The work presented aims to analyse the dynamics of power and inequality within the Swedish academic space, and to do so considers the growing diversity of the Swedish academic composition, in the light of increasing internationalisation and a more recent commodification of higher education (HE). Through a critical discourse analysis of official documents published by the five largest Swedish universities, concerning internationalisation-oriented strategies, documents promoting equal opportunities and guidelines governing discrimination, I reflect on the spaces reserved for concepts such as diversity, interculturality and equal opportunities. To do so, I align myself with a decolonial approach, which questions places of epistemic enunciation, revealing inherent power dynamics represented by coloniality. I intend to argue that a decolonial perspective provides me with the lenses through which to analyse the power structures that still foster a colonial attitude in Swedish academia. The increasing internationalisation of Swedish universities and the way in which this internationalisation it is presented are, in my opinion, in tension with current policies that encourage and monitor equal opportunities. While on the one hand there is a tendency to build an increasingly international, global, and diverse university, on the other hand there is a lack of attention to diversity itself, to inequalities, equal opportunities, and potential discriminations. This tension helps to produce and reproduce power dynamics within the academic context, where the potentially global university does not invest enough resources in recognising and critically naming the differences that, even when unnamed, exist between all those who occupy the physical academic space. This tendency, I intend to argue here, is to be understood in the light of Swedish twofold tendency: on the one hand, a type of hegemonic feminism based on whiteness, heteronormativity and marginalisation of the other is produced and reproduced; on the other hand, such feminism, which proposes itself as the bearer of universal equal opportunities, contributes to the exclusion of other pluriversal subjectivities, excluded because they are racialised and do not belong to the nation-state in the strict sense - to which such feminism is in its nature closely linked.

Experiences of parenting in migration contexts undergo particular changes that develop various challenges. This qualitative study aims at exploring challenges and concerns of Arabic-speaking immigrant parents in Sweden regarding parenting while integrating into a migration context that differs from their own upbringing. Moreover, the study sheds light on how those challenges are negotiated. In order to answer my research questions, six parents, representing four families, were qualitatively interviewed and the collected data was thematically analysed. The results of this study show that Arabic-speaking immigrant parents face the following main challenges: ´acquisition of new knowledge about the host society´s language and culture´, ´balancing parents´ responsibilities inside and outside their houses´ and finally the ´lack of social network´. The results also emphasise that parenting challenges in migration contexts need intensified and productive cooperation between immigrant families and different parties in host societies to achieve the best interests of immigrant children and parents. Participants, in general, reflect an eagerness to implement their traditional parenting practices in ways that do not contradict to the standard parenting practices in the Swedish context. Finally, this study implies immigrant parents´ need to be recognised in host societies through respecting them and their children and considering their qualifications and the circumstances they have experienced before, during and after migration.

While early relocation is not makeable, disaster risk reduction seems to be the most effective tool to decrease the impact of a disaster. This case study focuses on three UNDRR frameworks as they appear to be the greatest instance of international documents referring to disaster risk reduction (DRR). Especially, this research examines the representation of women within these frameworks and how their portrayal in DRR has changed over the last two decades. To do so, a critical discourse analysis of the three UNDRR frameworks is conducted. This study benefits from a social vulnerability approach and further engages with the Feminist Political Ecology theory. The analysis finds that even though women are increasingly represented in the frameworks, their roles as active participants remain negligible. Their knowledge and interest are still not recognised as valuable in DRR. Rather, women seem to be employed as tools to include more gender-sensitive programmes. This study recommends a greater and more complex emphasis on women in future DRR policies.

Denna studie undersöker förståelsen för behovet av vård av psykisk ohälsa bland nyanlända flyktingar och asylsökande i Sverige under 1990–2021. Studien tillämpar ett krisnarrativ perspektiv för att kontextualisera varför och hur förändringar i lagstiftningen sker och förståelsen av den. Vidare undersöker studien hur detta beskrivs och förstås i lagtexter, propositioner, offentliga utredningar och rapporter från 1990–2021 med en analytisk ram av krisnarrativ. Denna krisberättelse är konstruerad genom vittnesmål från socialsekreterare, migrationstjänstemän, journalister och professorer kopplade till migration. Detta kommer att förstås utifrån de teoretiska perspektiven om vem som har rätt till rättigheter (Arendt, 2017) och vem som är sörjbar (grievable) (Butler, 2016), samt ett holistiskt perspektiv på hälsa med hjälp av begreppen health-lifestyle (Cockerham, 2005), empowerment och KASAM- känsla av sammanhang.  Genom följande frågeställningar: (1) Hur beskrevs behovet av vård och rättigheter för flyktingar och asylsökande i officiella dokument? (2) Hur har förskjutningen av rättigheter till hälsa och synen på behovet av vård bland flyktingar och asylsökande sett ut? och (3) Vilken inverkan kan rätten att ha rättigheter och att vara sörjbar ha över hälsofrågor hos flyktingar och asylsökande? En kvalitativ tematisk dokumentanalys antogs med en explorativ design baserad på ett induktivt förhållningssätt till det empiriska materialet. En hermeneutisk tolkning har tillämpats som innebar att skapa en djupare tolkning än den intellektuellt begripliga kunskapen. Resultatet visar att lagtexterna, propositionerna, offentliga utredningarna och rapporterna, har skiftat mot en mer decentraliserad struktur och med ett mer holistiskt perspektiv på hälsa. Tillsammans med vittnesseminarierna vittnar detta om att det paradoxalt nog har lett till en mer individualiserad syn på flyktingar, att de i större utsträckning tar ansvar för sin egen hälsa där en osäkerhet till följd av tillfälliga uppehållstillstånd är kopplad till en otrygg och prekär tillvaro. / This study investigates the understanding of the need for care for mental illness among newly arrived refugees and asylum seekers in Sweden during 1990-2021. The study applies a crisis narrative perspective to contextualise why and how changes in legislation occur and the understanding of it. Furthermore, the article investigates how this is described and understood in legal texts, propositions, public investigations, and reports from 1990–2021 with an analytical frame of a crisis narrative. This crisis narrative is constructed through testimonies by social secretaries, migration officers, journalists, and professors linked to migration. This will be understood from the theoretical perspectives of who has the right to have rights (Arendt, 2017) and who is grievable (Butler, 2016), as well as a holistic perspective on health using the concepts of health-lifestyle (Cockerham, 2005), empowerment and SOC- sense of coherence. This study asks: (1) How was the description of the need for care and rights for refugees and asylum seekers described in official documents? (2) How has the displacement shift in rights to health and the view of the need for care among refugees and asylum seekers looked like? and (3) What impact can the right to have rights and to be grievable have on the health issues of refugees and asylum seekers? A qualitative thematic document analysis was adopted with an exploratory design based on an inductive approach to the empirical material. A hermeneutic interpretation has been applied which means creating a deeper interpretation than the intellectually comprehensible knowledge. The result shows that the legal texts, propositions, public investigations, and reports have shifted towards a more decentralised structure with a more holistic perspective on health. Together with the witness seminars, this testifies that, paradoxically, it has led to a more individualised view of refugees, that they take responsibility for their health to a greater extent, where uncertainty because of temporary residence permits is linked to an insecure and precarious existence.

The beauty industry has been booming in the last few years, generating immense profits as it now translates into an Internet global beauty culture in its own right that finally made room for women of color. As research barely mentions African women and their diasporas, this study aims to critically analyze the dynamic of this North American-dominated Internet beauty culture celebrating non-white women, looking at how it impacts African women and their diasporas and participates in affirming a global woman of color through commodity capitalism.  Based on discourse analysis of multiple actors in the industry using popular culture sources, I then conducted a critical feminist autoethnography of my beauty journey, put in perspective with the results of decolonial interviews with African and African diaspora women recruited online. I asked about their relationship with the beauty industry and their opinions on some arguments I made. Self and collective analysis demonstrated the emergence of an African diasporic hybrid beauty culture, empowering women to feel like actors of change.

Sverige anses vara ett av Europeiska unionens mest jämställda länder där kvinnor och män ska ha lika möjligheter i arbetslivet. Jämställdhetslagen och diskrimineringslagen har stiftats i syfte att bland annat främja kvinnor och mäns lika rättigheter samt förhindra och motverka könsbaserade skillnader på arbetsmarknaden. Trots lagstiftning finns det tydliga skillnader i karriärutveckling mellan kvinnor och män. Syftet med studien är att studera hur kvinnor på olika arbetsplatser med en jämn intern könsfördelning upplever sina möjligheter till avancemang, kvinnornas antaganden av strategier för att hantera upplevd ojämlikhet samt hur kvinnornas självbild har kommit att påverkas till en följd av dessa upplevelser. Det empiriska materialet baseras på sju kvalitativa semistrukturerade intervjuer som analyserats genom Chodorows teori om mödrars roll i reproduktionen av könsnormer och Bergmans beskrivning av vertikal och intern segregering. Flera mekanismer samverkar och resulterar iatt kvinnorna upplever barriärer för avancemang och karriärutveckling på sina arbetsplatser på grund av deras könstillhörighet vilket vidare bidragit till antagandet av strategier för att få legitimitet. Dessa upplevelser har bidragit till ifrågasättandet av kvinnornas kompetens som vidare haft en negativ påverkan på deras självbild. / Sweden is considered as one of the European Union's most equal countries where women and men should have equal opportunities at the labor market. The Gender Equality Act and the Discrimination Act have been enacted to promote equal rights for women and men and to prevent gender segregation at the labor market and in workplaces. Despite these laws, there are still differences in career development between women and men. The purpose of this study is to illustrate how women at different workplaces experience their opportunities for advancement, women's assumptions of strategies for dealing with inequality and how women's self-image has been affected as a result of their experiences. The empirical material is based on seven semi-structured interviews analyzed through Chodorow's theory the reproduction of mothering to analyze the reproduction of gender norms and Bergman's description of vertical and internal segregation. The results of the study show that women experience barriers to advancement and career development at their workplaces based on their gender, which has further contributed to the adoption of strategies to gain legitimacy. These experiences have contributed to a negative impact on women's self-image which has manifested in constant questioning of women's competence and capability at work based on traditional norms.

In January 2023, the newly elected right-wing government led by Giorgio Meloni approved Decree-Law No. 1/2023 which restricts the work of civil Search and Rescue (SAR) organizations, with the aim to reduce the flow of people reaching the country's shores. Simultaneously, SAR organizations claimed that the Italian government started to deploy a policy of allocating distant ports to the NGO ships for the disembarkation of survivors. This thesis aims to analyse this new twofold approach towards civil sea rescue activities in the Central Mediterranean to answer the question of how it impacts the work of civil SAR organizations. For this purpose, a mixed-methods approach that joins quantitative and qualitative methods is deployed. The quantitative analysis of this thesis draws upon rescue data provided by SAR NGOs, as well as on press reports to understand the impact of the new approach on the disembarkation of survivors and movements of ships. To gain a deeper understanding of the impact on the rescue dynamics in the Mediterranean Sea, the qualitative analysis draws upon the results of semi-structured interviews conducted with staff of civil SAR organizations. In the course of this thesis, I argue that the new Italian approach falls into a larger trend of obstructing the work of SAR NGOs, deployed by the Italian government since the start of the de-governmentalisation of SAR activities in the Central Mediterranean in 2014. While the distant port policy leads to obstruction of SAR activities by delaying the disembarkation of survivors, Decree-Law No. 1/2023 falls into a wider strategy of criminalisation of civil SAR activities. I furthermore argue, that it is the interplay of the two newly introduced policies mentioned above that leads to severe obstruction of civil SAR activities. Finally, I engage theories about humanitarian space to describe the obstruction of civil SAR activities as the shrinking of the humanitarian space in the Mediterranean Sea.

Ever since Kosovo’s declared Independence in 2008, the nation has opted for a multi-ethnic approach by adopting a legal framework that contains several laws promoting and protecting minority rights, although these have remained rather stagnant in implementation. The minorities in Kosovo have furthermore been affected by the Serb-Albanian relations and inter-ethnic tensions by creating divisions and societal challenges. The purpose of this study is to examine the current situation for minorities in Kosovo, along with studying the limitations and possibilities of the implementation of minority rights and societal opportunities. Additionally, this is a case study based on the experiences and views of Torbeshis being a minority in Kosovo which exemplifies the situation of how minority rights are expressed in a social and political context. The  methodological approach of semi-structured interviews was applied which provided the primary data consisting of empirical findings and results from interviews. The data was then analyzed with the assistance of the theoretical framework of social constructivism, along with the intersectionality concept as a complementary tool with an applied narrative analysis. The results indicated that the inadequate implementation of rights is the common denominator concerning minorities' situation, possibilities, limitations and experiences. The focus of the international community on Serb-Albanian relations has further shifted the attention from minority issues. Although the legislative framework is advanced, minorities generally seem to face more limitations than possibilities, with potential for a positive turn. Minorities face limitations such as security concerns, freedom of movement caused by linguistic obstacles, together with restricted participation and access in political life. The Torbeshis face similar issues as mentioned, together with forms of discrimination, ethnic redefinition, assimilation and interrelationship between to major ethnic groups. / Sedan Kosovos förklarade självständighet 2008 antog konstitutionen en lagstiftningsram innehållande flera lagar som främjar och skyddar minoritetsrättigheter, men trots implementeringen har dessa lagar förblivit relativt stillastående i praktiken. Kosovo definierar därmed sig själva som ett multietniskt samhälle i samband med fastställandet av dessa lagar. Minoriteterna i Kosovo har dessutom påverkats av Kosovos efterkrigstid och den Serbisk-Albanska dynamiken där spänningar mellan etniska grupper förekommer i landet och skapar diverse splittringar och samhällsutmaningar för minoriteterna. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka den aktuella situationen för minoriteter i Kosovo, tillsammans med de existerande begränsningar och möjligheter som finns för implementeringen av minoritetsrättigheter och samhällsmöjligheter. Studien tillämpar en fallstudie som utvärderar Torbesjers erfarenheter av att vara en minoritet, vilket illustrerar hur den nuvarande situationen av minoritetsrättigheter uttrycks i en viss social och politisk kontext. Det metodologiska tillvägagångssättet som tillämpas är semistrukturerade intervjuer och utgör det primära materialet bestående av resultat från intervjuer samt empirisk data. Datan analyserades sedan med hjälp av det teoretiska ramverket social konstruktivism med intersektionalitetskonceptet som ett kompletterande verktyg, och slutligen applicerades en narrativ analys för att behandla datan. Resultatet av studien visar på att den otillräckliga implementeringen av rättigheterna är den gemensamma nämnaren när det kommer till minoriteters situation, möjligheter, begränsningar och erfarenheter. Det omfattande fokus som läggs på relationen mellan serber och albaner av det internationella samfundet skiftar ytterligare uppmärksamhet från minoritetsfrågorna. Trots den avancerade lagstiftningsramen verkar minoriteter i Kosovo möta fler begränsningar än möjligheter, med potential för en positiv förändring. De begränsningar som minoriteter bemöter i Kosovo är säkerhetsproblem, rörelsefrihet, språkliga hinder, samt ett begränsat deltagande och tillgång i det politiska klimatet. Torbesjer står inför liknande problem, tillsammans med former av diskriminering, etnisk omdefiniering, assimilering och ett mellanförskap i förhållande till de etniska majoriteterna i landet.

This study comparatively analyzes the narratives containing six international graduate student mothers’ lived experiences. Stories about intersectional identities and their transformation process through new experiences were reconstructed by the participants as storytellers. These student mothers are enrolled in international master’s programs in Sweden, who are underrepresented population in higher education research. Also, Sweden as a host country and learning setting is an under-researched location for this topic. The findings show that IGSMs (International graduate student mothers) learning and living abroad experiences include various challenges and diverse enablers. Their experiences are shaped by the host country, the institute, and the people around them. They experienced that social and cultural values embedded in the specific learning space affected their experiences, and the participants also felt it through social and cultural differences and transformation in themselves. All participants had a unique intersection of their multiple identities, and they made their strategies to deal with dilemmas and struggles. They learned new perspectives, attitudes, and lessons from interactions with other individuals, culture shock, observing differences, and through their studies and family. This study provides a chance to understand how female learners make sense of the ‘self’ and the world around them and how they transform their perspectives in international higher education settings while they face important phases in their family and academic life.

This study tried to counter the stigmatized narratives in Molenbeek and nuance the stigma bybringing to the forefront the experiences and views of the local inhabitants through storytellingand an ethnographic approach. I have interviewed both inhabitants of Molenbeek and a plannerfrom the municipality of Molenbeek to understand both the discourse of the inhabitants andthat of the planners at the municipal level about current urban development projects in andaround Molenbeek. With the empirical tale, I was able to present both discourses as if theywere discussing together to see where they differ or agree. I used the theory of territorial stigmaof Wacquant et al. (2014) to analyze to what extent the situation in Molenbeek can be explainedwith the theory of territorial stigma. I found that territorial stigma seems to fit the currentsituation of Molenbeek and its stigmatized inhabitants to a certain extent but underestimatesthe feeling of community between inhabitants. This study has shown that the urban and socialsituation in Molenbeek is much more complex than the stigma and stereotypes narrated. Futureresearch should look into the discourse of developers and their relation to territorial stigma.Finally, I hope this study will inspire urban planners to engage in storytelling and to be criticalof their own story realm. By listening to other stories and including them in their planningprocess they will be able to create more inclusive and richer spaces, which should be the goalof every urban development project.