Affectivity and Race: Studies from Nordic Contexts

by Rikke Andreassen, Kathrine Vitus

Overview

This book presents new empirical studies of social difference in the Nordic welfare states, in order to advance novel theoretical perspectives on the everyday practices and macro-politics of race and gender in multi-ethnic societies. With attention to the specific political and cultural landscapes of the Nordic countries, Affectivity and Race draws on a variety of sources, including television programmes, news media, fictional literature, interviews, ethnographic observations, teaching curricula and policy documents, to explore the ways in which ideas about affectivity and emotion afford new insights into the experience of racial difference and the unfolding of political discourses on race in various social spheres. Organised around the themes of the politicisation of race through affect, the way that race produces affect and the affective experience of race, this interdisciplinary collection sheds light on the role of feelings in the formation of subjectivities, how race and whiteness are affectively circulated in public life and the ways in which emotions contribute to regimes of inclusion and exclusion. As such it will appeal to scholars across the social sciences, with interests in sociology, anthropology, media, literary and cultural studies, race and ethnicity, and Nordic studies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780367597870
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	06/30/2020
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Rikke Andreassen is Associate Professor in the Department of Communication, Business and Information Technologies at Roskilde University, Denmark and author of Human Exhibitions: Race, Gender and Sexuality in Ethnic Displays. Kathrine Vitus is Senior Researcher in the Department of Children and Family at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Table of Contents

Introduction: affectivity as a lens to racial formations in the Nordic countries, Kathrine Vitus and Rikke Andreassen. Part I How is Race Politicised through Affects?: Politics of irony as the emerging sensibility of the anti-immigrant debate, Kaarina Nikunen; If it had been a muslim: affectivity and race in Danish journalists’ reflections on making news on terror, Asta Smedegaard Nielsen; The racial grammar of Swedish higher education and research policy: the limits and conditions of researching race in a colour-blind context, Tobias Hübinette and Paula Mählck. Part II How Does Race Produce Affects?: ‘And then we do it in Norway’: learning leadership through affective contact zones, Kirsten Hvenegård-Lassen and Dorthe Staunæs; Nordic colour-blindness and Nella Larsen, Rikke Andreassen; Disturbance and celebration of Josephine Baker in Copenhagen 1928: emotional constructions of whiteness, Marlene Spanger. Part III How is Race Affectively Experienced?: Feeling at loss: affect, whiteness and masculinity in the immediate aftermath of Norway’s terror, Stine H. Bang Svendsen; The affectivity of racism: enjoyment and disgust in young people’s film, Kathrine Vitus; Two journeys into research on difference in a Nordic context: a collaborative auto-ethnography, Henry Mainsah and Lin Prøitz; Doing ‘feelwork’: reflections on whiteness and methodological challenges in research on queer partner migration, Sara Ahlstedt. Index.

Editorial Reviews

’The meaning of racial formation remains a contested question in the Nordic countries where colorblind ideologies silence and trouble conversations on race. This book provides a timely and unique contribution that enables new understandings of the centrality of race and whiteness in a Nordic context.’ Lene Myong, Aarhus University, Denmark ’In social imaginaries the Nordic region is understood through exceptionalisms: idealized and homogenous societies where gender equality, social welfare, and anti-racism provide an exceptionally good life for all citizens. This excellent collection of essays critically examines these self-images through concepts of race and affect. Anyone interested in the ways in which race - particularly whiteness - is (re)produced through affect and emotion would benefit from this book.’ Karina Horsti, University of Jyväskylä, Finland

From the Publisher