive state. The spatial duality within Stockholm is vast, illustrating the need for the integration of society in the heart of the city, on an individual scale to a place led future through groups, which is crucial for a functional city. Currently the city operates oblivious to the majority of its diverse sects that inhabit it, the invisible in their streets, it cannot be labeled as one city. By increasing the social interplay in the ruptured city, and allowing every individual identity to manifest and help shape the city they live in, Giving further reason for Stockholm taking pride in placing a high value to quality and equality in life. The true urban form of a city is seen through the mobility of its users from all constructs of society as they move through its streets, facades and rooftops in their daily life; thus providing the life, energy and culture to any metropolis. In Essence, Capturing the resilience of the city that is Lahore, and injecting its essence into the modernized pastoral landscape of the Scandinavian capital.

This study examines the healthworlds of first-generation Chinese immigrants in Boston's Chinatown. Through participant observation and interviews conducted within a local church and a local park community, three key issues emerged: how the space of Chinatown influences people's post-immigration healthworlds; the dynamics of community health supports and health challenges; and the daily health lives of these immigrant individuals within their respective families. Likewise, complex understandings of health coverage emerge that include not only health insurance, but also social forms of insurance. Community integration becomes not only a cultural tradition, but also how health resources and health support are linked and provided. This social form of insurance makes it possible for community members to reach out cultural and religious health resources and support in the context of everyday life.

The focus of my research has been the reverberations of the 2001 Argentine economic crisis, as they affected and were responded to by women in social movements. This dissertation contributes to studies of globalization by highlighting the unintended consequences of neoliberalism in Argentina in the form of the collective empowerment of women in egalitarian social movements. The negative consequences of neoliberalism are well known, but I found that these policies produced more than misery. They also helped to stimulate a new kind of politics —a set of autonomous movements aimed at democratizing society as well as the state. In response to rapidly deteriorating living conditions, contemporary Argentine social movements organized their constituencies in what I have defined as the field of politics by other means. In the context of failed governmental programs and discourse designed to create docile, mobile subjects (governmentality), egalitarian social movements engaged in the creation of social movements whose democratic structures contrasted with the dispossessing nature of the neoliberal global power they confronted. In Argentina, this new political culture and methodology fostered, through street theater and pageants, 'other means' of making politics, including a concern for internal gender democracy in what has been called the “solidarity economy.” My research suggests that struggles against gender inequities have a synergistic relationship to democratic political structures. I found that receptivity to feminist discourses and opportunities for women’s participation were greater in antihierarchical opposition movements than in those with a more traditional leftist orientation. In these autonomous movements, women were able to challenge gender inequities, democratizing both the movements and their family relationships. Their struggle for democracy and freedom contrasts with the role of neoliberal policies and practices responsible for the weakening of democratic institutions in Argentina. In this way, my research not only broadens understanding of Argentina’s crisis and recovery, but it raises questions about the implications of the present worldwide economic and social crisis on struggles to transform gender relations.

This dissertation examines the political negotlations involved in border encounters, focusing particularly on mobile groups in border areas in South America. It discusses the connection between international and border politics, privileging a definition of the latter as the negotiation processes over the terms and modes of presence of the 'inter' of the international. The dissertation analyzes border politics from the perspective of three major tenets: displacement, practices of zoning and the construction of borders as sites of solidarity. I argue that in order to understand these processes we need to elucidate how the global politics of mobility is played out (or translated) in border crossroads and from a range of social groups that encompass not only the Nation-State, but also a myriad of actors that, despite having little or no say in the international framework of human mobility, perform bordering practices that are central to the enactment of difference as a primary trait of inclusion/exclusion from the political. These processes of political differentiation are reinforced but also contested by mobile groups, especially in relation to discourses that try to equate human mobility as a choice between freedom and protection. In important respects, their intervention attempts to problematize the dichotomous portrayal of freedom and protection as two irreconcilable dimensions of life in displacement, thus evincing the possibility that the 'inter' of the international can actually become a site of living, rather than a rite of passage. I also argue that by incorporating the narratives of diverse social actors at these border crossroads we might come closer to displacing the politics of human mobility from one premised on a conventional reading of the international, as a strategy of separation, modulation and management of difference, towards a global politics of (dis)connections, in which mobile groups can become active participants in the framing of their lives possibilities. This moving-away from the international is always embedded in tenuous, dangerous and ambiguous exchanges about what constitutes mobility, how movement is to be interpreted, stimulated or prevented, where and when it can take place and under what conditions. The dissertation discusses these more theoretical claims in the context of refugee and migration movements in Brazil, particularly in relation to Bolivians, Africans and Colombians living in border zones. As such, this dissertation hopes to contribute to a better understanding of what is at stake in dealing with the border encounter from a political perspective and how different narratives on life in displacement can, in fact, indicate different paths of action and research, especially in the context of South-South circulations. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

In this study, I examine Chicana/o writings and Black and Brown musical traditions as they entwine in urban centers and inform local visions of inclusion and models of social change. By analyzing literature and music from South Texas, Southern California, and Northeastern Michigan, I detail how the social particularities of each zone inform Chicana/o cultural productions rooted in the promise of empowerment and the possibility of cross-cultural solidarity. I assert that highlighting localized variations on these themes amplifies contrapuntal solidarities specific to each region, the relationship between different, locally conceived conceptions of Chicana/o identity, and the interplay between Brown and Black aesthetic practices in urban centers near national borders. Through literary critical and ethnomusicological frameworks, I engage the rhetorical patterns that link poetry, jazz improvisation, essays, musical playlists, and corridos to illumine a web of discourses helping to establish the idiosyncratic yet complimentary cultural mores that shape localized social imaginaries in the United States.

In the context of negative consequences following an economic growth paradigm, in the urban sphere, such as uneven urban development, marginalization, gentrification and austerity measures, the present study directs the focus towards the spaces of civic promise. These spaces have the potential to challenge the commoditized and consumerist urban practices and imagine alternative futures. The present paper applies an infrastructural approach to neighborhood art spaces with the purpose of identifying and understanding urban solidarity. Urban solidarity is conceptualized as civic sociality that negotiates difference. To pursue this line of inquiry, the thesis analyzes practices, relations, encounters and socialities that are allowed at Konsthall C, a neighborhood art space located in Hökarängen, a southern suburb of Stockholm, Sweden. The three research questions that guide the thesis are discussing the qualities of the art space, the civic sociality and how it negotiates difference and the dynamics between the qualities of the spaces and the civic social relations manifested in the space. These dynamics reveal that there is not a simple straightforward relationship between the two. Moreover, the importance of the background is reiterated for these types of spaces. Besides this, a nuanced perspective on the types of civic sociality and how it works towards negotiating differences is highlighted.