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The Swedish r-word: Uses and negotiations of the terms race and racism in contemporary Swedish online and social media discourse

Tobias Hübinette, Peter Wikström. Funded by the Swedish Research Council (2020-2023).

The purpose of this critical race theoretical, sociolinguistic and discourse analytical project is to investigate how the terms race [ras], racism [rasism], and racist [rasist/rasistisk/-t] are put to use and metalinguistically defined, contested, and negotiated in informal contexts of mediated interactions. The project will be based on case studies of the uses and negotiationsÌýof these terms in social media and online discourses across different online platforms, demographic groups, and political persuasions. The project poses questions concerning what discursive contexts the terms race and racism appear in, how they are articulated in terms of denotation and connotation, and how they are received by other interactants in terms of interactional consequences.

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Sweden as a Norm Entrepreneur: The Case of the Feminist Foreign Policy

Ekatherina Zhukova, Malena Rosén Sundström (Lund University, principal investigator). Funded by Riksbankens Jubileumsfond (2020-2024).

Sweden introduced a Feminist Foreign Policy (FUP) in 2014, when Margot Wallström became Foreign Minister under the Social Democratic – Green coalition government. This policy has since been abandoned by the newly elected Moderate – Christian Democratic – Liberal coalition government. However, a number of countries have been adopting this policy – Canada in 2017, France and Luxembourg in 2018, Mexico in 2020, and Spain in 2021, and Germany, Chile, and Libya are expressing an interest in adopting one. The aim of the project is to study how a FFP is understood by those countries that have introduced it and by those countries that have not done so. For those countries that have introduced a FFP, the goal is to understand how FFP differs from ordinary foreign policy, what feminism in it entails, and what challenges and opportunities there are in having such a policy. For those countries that have not introduced it, the goal is to study why there is such an interest or a lack of it, how feminism is understood in each non-FFP country, and what challenges and opportunities there are for feminism in non-FFP countries. The first part of the study included media analyses of FFP coverage in different countries in the world (2020-2021). The second part of the study consists of interviews with experts (2021-2024).

Visual Interculturality: Photography in Comparison and Conversation

Staffan Löfving,ÌýPaul Weinberg (University of Johannesburg). Funded by STINT, the Swedish Foundation for International Cooperation in Research and Higher Education (2021-2023).

In a new collaboration with the University of Johannesburg, South Africa, we investigate the role played by photographic images in intercultural communication, and in the social organisation of conflict and conviviality. We develop research projects and educational resources in dialogue with photographers, visual artists and the institutions responsible for a visual heritage in countries where political violence forms part of recent history. This work aims to supplement a traditional focus in intercultural studies on the relation between language and culture with theorisation within the less studied field of visual interculturality.

Renewable energy, violent conflict, and gender equality: Exploring a triple nexus on a case study of Yemen

Ekatherina Zhukova,Ìý (Dansk Institut for Internationale studier) och (Lunds universitet). Funded by Formas - the SwedishÌýresearch council for sustainable development, (2023-2027).

The decarbonization of economy is happening at a time of increased conflicts, but the relationship between renewable energy and conflict is poorly understood. This four year project looks at energy-conflict nexus from a gendered perspective since both conflict and renewables disproportionally affect women.