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This article uses participatory photography to explore contradictory processes of inclusion and exclusion in contemporary Sweden. Our aim is to analyse the social relations that shape the kinds of places recently arrived migrant women experience as ‘safe’, as well as their everyday experiences of inclusion and exclusion. The use of photography – wherein the women choose how, when and where to shoot photos – helps us highlight what otherwise would not be immediately evident with regard to the experience of such places. We argue that there are inclusive places in segregated spaces, and that issues of ethnic inclusion and exclusion are linked to ethnic hegemony and other relationships of power. Drawing on theories of relational space in general, and transgressive space in particular, we demonstrate that our informants' daily existence is simultaneously integrated and segregated, included and excluded, and that emancipatory processes that are already under way must be allowed to proceed if the social landscape of integration is to be an open and equal one.

Syftet med denna rapport är att belysa förutsättningarna, utmaningarna och möjligheterna för flyktingmottagande och integrationsarbete på mindre orter, med särskilt fokus på glesbygdskommuner i norra Sverige. Tills nyligen har Sverige haft en relativt generös migrationspolitik och de svenska kommunerna har haft en nyckelroll i mottagandet och integrationen av flyktingar. Många små, glesbefolkade landsbygdskommuner har tagit emot en hög andel individer i förhållande till sin befolkningsstorlek. Flyktingmottagande har setts som en möjlighet att utveckla kommunen. Många av de små kommuner i norra Sverige som står inför en minskande befolkning har sett mottagandet som en möjlighet till sysselsättning, genererad av de uppgifter som en tillströmning av flyktingar innebär, men också som en grund för att utveckla den kommunala verksamheten. Kommunernas flyktingmottagande är dock beroende av politiken på nationell nivå och förändringar i denna politik som påverkar antalet flyktingar som kommunerna kan ta emot. När politikerna beslutar att strama åt flyktingpolitiken och stänga ned verksamheter som kommit att utgöra ett hopp inför framtiden, utvecklas en känsla av maktlöshet. Besluten om antal och kvoter fattas någon annanstans, och detta bidrar till en process där små glesbygdskommuner hamnar ännu längre bort från maktens centrum. Att ta emot flyktingar har för dessa kommuner, åtminstone inledningsvis, varit en strategi som gett hopp för framtiden, inte bara för de flyktingar som tas emot i dessa små samhällen, utan också för de små kommunerna själva. Den lilla orten blir således perifer genom att den marginaliseras i såväl politiska som ekonomiska processer och alltså inte (enbart) på grund av sin rumsliga position.

Rapporten är organiserad utifrån forskningsprojektets tre delstudier. Delstudierna baseras på olika material och besvarar olika frågor. Den första handlar om hur integration som fenomen beskrivs i ansökningar om projektmedel från Länsstyrelserna och vilka problem som kommunerna beskriver som särskilt centrala att adressera. Den andra delstudien fokuserar på de sätt på vilka flyktingmottagande framställs i lokala och regionala nyhetsmedier i Västerbotten och Västernorrland. Den tredje och sista delstudien fokuserar på erfarenheter och vardagliga arbetsvillkor för flyktingmottagare och integrationsarbetare i två mindre orter. I en sammantagen analys av resultatet från de tre delstudierna identifieras fyra mer övergripande berättelser varigenom flyktingmottagande i glesbygd skildras 1) engagemang och frustration, 2) förutsättningarna för mottagandet och organiseringens betydelse, 3) integration och svenskhet och 4) periferiseringsprocesser.

In the context of Umeå2014 as European Capital of Culture (ECOC) where the ideal of the inclusive co-creation of culture formed a central part of the programme, we explore the rise, fall and aftermath of an alternative house of culture – Lokstallarna (the Engine Sheds). In its ECOC bid, Umeå stressed its strong alternative, grassroots tradition and ‘Do-It-Yourself’ culture. However, these groups increasingly questioned the inclusiveness of the participatory process around the development and implementation of the programme for the ECOC year. We study one of these alternative movements which occupied disused engine sheds with the aim of turning them into a house of culture ‘for all’ as a counter to the Umeå2014 programme. The focus is on the narrative of Lokstallarna and the creation of an alternative house of culture both from the point of view of those actively involved in its creation and in the local media coverage. We have collected a variety of empirical materials, both on and offline. We approach Lokstallarna as a form of place-based resistance where meanings of activism, culture and the city are negotiated and contested. The ECOC Year in Umeå opened up the opportunity to negotiate both culture and place.

Balancing between conflicting ideals. A study on ethical leader-ship, gender equality and diversity work in an upper secondary school. The aim of this article is to explore what characterizes principals’ ethical leadership in relation to gender- and diversity work at an upper sec-ondary school distinguished by its elite program profile. Our main research interest is to investigate how principals describe and relate to the school’s equality work. The study’s theoretical understanding is founded in Starratt’s descriptions of ethical leadership. The study emanates from 12 in-depth individual and focus group interviews with a total of 47 individuals, both school staff and pupils. Our conclusion is that the principals’ stated mission is to communicate success and create a school for a selected group of students. Furthermore, this mission becomes part of the principals’ responsibility. This means that their presence and authenticity in the processes, as well as the requirements and expectations set by the school organizer, limit the opportunities for principals to achieve gender equality and diversity.

Procedural justice is an important principle in democratic societies, which fails when police discriminate minorities through for example racial profiling and during crime report procedures. This not only violates individuals’ rights, it also increases corruption, make police work problematic and decrease trust in the justice system. The aim of the chapter is to investigate perception of police discrimination against minorities, with focus on whether anti-immigrant attitudes have an independent impact on the perception of police discrimination. We use European Social Survey, collected in 2010, including 24 countries and around 45,000 respondents. The results show that anti-immigrant attitudes imply that respondents don’t believe the police to discriminate independent on individual factors such as education, gender, minority and country factors such as corruption, inequality and the proportion of non-European inhabitants in the country.

The main objective of the thesis is to study how people of African decent experience and deal with everyday discrimination and racism in a context where such racism is to a large degree concealed and/or denied. Everyday racism affecting people with an African background in Sweden is expressed in a number of different, often subtle and obscure, ways. It is experienced in a context of structural inequality between those who are racialized and those who are seen as the norm in society. The mystification that takes place in the public debate highly restricts the opportunities for resistance in an open and articulated manner. This is partly because silence leads to an insecurity about how to understand the racism experienced, for example, should it be defined as “racism” or as a “misunderstanding”? In addition, people who openly resist and protest tend to be discredited as exaggerating or being too sensitive. Consequently, resistance against structural discrimination in Sweden today is difficult. The findings demonstrate that interviewees deal with everyday racism in a variety of ways that can be categorized in to three broad strategies: mystifying the experiences of racism in one’s everyday life, longing for a place or context far away from Swedish racism and finally, keeping racism at a distance, including resisting and protesting within the existing limitations.