Katarina Giritli Nygren

The mutual constitution of risk and inequalities: intersectional risk theory

In this article, we examine the conceptual importance of integrating risk and intersectionality theory for the study of how risk and various forms of inequality intersect and are mutually constitutive. We argue that an intersectional perspective can advance risk research by incorporating more effectively the role of such social categories as gender and race into the analysis of ‘risk’ as an empirical phenomenon. In doing so, the intersectional perspective articulates more clearly the connection between the social construction of risk and, on the one hand, the reproduction of new and complex social inequalities and, on the other, intersections of social class, gender, ethnicity and other social categorisations. We trace the intellectual division between risk and feminist-inspired intersectionality research, showing how these approaches can be aligned to study, for example, risk-based welfare and social policy. We use a discussion of general directions within welfare policy to illustrate how an intersectional perspective can be used to show the ways in which new governance strategies create new divisions and reproduce existing forms of social inequality. We conclude the article with a call for a new research agenda to integrate intersectional frameworks with risk theory in order to provide a more nuanced analysis of the relationship between social inequality and risk.

'Doing' risk, 'doing' difference : towards an understanding of the intersections of risk, morality and taste

In this article, we propose a perspective on risk that stresses its moral character and normalising functions. By focusing on the ‘doing’ of risk, we explore the ways that risk discourses are entangled with the ‘doing’ of class and gender, opening up an analysis of the power dimension in risk. Taking the example of food risk as a starting point, we argue that, while previous research has shown that what we eat is a way of positioning ourselves in relation to others, in a time when risk has come to represent different values and beliefs – it as such is a site where power relations are mobilised and enacted. Risk clearly plays an important role in disassociating particular interests from their specific locations, leaving them to all appearances universal and neutral. The challenge, however, is not merely to demystify such processes, but also to find ways of using them to take theory and research methods in challenging directions. We therefore propose an analysis of the performativities of risk, with a focus on the ways that the ‘doing’ and ‘undoing’ of risk may be used as a means of distinction in a symbolic struggle over value and moral worth.

An intersectional risk approach for environmental sociology

The objective of this article is to further develop intersectional perspectives and feminist knowledge in environmental sociology. Environmental sociology has developed a critical theoretical frame with which to describe the social construction of risk, and this article further develops the understanding of the complex multidimensionality of the social relations that shape the lived experience of risk. An analytical and integrating discourse that acknowledges the connectedness of these dimensions and the influence of their interactions on the representation, production and reproduction of risk in society remains an unrealized ambition. Intersectional risk theory shows that risk is constituted and produced in social and geographic spaces, as well as the various power relations that prevail there, and consequently, risk is not only defined and managed differently but also the intersections of privilege and subordination are themselves reproduced through risk management. Using climate risks as a starting point, we propose a perspective for the study of risks that analyses the dynamic, ambiguous character of the doing of risk. Our intent is to investigate how risk discourses are entangled with the doing of class, gender and race, as well as with the differentiation between human and nature.

“Monotonized administrators” and “personalized bureaucrats” in the everyday practice of e‐government: Ideal‐typical occupations and processes of closure and stabilization in a Swedish municipality

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyse everyday practices in e‐government from a labour perspective in order to understand how administrative rationalization and citizen service become connected in the organizational restructuring of the labour process, namely job codification and specification and rule observation.Design/methodology/approach – The analysis applies an organizational e‐government implementation perspective and labour process theory to an analysis of a Swedish municipalitys implementation of e‐government, using both qualitative and quantitative data.Findings – The main finding is the formulation of two distinct types of ideal employee – “monotonized administrators” and “personalized bureaucrats” – who carry e‐government work in different directions according to administrative rationalization and the service offered citizens.Originality/value – The paper extends our knowledge of everyday practices in e‐government from a labour perspective. It offers practitioners as well as resea...

Doing and undoing risk: the mutual constitution of risk and heteronormativity in contemporary society

This paper develops the concepts of ‘doing’ and ‘undoing’ risk, a new approach to risk research that echoes the ‘doing gender’ of gender studies. In this way, we combine intersectional and risk theory and apply the new perspective to empirical material. To better explore the doing and undoing, or the performance, of risk, we will refer to practices that simultaneously (re)produce and hide socio-political norms and positions, played out in contemporary, hierarchical relations of power and knowledge. The aim is to develop a theoretical understanding of doing and undoing risk. The study makes use of transcripts from five focus group interviews with men and women, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people of different ages living in Sweden to develop a theory of ‘doing risk’. The doing of risk of our informants takes place within the frame of a hegemonic heteronormativity. The way that risks are perceived and done in everyday life therefore always needs to be read within a frame of prevailing structures of power. This counts for all of us as we are all part of the hegemonic power structures and thereby are both subject to the intersecting doings of risk and performatively reproducing these power structures in practice.

Everyday places, heterosexist spaces and risk in contemporary Sweden.

Abstract Subjective feelings of risk are a central feature of everyday life, and evidence shows that people who do not conform to contemporary normative notions are often more exposed to everyday risks than others. Despite this, normative notions are rarely acknowledged as risk objects. By drawing on the theory of ‘doing’ and ‘undoing’ risk, which combines intersectional and risk theory, this study contributes new perspectives on the everyday risks in contemporary society that face people who many would label as being ‘at risk’ – lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. The study consists of five focus group interviews with lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people of different ages in Sweden. Findings pinpoint risks and how these are done and un-done in different spheres of interviewees’ lives: the emotional risks prevailing in their private lives; the risk of discrimination at work and in relations with other institutions; and the risk of violence and harassment in public places. These risks are all related to the heteronormative order in which the mere fact of being lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender is perceived as a risk.

The (un)intended consequences of crisis communication in news media: a critical analysis

ABSTRACT This article takes as its departure point the questions ‘Which discourses figure in the news media’s coverage of natural disasters?’ and ‘What are the possible unintended consequences of this type of crisis communication?’ The overall aim is to elucidate the development of risk discourses, struggles over discursive legitimacy, and shifts in argumentation to legitimate or delegitimate certain actors and actions in relation to a widespread and devastating wildfire in the summer of 2014 in Sweden. The chosen media outlets are one national agenda-setting morning newspaper, one national evening tabloid, and one local newspaper. All coverage in these newspapers from the period of the wildfire (1–31 August 2014) were selected and analyzed. By employing a critical discourse analysis of three different newspapers’ crisis communication flows during the one-month-long wildfire, we show how crisis communication is in fact embedded in discourses of power related to gender and rurality.

Tracing Discourses and Uncovering the ‘Performativity’ of Risk: Exploring the Role of Discourse Analysis in Studies of Risk and Inequality

This chapter discusses the contribution of discourse analysis to the study of risk. Two examples will be used to discuss the role of discourse analysis for exploring how risk and inequality are mutually constituted. First, a policy programme, illuminating how ‘risk’ is used to describe and manage welfare policy of today, shifting some risks from the state to the individual, and second, a local media debate concerning a European Union (EU) migrant settlement. There are particularly three strengths of discourse analysis that will be highlighted: its capacity to reveal the role of risk in politics, its capacity to reveal the embeddedness of risk articulations in practices that produces inequalities and its capacity to answer questions about the consequences of risk discourses as well as to illuminate mechanisms.

Having Your Cake and Eating It? The “Painful Cake” Incident of 2012 Examined

On the 15th of April, 2012, The Modern Museum (Modernamuseet) in Stockholm celebrated the World Art Day by having a reception with the Swedish cultural minister present, at which an artwork in the form of a cake made in the likeness of the body of a caricatured black woman was served, cut up and eaten, while the artist, masked as the cakes head, screamed. This conceptual, relational, and contextualizing artwork, which leads to a much heated debate in Sweden and which was also internationally picked up on, was made by the explicitly anti-racist artist Makode Linde. In this article, we explore the problem of this event in terms of its sociocultural significance. How did we react upon the drama that we were following from a distance? What did it make us see? What questions did the incident raise about the Swedish society of today? These are examples of the questions we as gender researchers working in Sweden will discuss in the form of a triptych. We use the triptych metaphor as a tool for opening dialogue. By opening its panels it becomes possible to decommodify the single image of the artwork and make relations between agents traceable, visible, and readable.