Begging, thought to be an inherently un-Swedish phenomenon, became a national fixture in the 2010... more Begging, thought to be an inherently un-Swedish phenomenon, became a national fixture in the 2010s as homeless Romanian and Bulgarian Roma EU citizens arrived in Sweden seeking economic opportunity. People without shelter were forced to use public spaces as their private space, disturbing aesthetic and normative orders, creating anxiety among Swedish subjects and resulting in hate crimes and everyday racism. Parallel with Europe’s refugee crisis in the 2010s, the “begging question” peaked. The presence of the media’s so-called EU migrants caused a crisis in Swedish society along political, juridical, moral, and social lines due to the contradiction embodied in the Swedish authorities’ denial of social support to them while simultaneously seeking to maintain the nation’s image as promoting welfare, equality, and antiracism. In The Begging Question Erik Hansson argues that the material configurations of capitalism and class society are not only racialized but also unconsciously invested with collective anxieties and desires. By focusing on Swedish society’s response to the begging question, Hansson provides insight into the dialectics of racism. He shrewdly deploys Marxian economics and Lacanian psychoanalysis to explain how it became possible to do what once was thought impossible: criminalize begging and make fascism politically mainstream, in Sweden. What Hansson reveals is not just an insight into one of the most captivating countries on earth but also a timely glimpse into what it means to be human.
This thesis offers a psychoanalytic critique of ideology in order to understand the Swedish socie... more This thesis offers a psychoanalytic critique of ideology in order to understand the Swedish society’s reactions to the presence of begging EU citizens during the period 2014 – 2016. The so-called ‘EU migrants’ are impoverished people, often from Romania, and commonly identified as Roma. The analysis is based upon empirical material consisting of media articles, interviews, social media, and auto-ethnography. The theoretical approach blends Lacanian psychoanalysis with historical-material dialectics and is inspired by the critique of ideology as formulated by Slavoj Žižek.
The presence causes a multilayered crisis in Swedish society along political, juridical, moral, social, and psychic lines. This because it is a symptom of the Lacanian Real and capitalism’s contradictions. This is manifested in the contradiction embodied in the Swedish authorities’ denial of social help to ‘EU migrants’ on the one hand, while seeking on the other hand to reproduce the image of Sweden as promoting welfare and equality, solidarity, and anti-racism. The contradiction’s material base is the political deadlock between left and right regarding the labor and housing markets. Providing ‘EU migrants’ (being neither citizens nor refugees) access to welfare would risk disrupting the societal moral economy, causing political turmoil. The solution to this dilemma is to expunge ‘EU migrants’ while framing this as an act of poverty-reduction.
Meanwhile, the unresolved occurrence of begging and ‘rough sleeping’ creates anxiety and provokes aggression among Swedish subjects, resulting in hate crimes and everyday racism. Poor people without shelter are forced to use public rooms as their private space, disturbing aesthetic and normative orders, which in turn is unconsciously registered as existential transgressions risking the destruction of the psychic investments of Swedes in their material surroundings.
A main focus of the analysis is the anxiety triggered by the confrontation with a begging individual on the sidewalk. Due to our human empathic transitivity, the visible suffering of the ‘beggar’ becomes involuntarily experienced as suffering within the observer. Furthermore, when the subject is forced to choose whether or not to help, s/he unconsciously experiences how the Other’s desire threatens to dissolve the subject. These anxieties are typically transformed into sympathy, antipathy or apathy.
In Sweden, in order to obtain a grade in physical education, a primary school pupil must demonstr... more In Sweden, in order to obtain a grade in physical education, a primary school pupil must demonstrate swimming ability to their teacher-which is defined as being able to swim 200 meters (including 50 meters backstroke). According to the law, the school must also conduct swimming lessons. In a qualitative survey study with 111 teachers in primary schools across the country, a clear inequality emerges regarding their prerequisites for conducting swimming lessons. A time-geographical perspective illustrates how swimming lessons are a unique type of teaching project that tends to require more time, resources, and coordination than other school subjects. Pupils with a non-Euro-American background and a poorer socioeconomic background seem to be overrepresented when it comes to the need for school swimming lessons. The uneven distribution of such students between schools, geographical distance to the nearest pool, or the pool's capacity affects the conditions as well as the school's (and the municipality's) financial priorities and/or resources. These factors constitute different types of capacity, coupling and control restrictions in the allocation of teaching time.
Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography , 2024
This article aims to contribute to the nascent field of critical phenomenology in geography by el... more This article aims to contribute to the nascent field of critical phenomenology in geography by elaborating on a feministphenomenological understanding of the conceptual binary of weightrelief and Nietzsche's (self)overcoming. These notions provide a theoretical language for the universality of the human condition, transcending the tendency for theoretical-political reification of marginalized subjects' lives and agencies. The empirical component consists of in-depth interviews with predominantly non-white, immigrant women who have either learned or taught other adult women to swim in a women-only swimming school founded in the multicultural suburb of Fisksätra, Stockholm, Sweden. By historicizing and contextualizing this setting, it is argued that the lack of swimming ability in Sweden (and elsewhere) is today a partly racialized phenomenon, where this deficiency constitutes a sociophenomenological weight in individuals' everyday geographies. What this gender-exclusionary space enables, in its quality as a 'safe space', is not so much the integration or securing of minority identities as the possibility to overcome one's own fears and bodily challenges regarding water through shared experiences of safety, convivial solidarity and the joyful pleasures of being-in-water together.
Under det senaste decenniet har idéburna offentliga partnerskap (IOP) – ett ramverk för samverkan... more Under det senaste decenniet har idéburna offentliga partnerskap (IOP) – ett ramverk för samverkan mellan kommuner och idéburna organisationer – blivit ett allt vanligare sätt att tillhandahålla välfärdsinsatser. Ett område där sam-verkansformen användes tidigt var i arbetet med så kallade utsatta EU/EES-medborgare. Här har IOP inneburit en tredje väg mellan en generös respek-tive restriktiv tolkning av målgruppens rättigheter. Syftet med denna artikel är att genom djupintervjuer med representanter för idéburna organisationer belysa ett fält av problematiker som uppstår genom lokala IOP. Artikeln byg-ger på fallbeskrivningar av IOP i tre kommuner – Göteborg, Lund och Malmö. Utifrån dessa argumenterar vi för att ramverket medför en påtaglig volatilitet som påverkar den idéburna partens handlingsutrymme: IOP-formen etablerar en oförmedlad konjunkturkänslighet för socialt arbete som är direkt beroende av lokala maktförhållanden och händelseutvecklingar.Over the last decade, IOPs – a framework for collaboration between municipa-lities and NGOs – have become a common way of organizing certain welfare services. One area where this institutional arrangement was used early on was in relation to EU/EEA citizens without right of residence. Here, IOPs have provided a “third-way” between a generous and restrictive interpretation of the target group’s social rights. The purpose of this article is to highlight, through interviews with representatives of NGOs, a field of problems related to IOPs. The article is based on case descriptions of IOPs in three municipalities - Gothenburg, Lund and Malmö. Based on these, we argue that IOPs entail a significant volatility in that IOP form establishes a precarious institutional sta-tus for certain forms of social work, making these increasingly dependent on local power relations and developments.
I ett fram till nyligen opublicerat förord till The Authoritarian Personality förklarar Theodor W... more I ett fram till nyligen opublicerat förord till The Authoritarian Personality förklarar Theodor W. Adorno postumt att den sanna vetenskapliga förklaringen till fördomars natur vore att ta reda på hur objektiva ekonomiska lagar förmedlas genom individens omedvetna sammansättning i ideologins domän. I sin artikel utarbetar Erik Hansson en samhällsteori som avser att följa denna uppmaning. I Adornos och freudomarxismens efterföljd tar teorin fasta på Marx politisk-ekonomiska teori och Freuds subjektsteori för att bättre kunna erhålla förklaringar till samtida rasistiska och auktoritära fördomars natur. Teorin kompletterar Adornos standardiseringsteori med en teori om kapitalismens simultana tendens till differentiering jämte iakttagelsen om världsekonomins produktivitetsminskning. Genom Slavoj Žižeks lacanianska läsning av subjektets psyke – som liknar Adornos men har en terminologi mer i samklang med samtida teoribildningar – erbjuder texten framtida studier inspirerade av The Authoritarian Personality ett begrepp om ”Njutning” som förankrar individnivån med samhällsnivån. Likväl kvarstår problemet att studera den tidsrumsliga variationen för de konkreta betingelserna för aktiverandet av tendensen till auktoritära personligheter.
"Utgångspunkt tas i att begreppet 'EU-migranter' under senare år varit r... more "Utgångspunkt tas i att begreppet 'EU-migranter' under senare år varit relativt vanligt förekommande i svensk media och offentlig debatt, inte minst har de diskuterade personernas boendesituation uppmärksammats. I Hanssons artikel sammankopplas denna fråga med hanteringen av svenska medborgare som är bostadslösa. Den tes som drivs är att det finns en politisk ovilja att finna en lösning för dessa migranters boende och att detta hänger samman med att det i Sverige inte heller finns någon egentlig bostadspolitik för bostadslösa medborgare. frågan är, menar Hansson, politiskt känslig eftersom den riskerar att leda till diskussioner om moralisk ekonomi, vilka rättigheter och skyldigheter medborgare har. Därmed tangerar frågan också den svenska exceptionalistiska självbilden om ett välmående och solidariskt land som tar hand om sina medborgare. Att försöka finna lösningar på EU-migranternas boendesituation blir därmed från politiskt håll riskabelt. Det finns ingen framträdande politisk aktör som vill bryta nuvarande dödläge, vilket får konsekvenser för hur frågan (icke-)hanteras. Därmed ger Hansson en materialistisk ingång till att förstå den rasism som uttrycks mot EU-migranterna, och varför förvägrandet av bostäder till EU-migranter ter sig så lik den historiska diskrimineringen av svenska bostadslösa romer."
This thesis offers a psychoanalytic critique of ideology in order to understand the Swedish socie... more This thesis offers a psychoanalytic critique of ideology in order to understand the Swedish society’s reactions to the presence of begging EU citizens during the period 2014 – 2016. The so-called ‘ ...
Da stockholmare intervjuades om sina upplevelser kring tiggeri i Stockholms offentliga rum under ... more Da stockholmare intervjuades om sina upplevelser kring tiggeri i Stockholms offentliga rum under varen 2014, visade det sig att amnet var omojligt att tala om utan att sammankoppla det med forestallningar om Sverige som platsen i varlden dar tiggeri inte hor hemma. En overgripande berattelse gjorde gallande hur narvaron av tiggande EU-medborgare i svenska stader hotade det svenska ”samhallskontraktet” mellan valfardsstaten och den enskilda svensken, ett abstrakt kontrakt som fram tills nu hade garanterat forestallningen om en etisk ordning dar den svenska medborgaren var rattmatigt befriad fran personligt moraliskt ansvar for utsatta framlingar och dar strukturell fattigdom inte kunde materialiseras i det forkroppsligade svenska livsrummet. Motet med den tiggande EU-medborgaren blir en konfrontation med den svenska identitetens moraliska grundvalar.
Denna presentation problematiserar den historieskrivning som formedlas genom den pagaende debatte... more Denna presentation problematiserar den historieskrivning som formedlas genom den pagaende debatten rorande narvaron av tiggande EU-medborgare i svenska stader. Nagot som ar utmarkande for denna debatt ar de aterkommande hanvisningarna till valfardsstatens tillblivelse. Nyligen meddelades det att regeringen overvager att infora ett tiggeriforbud. Detta for att forsvara ’den svenska modellen’. Pa liknande satt rattfardigade politiker i Malmo stad beslutet att utrymma och riva det sa kallade Sorgenfrilagret med hanvisning till folkhemspolitikens lofte om ’goda bostader for alla’. Aven de som stallt sig kritiska till dessa atgarder har aberopat historiskt baserade argument. Manga har havdat att dagens politik ar ett uttryck for en historiskt kontinuerlig antiziganism, och att denna politik sarskilt paminner om de exkluderande atgarder som riktades mot romer och resande under 1900-talets forsta artionden. Vi fragar oss har vilka forestallningar om det svenska valfardssamhallet och dess h...
Across Europe, social-democratic, liberal democracies have become host to growing numbers of impo... more Across Europe, social-democratic, liberal democracies have become host to growing numbers of impoverished EU migrants (often called “Roma beggars”) who seem to pose a challenge to the tenets of ega ...
Saval sociologer som etnologer, antropologer och historiker har sedan tio ar pekat pa en social f... more Saval sociologer som etnologer, antropologer och historiker har sedan tio ar pekat pa en social forandring i vasterlanningars identitet, varderingar och levnadsmonster de senaste decennierna. Det h ...
I Sverige har det under de senaste aren florerat en intensiv debatt i det offentliga samtalet, an... more I Sverige har det under de senaste aren florerat en intensiv debatt i det offentliga samtalet, angaende narvaron av tiggande EU-migranter fran Osteuropa i svenska stader. Konflikten pavisar att fen ...
This article aims to contribute to the emerging field of psychoanalytic geopolitics by introducin... more This article aims to contribute to the emerging field of psychoanalytic geopolitics by introducing a conceptualization of a geopolitics of ideological transference of political knowledge and belief. This is done through an extensive theoretical application of the Lacanian-Žižekian concepts of the "subject supposed to know," "subject supposed to believe," and "subject supposed to enjoy" on an empirical case study. The case concerns the discourse, ideology, and politics of the Swedish state hegemony regarding its handling of the territorial presence of impoverished and excluded EU citizens with Romanian/Bulgarian passport and Roma heritagepopularly called "the beggars"-with a focus on the crisis-laden year of 2015. The government, state, and the media elevated key actors into the ideological status of subjects supposed to know how to end the "beggars'" presence in Sweden in a rational and yet caring way, thus enabling the continuous belief in the Swedish ideology of moral exceptionalism although the practical outcomes effectively hindered the EU citizens from obtaining better life conditions. It is argued that a geopolitics of transference through the application of said concepts enable us to further understand how political actors can simultaneously act cynical and idealist, which both illuminates and complicates notions of what knowledges and beliefs inform politics and political geographies in general.
I detta bidrag till Hjärnstorms temanummer om alkemi har Erik Hansson inspirerats av Slavoj Zizek... more I detta bidrag till Hjärnstorms temanummer om alkemi har Erik Hansson inspirerats av Slavoj Zizeks psykoanalys och skriver för oss om brist och begär i kapitalismen och om den alkemiska drömmen om en brist som till slut är avskaffad.
Stockholmsorten Fisksätra har vid flera tillfällen blivit medialt uppmärksammad som en metafor fö... more Stockholmsorten Fisksätra har vid flera tillfällen blivit medialt uppmärksammad som en metafor för nationella strukturer, processer och fenomen som på olika sätt berör rasifieringen av Sverige och dess sociala och urbana geografi. Fisksätra ligger i den naturnära kommunen Nacka och alldeles nästgårds till, tillika i samma kommundel som, Saltsjöbaden – en välmående och burgen ort som estetiskt, identitetsmässigt liksom socioekonomiskt framstår som Fisksätras motsats. Kommundelen Fisksätra-Saltsjöbaden fungerar emellertid inte bara som ett symptom på rasifierande boendesegregation och socioekonomisk ojämlikhet. Dess landskapsmässiga karaktär är unik i det att området består av två fundamentalt olika ”skärgårdsstäder” som båda ligger belägna vid havet. I den här artikeln vill jag synliggöra hur denna kommundels sociala geografi gestaltar vad jag kallar den ojämlika simkunnighetens geografi, och hur denna styvmoderligt behandlade geografi på ett diskret vis ingår i större samhälleliga rasifierings- och ojämlikhetsskapande processer. Genom att studera en ”simhallskamp” om förläggandet av en simhall mellan Fisksätra och Saltsjöbaden, en kamp som har pågått sedan 2015 och i vissa avseenden inte kan anses ännu avklarad, ämnar jag visa hur simkunnighet och simhallen fungerar som symboler för att kanalisera kollektiva frustrationer över ett socialt orättvist urbant landskap och samtidigt som försvaret av vissa landskaps förgivettagna privilegier. Den mobilisering från Fisksätrabors sida som denna kamp frambringade visar också på hur simkunnighet i sig har kommit att bli alltmer rasifierat i Sverige, och vilken betydelse det har för känslan av jämlikhet och tillhörighet med majoritetssamhället.
This article aims to contribute to the emerging field of psychoanalytic geopolitics by introducin... more This article aims to contribute to the emerging field of psychoanalytic geopolitics by introducing a conceptualization of a geopolitics of ideological transference of political knowledge and belief. This is done through an extensive theoretical application of the Lacanian-Žižekian concepts of the "subject supposed to know," "subject supposed to believe," and "subject supposed to enjoy" on an empirical case study. The case concerns the discourse, ideology, and politics of the Swedish state hegemony regarding its handling of the territorial presence of impoverished and excluded EU citizens with Romanian/Bulgarian passport and Roma heritagepopularly called "the beggars"-with a focus on the crisis-laden year of 2015. The government, state, and the media elevated key actors into the ideological status of subjects supposed to know how to end the "beggars'" presence in Sweden in a rational and yet caring way, thus enabling the continuous belief in the Swedish ideology of moral exceptionalism although the practical outcomes effectively hindered the EU citizens from obtaining better life conditions. It is argued that a geopolitics of transference through the application of said concepts enable us to further understand how political actors can simultaneously act cynical and idealist, which both illuminates and complicates notions of what knowledges and beliefs inform politics and political geographies in general.
Creating the City. Identity, Memory and Participation. Conference proceedings, 2019
Denna text gör nedslag i debatten om tiggande EU-medborgare i Sverige – en debatt som nu har pågå... more Denna text gör nedslag i debatten om tiggande EU-medborgare i Sverige – en debatt som nu har pågått i flera år. Kännetecknande för denna debatt, särskilt dådet kommer till att föreslå möjliga ”lösningar” på det som ofta kallas ”tiggeriet”, är de återkommande hänvisningarna till det svenska välfärdssamhällets tillblivelse, och framförallt då etablerandet av det socialdemokratiska folkhemmet. Textens fokus på folkhemmet som just ett socialdemokratiskt projekt beror till viss del påatt partiet har suttit vid regeringsmakten sedan 2014. En koppling görs mellan dagens socialdemokratiska makthavare och de som styrde landet dådet utbredda ”tiggeriet” påstås ha avskaffats. Påså sätt rör debatten synen pådet svenska välfärds- samhällets historia. Denna historia är dock långt ifrån entydig. I denna text vill vi visa hur dagens debatt innefattar en aktiv historieskrivning i form av en diskursiv kamp kring begrepp som ”den svenska modellen” och ”välfärdspolitiken”.
Begging, thought to be an inherently un-Swedish phenomenon, became a national fixture in the 2010... more Begging, thought to be an inherently un-Swedish phenomenon, became a national fixture in the 2010s as homeless Romanian and Bulgarian Roma EU citizens arrived in Sweden seeking economic opportunity. People without shelter were forced to use public spaces as their private space, disturbing aesthetic and normative orders, creating anxiety among Swedish subjects and resulting in hate crimes and everyday racism. Parallel with Europe’s refugee crisis in the 2010s, the “begging question” peaked. The presence of the media’s so-called EU migrants caused a crisis in Swedish society along political, juridical, moral, and social lines due to the contradiction embodied in the Swedish authorities’ denial of social support to them while simultaneously seeking to maintain the nation’s image as promoting welfare, equality, and antiracism. In The Begging Question Erik Hansson argues that the material configurations of capitalism and class society are not only racialized but also unconsciously invested with collective anxieties and desires. By focusing on Swedish society’s response to the begging question, Hansson provides insight into the dialectics of racism. He shrewdly deploys Marxian economics and Lacanian psychoanalysis to explain how it became possible to do what once was thought impossible: criminalize begging and make fascism politically mainstream, in Sweden. What Hansson reveals is not just an insight into one of the most captivating countries on earth but also a timely glimpse into what it means to be human.
This thesis offers a psychoanalytic critique of ideology in order to understand the Swedish socie... more This thesis offers a psychoanalytic critique of ideology in order to understand the Swedish society’s reactions to the presence of begging EU citizens during the period 2014 – 2016. The so-called ‘EU migrants’ are impoverished people, often from Romania, and commonly identified as Roma. The analysis is based upon empirical material consisting of media articles, interviews, social media, and auto-ethnography. The theoretical approach blends Lacanian psychoanalysis with historical-material dialectics and is inspired by the critique of ideology as formulated by Slavoj Žižek.
The presence causes a multilayered crisis in Swedish society along political, juridical, moral, social, and psychic lines. This because it is a symptom of the Lacanian Real and capitalism’s contradictions. This is manifested in the contradiction embodied in the Swedish authorities’ denial of social help to ‘EU migrants’ on the one hand, while seeking on the other hand to reproduce the image of Sweden as promoting welfare and equality, solidarity, and anti-racism. The contradiction’s material base is the political deadlock between left and right regarding the labor and housing markets. Providing ‘EU migrants’ (being neither citizens nor refugees) access to welfare would risk disrupting the societal moral economy, causing political turmoil. The solution to this dilemma is to expunge ‘EU migrants’ while framing this as an act of poverty-reduction.
Meanwhile, the unresolved occurrence of begging and ‘rough sleeping’ creates anxiety and provokes aggression among Swedish subjects, resulting in hate crimes and everyday racism. Poor people without shelter are forced to use public rooms as their private space, disturbing aesthetic and normative orders, which in turn is unconsciously registered as existential transgressions risking the destruction of the psychic investments of Swedes in their material surroundings.
A main focus of the analysis is the anxiety triggered by the confrontation with a begging individual on the sidewalk. Due to our human empathic transitivity, the visible suffering of the ‘beggar’ becomes involuntarily experienced as suffering within the observer. Furthermore, when the subject is forced to choose whether or not to help, s/he unconsciously experiences how the Other’s desire threatens to dissolve the subject. These anxieties are typically transformed into sympathy, antipathy or apathy.
In Sweden, in order to obtain a grade in physical education, a primary school pupil must demonstr... more In Sweden, in order to obtain a grade in physical education, a primary school pupil must demonstrate swimming ability to their teacher-which is defined as being able to swim 200 meters (including 50 meters backstroke). According to the law, the school must also conduct swimming lessons. In a qualitative survey study with 111 teachers in primary schools across the country, a clear inequality emerges regarding their prerequisites for conducting swimming lessons. A time-geographical perspective illustrates how swimming lessons are a unique type of teaching project that tends to require more time, resources, and coordination than other school subjects. Pupils with a non-Euro-American background and a poorer socioeconomic background seem to be overrepresented when it comes to the need for school swimming lessons. The uneven distribution of such students between schools, geographical distance to the nearest pool, or the pool's capacity affects the conditions as well as the school's (and the municipality's) financial priorities and/or resources. These factors constitute different types of capacity, coupling and control restrictions in the allocation of teaching time.
Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography , 2024
This article aims to contribute to the nascent field of critical phenomenology in geography by el... more This article aims to contribute to the nascent field of critical phenomenology in geography by elaborating on a feministphenomenological understanding of the conceptual binary of weightrelief and Nietzsche's (self)overcoming. These notions provide a theoretical language for the universality of the human condition, transcending the tendency for theoretical-political reification of marginalized subjects' lives and agencies. The empirical component consists of in-depth interviews with predominantly non-white, immigrant women who have either learned or taught other adult women to swim in a women-only swimming school founded in the multicultural suburb of Fisksätra, Stockholm, Sweden. By historicizing and contextualizing this setting, it is argued that the lack of swimming ability in Sweden (and elsewhere) is today a partly racialized phenomenon, where this deficiency constitutes a sociophenomenological weight in individuals' everyday geographies. What this gender-exclusionary space enables, in its quality as a 'safe space', is not so much the integration or securing of minority identities as the possibility to overcome one's own fears and bodily challenges regarding water through shared experiences of safety, convivial solidarity and the joyful pleasures of being-in-water together.
Under det senaste decenniet har idéburna offentliga partnerskap (IOP) – ett ramverk för samverkan... more Under det senaste decenniet har idéburna offentliga partnerskap (IOP) – ett ramverk för samverkan mellan kommuner och idéburna organisationer – blivit ett allt vanligare sätt att tillhandahålla välfärdsinsatser. Ett område där sam-verkansformen användes tidigt var i arbetet med så kallade utsatta EU/EES-medborgare. Här har IOP inneburit en tredje väg mellan en generös respek-tive restriktiv tolkning av målgruppens rättigheter. Syftet med denna artikel är att genom djupintervjuer med representanter för idéburna organisationer belysa ett fält av problematiker som uppstår genom lokala IOP. Artikeln byg-ger på fallbeskrivningar av IOP i tre kommuner – Göteborg, Lund och Malmö. Utifrån dessa argumenterar vi för att ramverket medför en påtaglig volatilitet som påverkar den idéburna partens handlingsutrymme: IOP-formen etablerar en oförmedlad konjunkturkänslighet för socialt arbete som är direkt beroende av lokala maktförhållanden och händelseutvecklingar.Over the last decade, IOPs – a framework for collaboration between municipa-lities and NGOs – have become a common way of organizing certain welfare services. One area where this institutional arrangement was used early on was in relation to EU/EEA citizens without right of residence. Here, IOPs have provided a “third-way” between a generous and restrictive interpretation of the target group’s social rights. The purpose of this article is to highlight, through interviews with representatives of NGOs, a field of problems related to IOPs. The article is based on case descriptions of IOPs in three municipalities - Gothenburg, Lund and Malmö. Based on these, we argue that IOPs entail a significant volatility in that IOP form establishes a precarious institutional sta-tus for certain forms of social work, making these increasingly dependent on local power relations and developments.
I ett fram till nyligen opublicerat förord till The Authoritarian Personality förklarar Theodor W... more I ett fram till nyligen opublicerat förord till The Authoritarian Personality förklarar Theodor W. Adorno postumt att den sanna vetenskapliga förklaringen till fördomars natur vore att ta reda på hur objektiva ekonomiska lagar förmedlas genom individens omedvetna sammansättning i ideologins domän. I sin artikel utarbetar Erik Hansson en samhällsteori som avser att följa denna uppmaning. I Adornos och freudomarxismens efterföljd tar teorin fasta på Marx politisk-ekonomiska teori och Freuds subjektsteori för att bättre kunna erhålla förklaringar till samtida rasistiska och auktoritära fördomars natur. Teorin kompletterar Adornos standardiseringsteori med en teori om kapitalismens simultana tendens till differentiering jämte iakttagelsen om världsekonomins produktivitetsminskning. Genom Slavoj Žižeks lacanianska läsning av subjektets psyke – som liknar Adornos men har en terminologi mer i samklang med samtida teoribildningar – erbjuder texten framtida studier inspirerade av The Authoritarian Personality ett begrepp om ”Njutning” som förankrar individnivån med samhällsnivån. Likväl kvarstår problemet att studera den tidsrumsliga variationen för de konkreta betingelserna för aktiverandet av tendensen till auktoritära personligheter.
"Utgångspunkt tas i att begreppet 'EU-migranter' under senare år varit r... more "Utgångspunkt tas i att begreppet 'EU-migranter' under senare år varit relativt vanligt förekommande i svensk media och offentlig debatt, inte minst har de diskuterade personernas boendesituation uppmärksammats. I Hanssons artikel sammankopplas denna fråga med hanteringen av svenska medborgare som är bostadslösa. Den tes som drivs är att det finns en politisk ovilja att finna en lösning för dessa migranters boende och att detta hänger samman med att det i Sverige inte heller finns någon egentlig bostadspolitik för bostadslösa medborgare. frågan är, menar Hansson, politiskt känslig eftersom den riskerar att leda till diskussioner om moralisk ekonomi, vilka rättigheter och skyldigheter medborgare har. Därmed tangerar frågan också den svenska exceptionalistiska självbilden om ett välmående och solidariskt land som tar hand om sina medborgare. Att försöka finna lösningar på EU-migranternas boendesituation blir därmed från politiskt håll riskabelt. Det finns ingen framträdande politisk aktör som vill bryta nuvarande dödläge, vilket får konsekvenser för hur frågan (icke-)hanteras. Därmed ger Hansson en materialistisk ingång till att förstå den rasism som uttrycks mot EU-migranterna, och varför förvägrandet av bostäder till EU-migranter ter sig så lik den historiska diskrimineringen av svenska bostadslösa romer."
This thesis offers a psychoanalytic critique of ideology in order to understand the Swedish socie... more This thesis offers a psychoanalytic critique of ideology in order to understand the Swedish society’s reactions to the presence of begging EU citizens during the period 2014 – 2016. The so-called ‘ ...
Da stockholmare intervjuades om sina upplevelser kring tiggeri i Stockholms offentliga rum under ... more Da stockholmare intervjuades om sina upplevelser kring tiggeri i Stockholms offentliga rum under varen 2014, visade det sig att amnet var omojligt att tala om utan att sammankoppla det med forestallningar om Sverige som platsen i varlden dar tiggeri inte hor hemma. En overgripande berattelse gjorde gallande hur narvaron av tiggande EU-medborgare i svenska stader hotade det svenska ”samhallskontraktet” mellan valfardsstaten och den enskilda svensken, ett abstrakt kontrakt som fram tills nu hade garanterat forestallningen om en etisk ordning dar den svenska medborgaren var rattmatigt befriad fran personligt moraliskt ansvar for utsatta framlingar och dar strukturell fattigdom inte kunde materialiseras i det forkroppsligade svenska livsrummet. Motet med den tiggande EU-medborgaren blir en konfrontation med den svenska identitetens moraliska grundvalar.
Denna presentation problematiserar den historieskrivning som formedlas genom den pagaende debatte... more Denna presentation problematiserar den historieskrivning som formedlas genom den pagaende debatten rorande narvaron av tiggande EU-medborgare i svenska stader. Nagot som ar utmarkande for denna debatt ar de aterkommande hanvisningarna till valfardsstatens tillblivelse. Nyligen meddelades det att regeringen overvager att infora ett tiggeriforbud. Detta for att forsvara ’den svenska modellen’. Pa liknande satt rattfardigade politiker i Malmo stad beslutet att utrymma och riva det sa kallade Sorgenfrilagret med hanvisning till folkhemspolitikens lofte om ’goda bostader for alla’. Aven de som stallt sig kritiska till dessa atgarder har aberopat historiskt baserade argument. Manga har havdat att dagens politik ar ett uttryck for en historiskt kontinuerlig antiziganism, och att denna politik sarskilt paminner om de exkluderande atgarder som riktades mot romer och resande under 1900-talets forsta artionden. Vi fragar oss har vilka forestallningar om det svenska valfardssamhallet och dess h...
Across Europe, social-democratic, liberal democracies have become host to growing numbers of impo... more Across Europe, social-democratic, liberal democracies have become host to growing numbers of impoverished EU migrants (often called “Roma beggars”) who seem to pose a challenge to the tenets of ega ...
Saval sociologer som etnologer, antropologer och historiker har sedan tio ar pekat pa en social f... more Saval sociologer som etnologer, antropologer och historiker har sedan tio ar pekat pa en social forandring i vasterlanningars identitet, varderingar och levnadsmonster de senaste decennierna. Det h ...
I Sverige har det under de senaste aren florerat en intensiv debatt i det offentliga samtalet, an... more I Sverige har det under de senaste aren florerat en intensiv debatt i det offentliga samtalet, angaende narvaron av tiggande EU-migranter fran Osteuropa i svenska stader. Konflikten pavisar att fen ...
This article aims to contribute to the emerging field of psychoanalytic geopolitics by introducin... more This article aims to contribute to the emerging field of psychoanalytic geopolitics by introducing a conceptualization of a geopolitics of ideological transference of political knowledge and belief. This is done through an extensive theoretical application of the Lacanian-Žižekian concepts of the "subject supposed to know," "subject supposed to believe," and "subject supposed to enjoy" on an empirical case study. The case concerns the discourse, ideology, and politics of the Swedish state hegemony regarding its handling of the territorial presence of impoverished and excluded EU citizens with Romanian/Bulgarian passport and Roma heritagepopularly called "the beggars"-with a focus on the crisis-laden year of 2015. The government, state, and the media elevated key actors into the ideological status of subjects supposed to know how to end the "beggars'" presence in Sweden in a rational and yet caring way, thus enabling the continuous belief in the Swedish ideology of moral exceptionalism although the practical outcomes effectively hindered the EU citizens from obtaining better life conditions. It is argued that a geopolitics of transference through the application of said concepts enable us to further understand how political actors can simultaneously act cynical and idealist, which both illuminates and complicates notions of what knowledges and beliefs inform politics and political geographies in general.
I detta bidrag till Hjärnstorms temanummer om alkemi har Erik Hansson inspirerats av Slavoj Zizek... more I detta bidrag till Hjärnstorms temanummer om alkemi har Erik Hansson inspirerats av Slavoj Zizeks psykoanalys och skriver för oss om brist och begär i kapitalismen och om den alkemiska drömmen om en brist som till slut är avskaffad.
Stockholmsorten Fisksätra har vid flera tillfällen blivit medialt uppmärksammad som en metafor fö... more Stockholmsorten Fisksätra har vid flera tillfällen blivit medialt uppmärksammad som en metafor för nationella strukturer, processer och fenomen som på olika sätt berör rasifieringen av Sverige och dess sociala och urbana geografi. Fisksätra ligger i den naturnära kommunen Nacka och alldeles nästgårds till, tillika i samma kommundel som, Saltsjöbaden – en välmående och burgen ort som estetiskt, identitetsmässigt liksom socioekonomiskt framstår som Fisksätras motsats. Kommundelen Fisksätra-Saltsjöbaden fungerar emellertid inte bara som ett symptom på rasifierande boendesegregation och socioekonomisk ojämlikhet. Dess landskapsmässiga karaktär är unik i det att området består av två fundamentalt olika ”skärgårdsstäder” som båda ligger belägna vid havet. I den här artikeln vill jag synliggöra hur denna kommundels sociala geografi gestaltar vad jag kallar den ojämlika simkunnighetens geografi, och hur denna styvmoderligt behandlade geografi på ett diskret vis ingår i större samhälleliga rasifierings- och ojämlikhetsskapande processer. Genom att studera en ”simhallskamp” om förläggandet av en simhall mellan Fisksätra och Saltsjöbaden, en kamp som har pågått sedan 2015 och i vissa avseenden inte kan anses ännu avklarad, ämnar jag visa hur simkunnighet och simhallen fungerar som symboler för att kanalisera kollektiva frustrationer över ett socialt orättvist urbant landskap och samtidigt som försvaret av vissa landskaps förgivettagna privilegier. Den mobilisering från Fisksätrabors sida som denna kamp frambringade visar också på hur simkunnighet i sig har kommit att bli alltmer rasifierat i Sverige, och vilken betydelse det har för känslan av jämlikhet och tillhörighet med majoritetssamhället.
This article aims to contribute to the emerging field of psychoanalytic geopolitics by introducin... more This article aims to contribute to the emerging field of psychoanalytic geopolitics by introducing a conceptualization of a geopolitics of ideological transference of political knowledge and belief. This is done through an extensive theoretical application of the Lacanian-Žižekian concepts of the "subject supposed to know," "subject supposed to believe," and "subject supposed to enjoy" on an empirical case study. The case concerns the discourse, ideology, and politics of the Swedish state hegemony regarding its handling of the territorial presence of impoverished and excluded EU citizens with Romanian/Bulgarian passport and Roma heritagepopularly called "the beggars"-with a focus on the crisis-laden year of 2015. The government, state, and the media elevated key actors into the ideological status of subjects supposed to know how to end the "beggars'" presence in Sweden in a rational and yet caring way, thus enabling the continuous belief in the Swedish ideology of moral exceptionalism although the practical outcomes effectively hindered the EU citizens from obtaining better life conditions. It is argued that a geopolitics of transference through the application of said concepts enable us to further understand how political actors can simultaneously act cynical and idealist, which both illuminates and complicates notions of what knowledges and beliefs inform politics and political geographies in general.
Creating the City. Identity, Memory and Participation. Conference proceedings, 2019
Denna text gör nedslag i debatten om tiggande EU-medborgare i Sverige – en debatt som nu har pågå... more Denna text gör nedslag i debatten om tiggande EU-medborgare i Sverige – en debatt som nu har pågått i flera år. Kännetecknande för denna debatt, särskilt dådet kommer till att föreslå möjliga ”lösningar” på det som ofta kallas ”tiggeriet”, är de återkommande hänvisningarna till det svenska välfärdssamhällets tillblivelse, och framförallt då etablerandet av det socialdemokratiska folkhemmet. Textens fokus på folkhemmet som just ett socialdemokratiskt projekt beror till viss del påatt partiet har suttit vid regeringsmakten sedan 2014. En koppling görs mellan dagens socialdemokratiska makthavare och de som styrde landet dådet utbredda ”tiggeriet” påstås ha avskaffats. Påså sätt rör debatten synen pådet svenska välfärds- samhällets historia. Denna historia är dock långt ifrån entydig. I denna text vill vi visa hur dagens debatt innefattar en aktiv historieskrivning i form av en diskursiv kamp kring begrepp som ”den svenska modellen” och ”välfärdspolitiken”.
Across Europe, social-democratic, liberal democracies have become host to growing numbers of impo... more Across Europe, social-democratic, liberal democracies have become host to growing numbers of impoverished EU migrants (often called "Roma beggars") who seem to pose a challenge to the tenets of egalitarianism and social protection that are the foundation of the welfare state. Sweden is no exception. Nor has it been exceptional in its response: creating what can be described as a "state of exception" for homeless, impoverished EU migrants wherein they are afforded fewer rights, and almost no access to care, compared to other migrants to the country (such as refugees and asylum seekers). In this paper we examine the nature of this "state of exception"-and consequent denial of rights for poor and homeless EU migrants-and how it has been justified by invoking the inherent fairness of the Swedish system. We do so by reviewing, but especially extending, the Italian philosopher Georgio Agamben's concepts of state (and space) of exception, bare life, and homo sacer to describe the way homeless EU migrants are understood and treated in Sweden, and then by carefully examining the major policy statement on the matter, the "Valfridsson Report," which was written to harmonize practices across Swedish jurisdictions while providing the legal basis for making an exception of impoverished EU migrants, and which is now being implemented in law.
The presence of poor migrants from the EU countries of Romania and Bulgaria (mainly Roma subjects... more The presence of poor migrants from the EU countries of Romania and Bulgaria (mainly Roma subjects) who beg in Swedish cities has since 2010 caused a collective crisis in Sweden, affecting Swedish identity and institutions such as the (local and national) welfare state. Employing a psychoanalytic framework, inspired primarily by Lacan and Žižek, we describe the various dimensions of this crisis and explain the socio-psychological processes that produce the experience of crisis. We argue that the reason the ‘EU migrant’/’beggar’ produces these crises is because this figure is a symptom of the Real. Encounters with ‘EU migrants’ in the Swedish landscape become ethical encounters with the Real within three main realms: intersubjective (individual), national identity (collective), and political economy (institutional). The individual experiences an ethical crisis where no action in the meeting with a ‘beggar’ provides a satisfactory solution to the problem. The presence of ‘EU migrants’ also threatens to undermine the hegemonic Swedish self-image as a moral superpower. And the ‘EU migrant’s’ presence interferes with the nation’s desire to believe in its political and economic institutions. Finally, the attempt to satisfactorily locate responsibility for solving the problem of the ‘EU migrant’ reveals contradictions within capitalism, nationalism, and liberalism as they operate in the Swedish context.
In this unorthodox literature review, I perform a 'violent reading' (Žižek 2022) between the abst... more In this unorthodox literature review, I perform a 'violent reading' (Žižek 2022) between the abstracted spacetime of the USSR (a regional level in the past) and the abstracted spacetime of the unipolar capitalist world-system of today (a global level in the present). Siding with the Marxist school claiming that the Soviet Union ultimately was an example of state capitalism, the aim of this violent reading is to identify tendencies within our latest global capitalism towards a gradual "sovietification" of our common world. Three excursions on the sovietification of capitalism are conducted in the fields of economy (secular stagnation), governance (bureaucratisation and the merger of political and economic spheres), and ideology (structures of feelings of cynicism and fear). This move does not only force us to think more critically about the dialectics of capitalism overall, but also provides a sound argument for why anti-capitalism should not, and cannot, be equated with the USSR.
Alchemy is an idea and a practice that has haunted social imagination since the origin of penmans... more Alchemy is an idea and a practice that has haunted social imagination since the origin of penmanship. This piece reflects upon this perpetual phenomenon's relationship to (conscious as well as unconscious) desires of surmounting one's phenomenal and material finitude, scarcity, and lacking-as laid out by continental philosophy and psychoanalysis. Particular attention is paid to how the fetishist foundation of capitalist social production place the alchemic desire at the heart of economy and social relations, and how this order is confronted by the reality of global warming and finite resources.
Conference presentation at Historical Materialism 20th annual conference 11 November 2023 on the ... more Conference presentation at Historical Materialism 20th annual conference 11 November 2023 on the problem of envy for solidarity in a world of perceived scarcity.
Manuscript for a 15 min presentation on the book 'The Begging Question: Sweden's Social Responses... more Manuscript for a 15 min presentation on the book 'The Begging Question: Sweden's Social Responses to the Roma Destitute'.
Studier om rasism: tvärvetenskapliga perspektiv på ras, vithet och diskriminering, 2018
"Utgångspunkt tas i att begreppet 'EU-migranter' under senare år varit relativt vanligt förekomma... more "Utgångspunkt tas i att begreppet 'EU-migranter' under senare år varit relativt vanligt förekommande i svensk media och offentlig debatt, inte minst har de diskuterade personernas boendesituation uppmärksammats. I Hanssons artikel sammankopplas denna fråga med hanteringen av svenska medborgare som är bostadslösa. Den tes som drivs är att det finns en politisk ovilja att finna en lösning för dessa migranters boende och att detta hänger samman med att det i Sverige inte heller finns någon egentlig bostadspolitik för bostadslösa medborgare. frågan är, menar Hansson, politiskt känslig eftersom den riskerar att leda till diskussioner om moralisk ekonomi, vilka rättigheter och skyldigheter medborgare har. Därmed tangerar frågan också den svenska exceptionalistiska självbilden om ett välmående och solidariskt land som tar hand om sina medborgare. Att försöka finna lösningar på EU-migranternas boendesituation blir därmed från politiskt håll riskabelt. Det finns ingen framträdande politisk aktör som vill bryta nuvarande dödläge, vilket får konsekvenser för hur frågan (icke-)hanteras. Därmed ger Hansson en materialistisk ingång till att förstå den rasism som uttrycks mot EU-migranterna, och varför förvägrandet av bostäder till EU-migranter ter sig så lik den historiska diskrimineringen av svenska bostadslösa romer."
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Books by Erik Hansson
The presence causes a multilayered crisis in Swedish society along political, juridical, moral, social, and psychic lines. This because it is a symptom of the Lacanian Real and capitalism’s contradictions. This is manifested in the contradiction embodied in the Swedish authorities’ denial of social help to ‘EU migrants’ on the one hand, while seeking on the other hand to reproduce the image of Sweden as promoting welfare and equality, solidarity, and anti-racism. The contradiction’s material base is the political deadlock between left and right regarding the labor and housing markets. Providing ‘EU migrants’ (being neither citizens nor refugees) access to welfare would risk disrupting the societal moral economy, causing political turmoil. The solution to this dilemma is to expunge ‘EU migrants’ while framing this as an act of poverty-reduction.
Meanwhile, the unresolved occurrence of begging and ‘rough sleeping’ creates anxiety and provokes aggression among Swedish subjects, resulting in hate crimes and everyday racism. Poor people without shelter are forced to use public rooms as their private space, disturbing aesthetic and normative orders, which in turn is unconsciously registered as existential transgressions risking the destruction of the psychic investments of Swedes in their material surroundings.
A main focus of the analysis is the anxiety triggered by the confrontation with a begging individual on the sidewalk. Due to our human empathic transitivity, the visible suffering of the ‘beggar’ becomes involuntarily experienced as suffering within the observer. Furthermore, when the subject is forced to choose whether or not to help, s/he unconsciously experiences how the Other’s desire threatens to dissolve the subject. These anxieties are typically transformed into sympathy, antipathy or apathy.
Papers by Erik Hansson
The presence causes a multilayered crisis in Swedish society along political, juridical, moral, social, and psychic lines. This because it is a symptom of the Lacanian Real and capitalism’s contradictions. This is manifested in the contradiction embodied in the Swedish authorities’ denial of social help to ‘EU migrants’ on the one hand, while seeking on the other hand to reproduce the image of Sweden as promoting welfare and equality, solidarity, and anti-racism. The contradiction’s material base is the political deadlock between left and right regarding the labor and housing markets. Providing ‘EU migrants’ (being neither citizens nor refugees) access to welfare would risk disrupting the societal moral economy, causing political turmoil. The solution to this dilemma is to expunge ‘EU migrants’ while framing this as an act of poverty-reduction.
Meanwhile, the unresolved occurrence of begging and ‘rough sleeping’ creates anxiety and provokes aggression among Swedish subjects, resulting in hate crimes and everyday racism. Poor people without shelter are forced to use public rooms as their private space, disturbing aesthetic and normative orders, which in turn is unconsciously registered as existential transgressions risking the destruction of the psychic investments of Swedes in their material surroundings.
A main focus of the analysis is the anxiety triggered by the confrontation with a begging individual on the sidewalk. Due to our human empathic transitivity, the visible suffering of the ‘beggar’ becomes involuntarily experienced as suffering within the observer. Furthermore, when the subject is forced to choose whether or not to help, s/he unconsciously experiences how the Other’s desire threatens to dissolve the subject. These anxieties are typically transformed into sympathy, antipathy or apathy.