No abstract

Education and knowledge production have often been portrayed as the worst enemies of racism and xenophobia. However, such claims can be misused to create a narrative of modern educational institutions being “free” from racism and, in worst case scenarios, contribute to hiding the ongoing discriminatory practices in schools. This paper provides a review of Swedish research on migration, ethnicity and racism in schools and introduces the key topics in this special issue of Educare. We explore examples of colour blindness in Swedish classrooms and experiences of meeting racism in school. Further, we investigate how racism and discrimination can be expressed in a school's everyday life without anyone necessarily having malicious intentions. With this, we contribute to understanding that various exclusionary practices based on ethnicity and race can occur even in school settings that promote diversity and anti-racism.

In recent years, Swedish women belonging to a post-migrant generation have made their voices against racism and social inequality prominent within public debate. Engaging in segregated and economically deprived suburbs, these women make use of art in order to counter stereotypical narratives of themselves and their communities. Based on interviews from two research projects, Accessing Utopia and Gendered Islamophobia in Sweden, this article aims to understand the complexities in using art to protest racist structures and stereotypes. In what ways are the young women making room for their own creative expressions in Swedish society, while countering processes of othering? How does the work of representation affect them? What meaning do the women give to the platforms and networks they have been involved in? This article shows that the women’s early experiences of othering and meeting likeminded youths play a central role in order to either enter or create collective platforms where they can creatively engage in expressing their subjectivities and counter society’s controlling images. Projects and platforms such as Revolution Poetry and Swedish hijabis provided collective self-care through support and confidence building among youths from marginalized communities. These platforms can be seen as an artistic homeplace for the interlocutors. The article also shows that the work of representation is sometimes felt as limiting. The activism the women engage in is a deeply personal struggle for self-valuation and seeking ways to live a life on one’s own terms.

Platskamp, specialnummer av Arkiv. Tidskrift för samhällsanalys, nr 9 (2018) Aktivism som platskamp. Självpositionering och medborgarskapande inom den svenska förortsrörelsen René León Rosales & Aleksandra Ålund sammandrag: I sin artikel undersöker René León Rosales och Aleksandra Ålund de processer som villkorar och möjliggör framväxten av en subjektsposition som aktivist bland ungdomar tillhörande en postmigrant-generation inom den svenska urbana rättviserörelsen som kallats den nya "förortsrörelsen". Artikeln utgör en fallstudie av Megafonen, en ungdomsledd organisation grundad i Husby som var central för framväxten av förortsrörelsen. I fokus står den unga aktivisten "Jasmines" livsberättelse. Empiriskt baseras artikeln på material insamlat sedan 2014 genom deltagande observation, videoinspelningar, intervjuer samt texter, video och bilder hämtade från internet och pressen. Författarna undersöker relationen mellan individuella och kollektiva lärandeprocesser samt transcenderande identitetsprocesser förankrade i rörelsens "platskamp" i rasifierade urbana landskap. Genom begreppet "aktivistiskt medborgarskap" belyser artikeln förortsrörelsens platskamp som ett samtida uttryck för medborgarskapande genom vilket unga vuxna politiserar sina erfarenheter av marginalisering och diskriminering och kräver sin rättmätiga plats i samhället.

In this article the author analyses how boys in upper secondary schools do identity work and masculinities mainly through verbally performing acts of both intolerance and tolerance in group discussions. The analytical focus highlights how both tolerance and intolerance are actualized in balancing acts that are based on an awareness of what is perceived to be linked to one or the other, and how identities are constructed through discursive resources and specific performances resulting in the production of masculinities. This performative balancing act is conceptualized as (in)tolerance as a masculine performance.