This essay will focus on drug addicts and their relations to the majority society in Sweden. The concepts of “subculture” and “stigmatization” applied to drug addicts are central in the analysis. The essay is based on interviews with two different groups of informants: one consisting of drug addicts and the other of non-addicts. The essay describes, analyses and interprets the informants’ ways of relating to society and the observed tendencies of being a part of a subculture as well as obejcts of stigmatization, both individual and structural.

Den här studien syftar till ett belysa och problematisera kring antropologins närmande av det militära sammanhanget. 2007 utformade USA:s armé en plattform som skulle koordinera och hantera civil kompetens inom områdena antropologi och statsvetenskap. Ämnen som på olika sätt analyserar den ”mänskliga terrängen”. Konceptet ”Human Terrain System” lanserades där akademiker från samhällsvetenskaperna fick söka sig till den militära kontexten för att hjälpa militära beslutsfattare att förstå kulturen, de socioekonomiska förhållandena och religionens roll mm. Hur förhåller sig antropologer till Human Terrain System? Vilka perspektiv finns på antropologin som en del i en militär kontext? Genom att svara på dessa frågeställningar belyses olika resonemang på den tillämpbara antropologin i en militär kontext utifrån den rådande etiska debatten som återfinns inom disciplinen. Implementerandet av antropologiska kunskaper i en den militära kontexten har föranlett till en debatt inom den antropologiska disciplinen. En debatt som lyfter etiska betänkligheter och problematiserar kring vilket antropologins uppdrag är, kan vara och bör vara. Studien granskar det traditionella förhållandet till villkor inom disciplinen, detta illustrerat genom den etiska debatten kring projektet Human Terrin System. Studien slår fast att oavsett hur den enskilde antropologen väljer att förhålla sig till ämnets närmande av det militära så är kontraktet mellan forskare och informant lika centralt som det mellan forskare och uppdragsgivare.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Luleå : Luleå tekniska univ., 2008. / Härtill 6 uppsatser.

Diss. Uppsala : Uppsala universitet, 2005. / Pp. 207-227: Bibliography.

Green urban spaces are a vigorous part in cities development, all over the world (Swanwick, Dunnet, & Wooley, 2003). These spaces are persistently constructed and negotiated over a creative process, which includes a network of actors, such as clients, designers, constructors, and users. This thesis addresses this process - with a case study of landscape architects in Stockholm, and their practice of creativity. The landscape architects present one group of actors involved in the process, where they design urban spaces for the future through their creative work. It begins with a mental image, an idea, and ends with a built site, a designed space. In reference to practice theory (Ortner, 1984 and 2006) and the biosocial becomings approach (Ingold, 2013), I analyze how creativity as a practice is socially produced by history, culture and power, through the biosocial growth of the creative agent, the landscape architect. Referring to Hallam and Ingold ́s definition (2007, p. 3), I understand creative practice as an improvisational process. I argue that creativity is accumulated, i.e. a becoming practice amongst becoming creative agents. While investigating the practice of creativity through a traditional participant observation, I primarily focus on sounds, where I listen to the practice, and use it as a method of collecting empirical data. With that method, I enrich the registration of sensor impressions (Borneman & Hammoudi, 2009, p. 19) during my fieldwork, providing a sonic dimension to the knowledge of creative practice amongst landscape architects.

This thesis examines the composition of affective atmospheres, emerging in court sessions of criminal matter in Vienna. The notion of atmosphere is used to explore collective affective qualities, emerging through the interplay between affective bodies and their environment. The focus provides as analytical frame for bringing forward the workings of affect in legal procedures. From a starting point in theories of affect and atmosphere, I cast light at how the affectively charged space is both monitored and beyond control. First, I trace affect through the lens of spatial arrangements of courtrooms. I show how the architectural and interior arrangements and aesthetics of courtrooms are expedient in creating resonance between the bodies and control over the situations, while being visual and material representations of law. Second, I trace affect in the relation between the bodies that produce atmosphere and regard for the bodily capacity to affect and be affected. I consider principles of criminal procedure structuring and disciplining affective bodies in courtrooms and the juridical labour entailing work on emotions. Third, I trace affect in the dynamics and changes of affective atmosphere by showing how atmospheric changes come about and are contested through intensification and ruptures in atmosphere. I discuss the compositions of affective atmosphere in relation to discipline and control converging with bodies entering the legal setting. The ethnographic material is collected through participant observation in one hundred court sessions, as well as through interviews with people involved.

En mammas starka känslor kan påverka hennes uppfattningar kring sitt moderskap. Denna studie kommer att titta på varför vissa mammor väljer att stanna hemma med sina barn. Dessa mammor menar att barnomsorgen som erbjuds av samhället inte passar in i deras förväntningar om vad ett barn behöver. Genom att ha barnen hemma längre än samhällets norm, skapar detta val en negativ respons från vissa individer i samhället. Individer som menar att dessa mammor påverkar jämställdhetsutvecklingen negativt.   Studien har utförts genom semistrukturerade intervjuer. Utöver intervjuer har empiri från flödet i Facebook gruppen: hemmaföräldrars nätverk samlats in. Även information från bloggar, samt litteratur i ämnet, har använts. De två teorierna som har applicerats i denna uppsats vilar på två ben. Den ena teorin vilar på idén om ett intensivt moderskap. Ett begrepp som beskriver mammornas modersidentitet som den primära vårdgivaren. Den andra teorin tar upp hur mammornas subjektiva uppfattning om moderskapet påverkar henne agens.Studien visar att det finns mammor som aktivt väljer att stanna hemma med sina barn. Ett val som dessa mammor säger sig vara nöjda med. Mammorna upplever att de saknar förståelse från samhället, en önskan om acceptans, samt fler valmöjligheter kring moderskapet.

In contrast to how anthropologists usually study groups that we readily sympathize with, this thesis sets out to create an understanding of one of the most anti-mainstream groups in Sweden: Men Going Their Own Way. Through combining an engaged fieldwork with extended interviews, I aim to explore the emic experience of finding, being, and practicing MGTOW. With the aid of certain theoretical frameworks and concepts concerning feelings of tension and frustration, processes of discipline and exclusion, and acts of everyday resistance, my informants' experiences and accounts are understood and contextualized. In addition to contributing to a very thin field of academic knowledge production around MGTOW, I hope to nuance the polemic debate through which "the other" is perceived.

Assyrians are members of a stateless nation with roots in the Middle East, although due to conflict, persecution and instability a majority of Assyrians now live in diaspora in many different countries. The Assyrian community in Sweden now numbers approximately 100.000 individuals, of which approximately 18.000 to 25.000 live in the greater Stockholm area. This thesis utilizes the example of the Swedish-Assyrian community to analyze two research topics: the political engagement of a diaspora within a host country; and diasporic efforts to maintain a distinctive culture and contribute to its own nation building while residing in diaspora, a particularly pressing question for a stateless nation, such as the Assyrian nation. This thesis utilizes ethnographic data acquired via personal interviews with Swedish-Assyrian individuals and participant observation to discuss these research subjects. With regards to diaspora political engagement, the thesis finds that Swedish-Assyrians utilize their rights as Swedish citizens and their voices as Assyrians to engage with both Swedish politics and Assyrian causes. They are motivated by both Swedish political issues and by the Assyrian national cause. The ethnographic data is further used to analyze the discourse on identity and nation-building among the Swedish Assyrian community, including the impact of the host country’s culture and policies on the diaspora group and attempts to create a unified nation through education and placing emphasis on an ethnic, rather than solely religious, identity. These efforts bring Assyrians in Sweden closer together by helping to bridge differences in language and culture, but as Assyrians internationally now find themselves also affected by the cultures of their new nations, new differences and divisions simultaneously appear.

Uppsatsens syfte är att undersöka hur ungdomars liv ser ut i Kiberaslummen, Nairobi, utifrån intervjuer med fem nyckelinformanter. Studien utgår från fyra huvudämnen; att vara ungdom, utbildning, att söka arbete och genus och könsroller. Dessa fyra huvudämnen är högst relevant för att förklara hur unga människors liv ser ut i Kibera. På grund av ungdomars socioekonomiska status har de begränsad tillgång till bland annat utbildning och arbete. Mina informanters syn på unga människor i Kibera har jag valt att knyta samman med en teori av Alcinda Honwana som kallas waithood, där unga människor hamnar i ett ”glapp” mellan childhood och adulthood. / This thesis aims to explore how young people’s life is in the Kibera slum, Nairobi, seen from five key informant’s point of view. The study has four bigger subjects; being a youth, education, seeking for employment and gender/gender roles. These subjects are highly relevant to explain how young people’s life looks like in Kibera. Youths socioeconomically status limits their assets to education and employment, for example. I have tied my informants view on youths living in Kibera to a theory by Alcinda Honwana called waithood, which is a term for the “gap” some youths experience between childhood and adulthood.