"The deracialization of Sweden", is a recently published research anthology focusing on issues of race, racism, anti-racism and whiteness in a Swedish post-war and contemporary context. The anthology is edited by Tobias Hübinette and Peter Wikström, researchers at the Research Group for Culture Studies (Kufo) at Karlstad University. The volume encompasses 13 studies written by researchers from different disciplines and fields that collectively explore how the concept of race was gradually dismantled and became taboo in Sweden after 1945, and how a specifically Swedish form of anti-racism instead became normative.
Taken together the book’s 13 contributions she light upon where Swedish racial thinking went after 1945 within a number of different spheres and sectors.
– There was a break with racial thinking during the late 1960s when a new attitude to race began to emerge that finally led to the “colorblind” anti-racism of our time, says Tobias Hübinette.
The anthology’s contributions can be seen as case studies, which look at key figures, political debates, figures of thought, institutions, migration and marketing, based on material from archives, the daily press, interviews, social media and more. Through this empirical and methodological breadth, the anthology as a whole becomes a cross-section that highlights how Sweden developed from being a race science pioneer to becoming the world’s most distinctly colorblind country.
The anthology is published open access by Karlstad University Press and simultaneously issued by Kriterium, a consortium for peer review of research literature in Sweden.
– It has been rewarding going through the review process with Kriterium, and it is great that the first Kriterium publication at Karlstad University can be centered on such a socially critical issue, says Peter Wikström.
Contributors
David Assadkhan, Ph.D. Candidate in Criminology, Stockholm University, Stockholm
Martin Ericsson, Associate Professor in History, Lund University, Lund
Tobias Hübinette, Associate Professor in Intercultural education, Karlstad University, Karlstad
Karin Idevall Hagren, Associate Professor in Scandinavian languages, Stockholm University, Stockholm
Catrin Lundström, Professor Designate in Ethnicity and Migration, Linköping University, Norrköping
Sayaka Osanami Törngren, Associate Professor in International migration and Ethnic relations, Malmö University, Malmö
Johan Samuelsson, Professor in History, Karlstad University, Karlstad
Ludwig Schmitz, Ph.D. in History, New York University, New York, USA
Emma Severinsson, Senior Lecturer in Fashion studies, Lund University, Lund
Mattias Tydén, Associate Professor in History, Stockholm University, Stockholm
Jeff Werner, Professor in Art History, Stockholm University, Stockholm
Mats Wickström, Researcher in History, Åbo Akademi University, Åbo, Finland
Peter Wikström, Associate Senior Lecturer in English linguistics, Karlstad University, Karlstad
The book is availabel by open access CC BY-NC-ND-licens here:
