- Oslo University Hospital, Section for Clinical Addiction Research, Department Memberadd
- Ellefsen's research interests include social movements, policing of protest, as well as politically motivated crime a... moreEllefsen's research interests include social movements, policing of protest, as well as politically motivated crime and violence. His recent publications has examined these issues in relation to policies and practices to "prevent radicalization and violent extremism" in Norway, Sweden and England. Currently, he is also doing qualitative work on religious and ethnic discrimination, as well as heroin-assisted treatment.edit
Mange etniske minoriteter opplever rasisme som et stort problem i Norge. Dette gjelder spesielt mikroaggresjoner basert på kulturelle forestillinger om at «det norske» er overlegent. I denne artikkelen beskriver vi ulike former for... more
Mange etniske minoriteter opplever rasisme som et stort problem i Norge. Dette gjelder spesielt mikroaggresjoner basert på kulturelle forestillinger om at «det norske» er overlegent. I denne artikkelen beskriver vi ulike former for rasisme og legger vekt på hvordan disse ble motarbeidet gjennom det vi kaller hverdagsmotstand. Studien er basert på 41 kvalitative intervjuer med personer med minoritetsbakgrunn, hovedsakelig svarte, som deltok i Black Lives Matter-demonstrasjonene i Norge. Fem former for hverdagsrasisme var spesielt framtredende: skjellsord og nedsettende ytringer, forskjellsbehandling og diskriminering, antakelser om ikke å være «norsk», antakelser om lav sosial status og fordomsfull inkludering. Dette var i hovedsak mikroaggresjoner som fant sted i hverdagslig sosial samhandling. De fem vanligste reaksjonene på rasisme var forsøk på å motvirke den ved å ignorere, konfrontere, dele erfaringer, rapportere og demonstrere. Studien viser hvor sentralt det hverdagslige er for å forstå etniske minoriteters opplevelser av rasisme – og motstand. Vi argumenterer for at denne typen hverdagsmotstand, er viktigere enn både politisk protest og formelle rapporteringer. Dette er fordi hverdagen har en regelmessighet og kontinuerlig tilstedeværelse som andre former for motstand mangler. Minoriteter i Norge opplever mye hets og forskjellsbehandling, men de er ikke passive ofre. Denne studien viser hvordan de aktivt forhandler, håndterer og kjemper mot rasisme.
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Bruk av heroin for behandling av personer med rusmiddelavhengighet er nytt i Norge. Heroinklinikkene markerer et brudd med de siste ti-årenes narkotikapolitikk og rusbehandling. I denne artikkelen beskrives endringene i myndighetenes... more
Bruk av heroin for behandling av personer med rusmiddelavhengighet er nytt i Norge. Heroinklinikkene markerer et brudd med de siste ti-årenes narkotikapolitikk og rusbehandling. I denne artikkelen beskrives endringene i myndighetenes forståelse av «narkotikaproblemet» og hvordan det bør håndteres. Heroinklinikkene utforskes som uttrykk for slik endring. For å forklare hvorfor og hvordan disse omstridte klinikkene ble en realitet presenteres en to-delt analyse: først av ideologiske endringer i narkotikapolitikken fra 1960-tallet til i dag, og så av den politiske debatten om heroinklinikkene som tok fart fra 2007. Artikkelen argumenterer for at de ideologiske endringene på det narkotikapolitiske feltet i stor grad muliggjorde den senere politiske prosessen som endte med etablering av heroinklinikkene. Analysen identifiserer tre atskilte forståelser av narkotikaproblemet som har eksistert gjennom hele 60-års perioden, og tre motstridende tilnaerminger til heroinklinikkene som ble synlige i den politiske debatten. Ved å diskutere sammenfallet mellom disse forståelsene og tilnaermingene over tid bidrar artikkelen med å forklare heroinklinikkenes oppkomst i en bredere narkotikapolitisk sammenheng.
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Background Heroin-assisted treatment (HAT) involves supervised dispensing of medical heroin (diacetylmorphine) for people with opioid use disorder. Clinical evidence has demonstrated the effectiveness of HAT, but little is known about the... more
Background
Heroin-assisted treatment (HAT) involves supervised dispensing of medical heroin (diacetylmorphine) for people with opioid use disorder. Clinical evidence has demonstrated the effectiveness of HAT, but little is known about the self-reported satisfaction among the patients who receive this treatment. This study presents the first empirical findings about the patients' experiences of, and satisfaction with, HAT in the Norwegian context.
Methods
Qualitative in-depth interviews with 26 patients in HAT were carried out one to two months after their enrollment. Analysis sought to identify the main benefits and challenges that the research participants experienced with this treatment. An inductive thematic analysis was conducted to identify the main areas of benefits and challenges. The benefits were weighed against the challenges in order to assess the participants' overall level of treatment satisfaction.
Results
Analysis identified three different areas of experienced benefits and three areas of challenges of being in this treatment. It outlines how the participants' everyday lives are impacted by being in the treatment and how this, respectively, results from the treatment's medical, relational, or configurational dimensions. We found an overall high level of treatment satisfaction among the participants. The identification of experienced challenges reveals factors that reduce satisfaction and thus may hinder treatment retention and positive treatment outcomes.
Conclusions
The study demonstrates a novel approach to qualitatively investigate patients' treatment satisfaction across different treatment dimensions. The findings have implications for clinical practice by pointing out key factors that inhibit and facilitate patients' satisfaction with HAT. The identified importance of the socio-environmental factors and relational aspect of the treatment has further implications for the provision of opioid agonist treatment in general.
Heroin-assisted treatment (HAT) involves supervised dispensing of medical heroin (diacetylmorphine) for people with opioid use disorder. Clinical evidence has demonstrated the effectiveness of HAT, but little is known about the self-reported satisfaction among the patients who receive this treatment. This study presents the first empirical findings about the patients' experiences of, and satisfaction with, HAT in the Norwegian context.
Methods
Qualitative in-depth interviews with 26 patients in HAT were carried out one to two months after their enrollment. Analysis sought to identify the main benefits and challenges that the research participants experienced with this treatment. An inductive thematic analysis was conducted to identify the main areas of benefits and challenges. The benefits were weighed against the challenges in order to assess the participants' overall level of treatment satisfaction.
Results
Analysis identified three different areas of experienced benefits and three areas of challenges of being in this treatment. It outlines how the participants' everyday lives are impacted by being in the treatment and how this, respectively, results from the treatment's medical, relational, or configurational dimensions. We found an overall high level of treatment satisfaction among the participants. The identification of experienced challenges reveals factors that reduce satisfaction and thus may hinder treatment retention and positive treatment outcomes.
Conclusions
The study demonstrates a novel approach to qualitatively investigate patients' treatment satisfaction across different treatment dimensions. The findings have implications for clinical practice by pointing out key factors that inhibit and facilitate patients' satisfaction with HAT. The identified importance of the socio-environmental factors and relational aspect of the treatment has further implications for the provision of opioid agonist treatment in general.
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Seeking to synthesise developments over recent decades, this chapter provides an overview of the emergence of violent extremist milieus in Norway and societal responses. We also explore challenges and different agendas in P/ CVE... more
Seeking to synthesise developments over recent decades, this chapter provides an overview of the emergence of violent extremist milieus in Norway and societal responses. We also explore challenges and different agendas in P/ CVE approaches that aim to build resilience. Taking the example of the increased securitisation of P/ CVE, we find a certain discrepancy between how resilience appears in security discourse versus P/ CVE practice. We argue for deemphasising security-oriented P/ CVE strategies that rely on intelligence and law enforcement actors in favour of facilitating social transformation as part of a pro-social approach to resilience.
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Work on preventing radicalization, and violent extremism (PRVE) is beset with dilemmas, difficult considerations and pitfalls. Based on a synthesis of previous research and original data, this article conceptualizes and discusses three... more
Work on preventing radicalization, and violent extremism (PRVE) is beset with dilemmas, difficult considerations and pitfalls. Based on a synthesis of previous research and original data, this article conceptualizes and discusses three key dilemmas present in PRVE practice and policy: that of civil liberties versus security, that of too soft versus too hard measures, and that of intention versus outcome. The article illustrates how these dilemmas play out and are deliberated upon by PRVE practitioners and policymakers in Nordic countries. The exploration of these dilemmas and the different action pathways they involve can function as “sensitizing tools” to encourage reflexivity around the complexity and unintended consequences of PRVE. The dilemmas also reflect broader issues of societal and scholarly importance, as they make evident several critical ramifications of PRVE.
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Racial discrimination takes many forms and so does opposition to it. In contrast to the dominant emphasis on institutional or state efforts to counter racism, we examine how members of racially minoritized groups resist racism in their... more
Racial discrimination takes many forms and so does opposition to it. In contrast to the dominant emphasis on institutional or state efforts to counter racism, we examine how members of racially minoritized groups resist racism in their everyday lives. Drawing on forty-one qualitative interviews with young, mainly Black, people in Norway, we identify five distinct ways in which they actively counter racism, as opposed to passively accepting or adapting to it. Participants resisted racism by ignoring, confronting, sharing experiences about, reporting and protesting it. Our analysis explicates the characteristics, potential outcomes and social function of such resistance to racism. The study contributes to the literature on everyday racism and antiracism by making it evident how those at the receiving end negotiate and actively oppose racist experiences.
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In the spring of 2020, the Black Lives Matter protests shook the Western world. Spreading from the USA, demonstrations diffused globally, especially to Europe, calling out racism in its different forms. Emotions ran high and were pivotal... more
In the spring of 2020, the Black Lives Matter protests shook the Western world. Spreading from the USA, demonstrations diffused globally, especially to Europe, calling out racism in its different forms. Emotions ran high and were pivotal in igniting protests. The role of emotion in social movements has received renewed scholarly attention during the last decades. It plays an important role at every stage of protest, but few studies have traced its part in individuals' shifting engagement over time. This study examines the role of emotion during the global wave of Black Lives Matter protests. Based on retrospective interviews with 38 participants in Black Lives Matter demonstrations in Norway, we identify the role of emotion before, during and after their participation. Our findings help explain how individual patterns of participation develop in the course of a wave of protest, and also provide insights into the consequences of the recent Black Lives Matter protests in Europe.
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Since the early 2000s, governments in many Western democracies have introduced policies and practices to prevent radicalization and violent extremism (PRVE). This has led to the formation of a new policy arena in which an increased number... more
Since the early 2000s, governments in many Western democracies have introduced policies and practices to prevent radicalization and violent extremism (PRVE). This has led to the formation of a new policy arena in which an increased number of actors are tasked with PRVE work. The diverse set of actors and methods involved affect social movements in new and complex ways, but also challenges the established knowledge and analytical focus of research on the repression of social movements. In this article, we propose a conceptual framework that attends to the causes, content and consequences of protest control. We use it to examine interaction between actors in the PRVE arena and to highlight issues that are underexplored in repression research. To elucidate these issues, we use empirical examples from our own research on measures to counter extremist milieus in the Nordic countries and the UK.
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This study examines early intervention against individual radicalization. The data originate from interviews with young Muslims in Norway who had experienced interventions related to their own radicalization, or engaged in or witnessed... more
This study examines early intervention against individual radicalization. The data originate from interviews with young Muslims in Norway who had experienced interventions related to their own radicalization, or engaged in or witnessed interventions directed at a radicalized peer or relative. We find that informal interventions by family and friends were most prevalent in the data and played the most decisive role in interrupting radicalization, while police interventions were less common and had mixed results. Interventions by family or peers often came early in the radicalization process, were employed by trusted "insiders", and took place as part of everyday life, thus having less detrimental consequences for radicalized individuals. We finally discuss the challenges of combining interventions by family members and friends with involvements from the police and security service.
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By exploring silence as a response to repression, this study contributes to the literature on the dynamic relationship between protest and repression; it examines the ways in which certain radical activists responded with silence to the... more
By exploring silence as a response to repression, this study contributes to the literature on the dynamic relationship between protest and repression; it examines the ways in which certain radical activists responded with silence to the escalating repression they were experiencing. Analysis explains how and why they remained silent, and the consequences of that silence for individual activists and collective mobilization. Based on a case study of the Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) campaign in the UK, this article includes the reflections of activists who experienced repression first-hand. By analysing in-depth interviews and other qualitative data, the study identifies four different forms of silence among the activists facing repression: silence as a strategy, silence as a cultural trait, silence due to over-confidence and silence resulting from the normalization of repression. The results show how cultural and strategic dynamics play out in protestors' experiences of and responses to repression. The study demonstrates the importance of the neglected research area of the response to repression for advancing our understanding of the conditions under which repression leads either to demobilization or to mobilization.
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Research has shown widespread discrimination and hostility toward Muslims in Western countries. There is less knowledge of how Muslims resist, oppose, or challenge such behaviour. Based on in-depth interviews with 90 young Muslims in... more
Research has shown widespread discrimination and hostility toward Muslims in Western countries. There is less knowledge of how Muslims resist, oppose, or challenge such behaviour. Based on in-depth interviews with 90 young Muslims in Norway, this study explores responses to anti-Muslim hostility. We describe a repertoire of everyday resistance: talking back, entering dialogue, living the example, denying significance, and talking down. The first three forms occur in face-to-face encounters while the latter two are retrospect sense-making of negative experiences. We conceptualise these responses as everyday resistance because they entail ways of actively countering anti-Muslim hostility, as opposed to passively accepting or adapting to it. This repertoire of everyday resistance can make it easier to avoid victimisation, protect religious identities, and ease the daily lives of young Muslims. Increased attention to narrative resistance in studies of everyday resistance will provide a better understanding of the many ways in which marginalised groups cope, resist, and struggle with their stigma.
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This article examines the functioning and failure of restraint throughout the Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) campaign, from its start in 1999 to its end in 2014. SHAC provides an intriguing case for those interested in restraint... more
This article examines the functioning and failure of restraint throughout the Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) campaign, from its start in 1999 to its end in 2014. SHAC provides an intriguing case for those interested in restraint within militant or radical social movements. The campaign comprised a range of lawful and unlawful activities. These often extended well beyond standard repertoires of nonviolent civil disobedience-surprising perhaps in a campaign that claimed to be rooted in a nonviolent tradition; but rarely resulted in interpersonal violence and never in the use of lethal force, even as the escalation of state-led repression and policing limited opportunities for peaceful protest. In this article we first identify three aspects of the campaign where a satisfactory explanation for the observable patterns of violence across the SHAC campaign appears to require an understanding of restraint: innovations away from more militant tactics at the outset and during the final stages of the campaign, and the maintenance of the outer limits of violence during the campaign peak. We then explain this restraint, and how it functions or fails. In doing so, we observe a difference between the processes of restraint described: while the innovations away from more militant tactics are to a large extent contingent on developments within the activists' operating environment, the restraint processes associated with maintaining the outer limits of the action repertoire are more deeply inscribed within the basic logics of the campaign. We reflect on the implications of these findings for future research and analysis of restraint within radical movements, and on methodological challenges encountered during this analysis. The article is based on documentary evidence and qualitative data, including interviews and the observation of trials involving SHAC activists.
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This article provides a brief history of the policing of militant Islamism in Norway between 2009 and 2019. The numerous counter-responses to militant Islamism that have taken place in this decade, I argue, were a primary factor in... more
This article provides a brief history of the policing of militant Islamism in Norway between 2009 and 2019. The numerous counter-responses to militant Islamism that have taken place in this decade, I argue, were a primary factor in accelerating the emergence of the prevention of radicalization and violent extremism (PRVE) as a new field of policy and plural policing in Norway. The emergence of this field in Norway is set against similar fields internationally and related to the evolution of the global Salafist-jihadist movement. Based on interviews with practitioners involved in PRVE and other types of qualitative data, my analysis traces the evolution of this field of policing and identifies five phases that follow the arc of conflict escalation–de-escalation between militant Islamists and those tasked to police them. The article also discusses critical aspects of this emergent field, particularly the role of police and intelligence in the policing of radicalization.
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Policies to prevent radicalization and violent extremism (PRVE) frequently target a number of social movements seen as threats to national security. Often, this includes militant Islamist, right-wing and left-wing extremist milieus. In... more
Policies to prevent radicalization and violent extremism (PRVE) frequently target a number of social movements seen as threats to national security. Often, this includes militant Islamist, right-wing and left-wing extremist milieus. In this article, we ask what distinguishes the ways in which local practitioners perceive and respond to these three milieus. Based on in-depth interviews with public servants in Sweden, we show how the milieus are seen to represent different types of threats, hold core values that resonate differently with dominant values in mainstream society and require responses that challenge public servants in diverging ways. Building on our analysis, we introduce a multidimensional model that clarifies why practitioners relate differently to each milieu. By including the rarely examined left-wing milieu, we are able to showcase the complexity of local PRVE work. Our study sheds new light on the challenges experienced by practitioners who are tasked to implement PRVE policy and demonstrates the problems of approaching “violent extremism” as a uniform phenomenon.
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This article examines the unpredictable consequences of escalated repression on the dynamics of contention. By examining sequences of interactions among contenders in the course of one conflict, analysis traces pathways through which the... more
This article examines the unpredictable consequences of escalated repression on the dynamics of contention. By examining sequences of interactions among contenders in the course of one conflict, analysis traces pathways through which the escalation of repression impacts activists and protest targets in ways that seemingly go against the intentions of repressive agents. Three types of outcomes of repression are identified: a worse situation for protest targets; triggered radicalization; and a “chilling effect” on lawful protest. The article hopes to contribute by demonstrating a temporally sensitive approach that traces how certain pathways combine to produce these outcomes. The empirical case studied is the life cycle (1999–2014) of the British conflict between the Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty animal rights campaign and the Huntingdon Life Sciences corporation, which also involved the government, criminal justice agencies and private businesses.
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This article examines the consequences of soft repression on social movement activists. By drawing on activists’ perceptions, we develop a multi-layered analytical framework that captures the experienced effects of soft repression at the... more
This article examines the consequences of soft repression on social movement activists. By drawing on activists’ perceptions, we develop a multi-layered analytical framework that captures the experienced effects of soft repression at the individual, organizational and movement levels. Our results show that soft repression – in particular, labeling and stigmatization – primarily affect the individual level by triggering self-policing and self-control among activists. By introducing a model that incorporates several radical social movement organizations, we also show how labeling and stigmatization affect different radical groups in different ways. These measures sometimes fail to demobilize the primary targets of the repressive actions, that is, the most militant and clandestine groups. Instead, the de-mobilizing effects seem most evident in organizations that mobilize openly and inclusively. Our analysis is based on in-depth interviews with thirty-one activists from the radical left-libertarian movement (RLLM) in Sweden, most of which have been active in organizations labeled as “violence-affirming extremists” by the Swedish government.
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Radical flank effect (RFE) research has too often ignored the conditions under which particular RFEs occur and failed to acknowledge that RFEs might change over time, producing different, yet interrelated, outcomes across societal arenas.... more
Radical flank effect (RFE) research has too often ignored the conditions under which particular RFEs occur and failed to acknowledge that RFEs might change over time, producing different, yet interrelated, outcomes across societal arenas. In order to fill these gaps, this article argues for expanding the framework to be used in analysis of RFEs by incorporating insights from recent social movement theory, and thus adding temporal and arena dimensions. This enables a deeper explanation of the conditions under which specific RFEs occur—and change—in more complex empirical settings where several actors interact in distinct arenas over time. The analytical approach is employed in the case study of the international Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) campaign and its engagement with corporate and state adversaries throughout a fifteen-year period in the UK. The analysis does two things: first, it identifies the pathways along which the overall campaign attained its destructive capacity, which was key to the SHAC campaign’s short-term successes, and secondly, it explicates the variables and factors in distinct arenas that explain why the initial positive outcome was reversed. Thus, the analysis reveals the contingency of RFEs by comparing their short and long-term outcomes, and it explains why and how the outcomes changed. Broadly, the aim is to produce a deeper explanation of RFEs, while also suggesting ways to expand this strand of research by, for example, examining the radical flank dilemma that results from the contingent outcomes of RFEs.
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The article unpacks the issues of bias and partisanship—and the risk of being accused of these—which confront social scientists who study socio-political conflict. Drawing on the author's experience when conducting research on the... more
The article unpacks the issues of bias and partisanship—and the risk of being accused of these—which confront social scientists who study socio-political conflict. Drawing on the author's experience when conducting research on the conflict between animal liberation activists and their state and corporate adversaries in Britain (1999–2014), the article argues for a relational research approach—focusing on the interaction between contending parties, rather than study stakeholders singly—as a way to overcome challenges of taking sides when studying socio-political conflict. The debate generated by Howard Becker's classic essay ''Whose side are we on?'' (1967), now 50 years old, is used throughout the article as a point of reference for addressing the issues involved. The argument is made for constant reflexivity during research on radical social movements, and for ''temporary bias'' during qualitative fieldwork.
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This article investigates the relational dynamics of lawful and unlawful protest in the wake of the British Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) campaign, and the plural policing efforts by public and private actors it triggered. The aim... more
This article investigates the relational dynamics of lawful and unlawful protest in the wake of the British Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) campaign, and the plural policing efforts by public and private actors it triggered. The aim is to explain the coevolution of the targeting strategies employed by campaigners and their adversaries, particularly criminal justice agencies and corporate actors. Delimited to the life span of SHAC (1999–2014), the analysis tracks four forms of strategic shifts on the part of protestors and their adversaries – a series of strategic adaptations, innovation, cooperation and compliance, throughout five distinct phases of the conflict. The findings reveal how key players refine their targeting strategies throughout an interactive process, in which strategies are developed in tandem in the course of the battle. The paper demonstrates how research on strategic interaction can benefit from expanding the focus to include manifestations of strategy during cycles of stakeholder interaction, to fill the gaps left by concentrating on strategic decision-making exclusively. As the findings demonstrate, the ways in which strategies actually unfold and develop frequently deviate from the decision-making, and often involves unforeseen impacts and outcomes.
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Focusing on the British animal rights campaign against Huntingdon Life Sciences, this article investigates how changing judicial opportunities effectively cause the demobilization of a social movement campaign, explaining the central role... more
Focusing on the British animal rights campaign against Huntingdon Life Sciences, this article investigates how changing judicial opportunities effectively cause the demobilization of a social movement campaign, explaining the central role of law and criminal justice in movement repression. The study identifies four forms of legal repression arising in response to the UK organization Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty: elite-initiated protest control, targeted criminalization, leadership decapitation and extended incapacitation. The analysis demonstrates the need to widen repression research beyond the policing of protest events, to cover how social movement activists are controlled after arrest. It concludes by arguing for the inclusion of a stage-dimension in repression research to better grasp the crucial role of private elites in the initiation of repression. The study builds on qualitative data from Britain, obtained by participant observation, trial observation and interviews, covering both protestors and their adversaries.
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ENGLISH: Within the Norwegian animal welfare debate there are different views of the treatment and use of animals. These divisions are analyzed as four separate discourses within the animal welfare debate: the regulation discourse, the... more
ENGLISH:
Within the Norwegian animal welfare debate there are different views of the treatment and use of animals. These divisions are analyzed as four separate discourses within the animal welfare debate: the regulation discourse, the animal rights discourse, the animal production discourse and the criticism discourse. The following questions are discussed: What separates the various discourses from one another, and what views of animals do they express? What are the social consequences of the discourses and which one is dominant? Do the discourses contribute to a change or reproduction of animals’ property status? The discourse analysis lays out the animal welfare field, the players involved and the characteristics of the fields’ divisions. As each discourse has different social consequences, the struggle between representatives of the differing discourses appears as a conflict about different ways to organize society’s treatment of animals.
NORSK:
Dyrevelferdsdebatten er politisert og polarisert. I lovprosessen før dyrevelferdsloven
ble vedtatt, utspant det seg en kamp mellom aktører som ville definere dyrevelferdsfeltet og påvirke loven i tråd med sine interesser. I undersøkelsen av
hvordan syn på dyrs status og rettigheter uttrykkes i lovprosessen, er spørsmålet
om bruk av dyr et omdreiningspunkt. Analysen av intervjudata og tekstdokumenter
viser at ulike interessegrupper både har svært ulike ønsker for loven og forskjellige syn på dyr. I materialet spores fire diskurser som utgjør skillelinjene i debatten: reguleringsdiskursen, dyrerettighetsdiskursen, dyreproduksjonsdiskursen og kritikkdiskursen. Diskursene har sosiale konsekvenser, og kampen mellom representanter for ulike diskurser framstår dermed som en kamp om ulike måter å organisere samfunnets behandling av dyr på.
Within the Norwegian animal welfare debate there are different views of the treatment and use of animals. These divisions are analyzed as four separate discourses within the animal welfare debate: the regulation discourse, the animal rights discourse, the animal production discourse and the criticism discourse. The following questions are discussed: What separates the various discourses from one another, and what views of animals do they express? What are the social consequences of the discourses and which one is dominant? Do the discourses contribute to a change or reproduction of animals’ property status? The discourse analysis lays out the animal welfare field, the players involved and the characteristics of the fields’ divisions. As each discourse has different social consequences, the struggle between representatives of the differing discourses appears as a conflict about different ways to organize society’s treatment of animals.
NORSK:
Dyrevelferdsdebatten er politisert og polarisert. I lovprosessen før dyrevelferdsloven
ble vedtatt, utspant det seg en kamp mellom aktører som ville definere dyrevelferdsfeltet og påvirke loven i tråd med sine interesser. I undersøkelsen av
hvordan syn på dyrs status og rettigheter uttrykkes i lovprosessen, er spørsmålet
om bruk av dyr et omdreiningspunkt. Analysen av intervjudata og tekstdokumenter
viser at ulike interessegrupper både har svært ulike ønsker for loven og forskjellige syn på dyr. I materialet spores fire diskurser som utgjør skillelinjene i debatten: reguleringsdiskursen, dyrerettighetsdiskursen, dyreproduksjonsdiskursen og kritikkdiskursen. Diskursene har sosiale konsekvenser, og kampen mellom representanter for ulike diskurser framstår dermed som en kamp om ulike måter å organisere samfunnets behandling av dyr på.
Research Interests:
In September 2019, the third Global Climate Strike organized by the Fridays For Future (FFF) protest campaign mobilized 6000 protest events in 185 countries and brought 7.6 million participants out onto the streets. This report analyses... more
In September 2019, the third Global Climate Strike organized by the Fridays For Future (FFF) protest campaign mobilized 6000 protest events in 185 countries and brought 7.6 million participants out onto the streets. This report analyses survey data about participants from 19 cities around the world and compares it to data from an international survey conducted in 13 European cities in March 2019. Both surveys collected data following the well-established “Caught in the Act of Protest” survey methodology in order to generate representative samples. What makes FFF new and particularly interesting is the involvement of schoolchildren and students as initiators, organizers and participants in climate activism on a large scale. The September mobilizations differed from the March events in the explicit call for adults to join the movement. Although older age cohorts were more strongly represented in September, young people continued to make up a substantial portion of the protestors – almost one third of demonstrators were aged 19 or under. Additionally, there was a high proportion of female FFF protestors. In both surveys nearly 60% of participants identified as female – with the largest share among the youngest demonstrators. Overwhelming majorities of adult participants were well educated and had a university degree. Moreover, a large proportion of young people participating in the September strikes had parents who had studied at university level. Despite the young age of the participants, interpersonal mobilization was the predominant method of recruitment to the strikes, particularly among friends and schoolmates. However, the growth in the size and popularity of the movement also includes a growing share of people who participate alone. Around a quarter of adults fit this category, as well as an initially small but growing number of young people. When expressing their emotions concerning climate change and global warming, the majority of protesters felt worried, frustrated and angered, as well as anxious about the future, although they did not often express a feeling of hopelessness. Therefore, despite a general tendency of decreasing hopefulness that important environmental issues can be addressed through policies, FFF participants show that their action is driven by feelings, awareness of the issues and a willingness to engage in finding solutions. In answer to a series of questions concerning solutions to environmental problems, respondents were divided over whether modern science could be relied on to solve environmental problems. Agreement varied between cities and age-groups on the degree to which they thought stopping climate change could be accomplished through voluntary individual lifestyle changes. However, there was more unity in skepticism towards relying on companies and the market to solve these problems. In conclusion, surveys of the strikes in March and September indicate important elements of continuity, as well as a small degree of change. Female participants and people with higher education predominate, interpersonal mobilization – particularly among friends – remains a central factor in recruiting support, and protesters are mostly driven by feelings of frustration, anger and anxiety. However, the age of protestors is becoming more diverse, protesters’ hopefulness seems to be in decline, and the “Greta effect” is becoming less influential. The report findings suggest that the movement is becoming more established although its emotional basis for mobilization may be changing.
Research Interests:
"Hvor trekkes grensen mellom bruk og misbruk av dyr? Hva innebærer egentlig «god dyrevelferd», og hvem avgjør hvordan vi forstår det? Med lov til å pine belyser dilemmaene rundt vår bruk og beskyttelse av dyr. Boken diskuterer norske... more
"Hvor trekkes grensen mellom bruk og misbruk av dyr? Hva innebærer egentlig «god dyrevelferd», og hvem avgjør hvordan vi forstår det?
Med lov til å pine belyser dilemmaene rundt vår bruk og beskyttelse av dyr. Boken diskuterer norske forhold, og tar for seg dyrevelferdslovens virkning for dyrene som brukes i matproduksjon og landbruk. Leseren får også kritiske innblikk i myndighetenes kontroll av denne typen dyrehold. Med en ikke-moraliserende form tilbyr boken innsikt i endringene i menneskers forbruk av dyr, måter å forstå overgrep mot dyr på og utfordringene fra den voksende dyrevernbevegelsen.
Boken gir en innføring i temaer som får økende oppmerksomhet internasjonalt, både innen akademia, i offentlig politikk og i samfunnsdebatten for øvrig. Med lov til å pine henvender seg til det samfunnsengasjerte publikum, foruten de som er interessert i dyrevern, dyreetikk, dyrevelferdspolitikk eller andre sider av forholdet mellom mennesker og dyr."
Med lov til å pine belyser dilemmaene rundt vår bruk og beskyttelse av dyr. Boken diskuterer norske forhold, og tar for seg dyrevelferdslovens virkning for dyrene som brukes i matproduksjon og landbruk. Leseren får også kritiske innblikk i myndighetenes kontroll av denne typen dyrehold. Med en ikke-moraliserende form tilbyr boken innsikt i endringene i menneskers forbruk av dyr, måter å forstå overgrep mot dyr på og utfordringene fra den voksende dyrevernbevegelsen.
Boken gir en innføring i temaer som får økende oppmerksomhet internasjonalt, både innen akademia, i offentlig politikk og i samfunnsdebatten for øvrig. Med lov til å pine henvender seg til det samfunnsengasjerte publikum, foruten de som er interessert i dyrevern, dyreetikk, dyrevelferdspolitikk eller andre sider av forholdet mellom mennesker og dyr."
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Building on knowledge within the fields of green and eco-global criminology, this book uses empirical and theoretical arguments to discuss the multi-dimensional character of eco-global crime. It provides an overview of eco-global crimes... more
Building on knowledge within the fields of green and eco-global criminology, this book uses empirical and theoretical arguments to discuss the multi-dimensional character of eco-global crime. It provides an overview of eco-global crimes and discusses them from a justice perspective. The persistence of animal abuse and speciesism are also examined together with policies aimed at controlling the natural world and plant species. Pollution by large corporations, rights of indigenous peoples and the damage caused by the mineral extraction are also considered. Providing new ideas and insights which will be relevant on a global scale, this book is an interesting and useful study of the exploitation of nature and other species. It will be invaluable for students and scholars globally, working within or connected to the field of green and eco-global criminology. The book will also be important for the participants of various social movements, especially the environmental and animal advocacy movements.
Research Interests:
Research has revealed widespread anti-Muslim sentiment in Norway. Little knowledge exists, however, on the types of anti-Muslim hostility that Muslims experience and how they react to it. Based on interviews with 90 young Norwegian... more
Research has revealed widespread anti-Muslim sentiment in Norway. Little knowledge exists, however, on the types of anti-Muslim hostility that Muslims experience and how they react to it. Based on interviews with 90 young Norwegian Muslims, we describe widespread forms of anti-Muslim hostility and discuss the strategies that Muslims use in response to stigma and prejudice. The forms of hostility that these Muslim youths most frequently described, and which they said affected them most in their daily lives, were those expressed during face-to-face encounters. The ways in which the young Muslims dealt with hostility demonstrate that they are far from passive victims. Rather, they actively engaged in attempts to reduce the impact of hostility and to challenge prejudices against Islam and Muslims through various forms of everyday resistance. We argue that these ways of responding to anti-Muslim sentiment can be perceived as a repertoire of everyday resistance, that is, a set of ways to resist hostility that are relatively well-known and regularly employed by Muslims both in our study and beyond.
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Amerikanske FBI beskriver miljø- og dyrevernekstremisme som en av de største hjemlige terrortruslene (Potter 2011; Amster 2006, s. 288). I Europols2 terrortrend-rapporter er europeiske miljø- og dyreverngrupperinger gitt økt oppmerksomhet... more
Amerikanske FBI beskriver miljø- og dyrevernekstremisme som en av de største hjemlige terrortruslene (Potter 2011; Amster 2006, s. 288). I Europols2 terrortrend-rapporter er europeiske miljø- og dyreverngrupperinger gitt økt oppmerksomhet de siste ti-femten årene (Ellefsen 2012). De radikale3 delene av slike «grønne protestbevegelser»4 har også vært tema for flere internasjonale møter og etterretningssamarbeid i regi av Europol og Eurojust5 (Europol 2011). At terrorisme – men også ikke-voldelige6, politisk motiverte lovbrudd7 – møtes med statlige motreaksjoner er verken nytt eller overraskende. Det å studere hvordan truslene defineres, hvem som konkret pekes ut og hvilke kontrolltiltak som iverksettes kan imidlertid gi innsikt i kontrollens omkostninger for samfunnet som helhet. For hva skyldes denne utviklingen hvor deler av grønne bevegelser i økende grad forstås som å representere risiko? Hvilke konsekvenser kan dette ha for rettssikkerheten til deltakerne i bevegelser som utfordrer status quo, og for innbyggerne forøvrig? I det følgende behandles disse spørsmålene når jeg undersøker relasjonen mellom politisk mobilisering og politisk represjon, med hovedvekt på det siste.
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Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Over the last 15 years a rise in threat assessments that includes environmental and animal rights movements can be observed in reports from American and European state institutions, and from private security firms. Sections of these... more
Over the last 15 years a rise in threat assessments that includes environmental and animal rights movements can be observed in reports from American and European state institutions, and from private security firms. Sections of these social movements4 are increasingly described as security threats both by states, and by industries that use animals and nature for capital accumulation. What has caused such developments? Is it a result of the movements’ achievements which threaten the economic interests of powerful groups? Is it a logical response to illegal practices on the part of green activists? Is it because such movements challenge hegemonic anthropocentrism, and thereby the societal order? Or are there other reasons? And how do current state control trends, which are aimed at risk and threat management, affect the social control and perception of such movements in the Western world?
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Research Interests: Sociology, Social Movements, Political Science, Protest Policing, Protest Movements, and 8 morePolitical Opportunity Structure, Language Culture and Communication, Criminology and Criminal Justice, Social Movement Studies, Policing Protest, Protest and State Repression, Political Repression, and Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty
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Policies to prevent radicalization and violent extremism frequently target militant Islamists, right-wing and left-wing extremists. In a recent study we have examined what distinguishes the ways in which local practitioners perceive and... more
Policies to prevent radicalization and violent extremism frequently target militant Islamists, right-wing and left-wing extremists. In a recent study we have examined what distinguishes the ways in which local practitioners perceive and respond to each of the milieus. Our results show that there is a clear discrepancy between the uniform way violent extremism is presented in policy, and how front line practitioners experience the different forms of extremism at the local level.