Since its foundation as an academic field in the 1990s, critical race theory has developed enormously and has, among others, been supplemented by and (dis)integrated with critical whiteness studies. At the same time, the field has moved beyond its origins in Anglo-Saxon environments, to be taken up and re-developed in various parts of the world – leading to not only new empirical material but also new theoretical perspectives and analytical approaches. Gathering these new and global perspectives, this book presents a much-needed collection of the various forms, sophisticated theoretical developments and nuanced analyses that the field of critical race and whiteness theories and studies offers today. Organized around the themes of emotions, technologies, consumption, institutions, crisis, identities and on the margin, this presentation of critical race and whiteness theories and studies in its true interdisciplinary and international form provides the latest empirical and theoretical research, as well as new analytical approaches. Illustrating the strength of the field and embodying its future research directions, The Routledge International Handbook of New Critical Race and Whiteness Studies will appeal to scholars across the social sciences and humanities with interests in race and whiteness.

Den färgblinda skolan – ras och vithet i svensk utbildning behandlar vad begreppen ras och vithet har att säga om dagens svenska skola. Utgångspunkten för boken är att Sverige numera härbärgerar västvärldens mest heterogena elevsammansättning efter USA, inte minst gäller det den rasliga och etniska mångfalden liksom religiös och språklig mångfald. Samtidigt har den svenska skolan på rekordtid kommit att utvecklas till västvärldens mest segregerade och ojämlika skola.

Hur kan tvillingbegreppen ras och vithet hjälpa oss att förstå detta nya Sverige och det genomsegregerade svenska utbildningsväsendet.

This chapter chronicles how Sweden emerged as the world’s most colourblind state formation by examining the Swedish critique of the concept of race, which ultimately led to the tabooisation and public elimination of the very word itself. The chapter follows three themes – namely, the Swedish critique of race and how it is steeped in a race biological understanding of the term, the construction of Swedish values and in the end of Swedishness itself as being the same as antiracist values and Sweden’s struggle to eliminate the word race also outside of its borders in relation to, for example, the UN and the EU. The chapter concludes that the Swedish colourblind project has in the end been about breaking with the old Swedish racial thinking that prevailed in Sweden during the first half of the 1900s. The country’s colourblind antiracist ideology has both been concerned with Sweden’s place in the world and in particular in relation to the non-Western world and with cleansing Sweden and the Swedes from all vestiges of racial thinking.

The chapter develops an analysis of the phenomenon of white melancholia in Sweden after the ‘refugee crisis’ in 2015. White melancholia denotes how the loss of the old homogeneous and the good anti-racist Sweden produces contradictory and complex feelings among both ‘racists’ and ‘anti-racists’. Whereas Sweden has perceived itself having accomplished something of a post-racial utopia since the 1970s, the country is now facing a new reality of superdiversity, which marks the end of two different, but interrelated, hegemonic whiteness regimes. Yet, colour-blindness is still hegemonic and issues of race and whiteness are taboo subjects. The authors regard contemporary Sweden as a white nation in crisis and diagnose Swedish whiteness as suffering from what can be conceptualised as a white melancholic state.

Sweden’s post-war image as frontrunner of egalitarianism and antiracism contains more than a trace of national and racial chauvinism, argue two whiteness studies scholars. As myths of the better Sweden fade, both Right and Left are consumed by “white melancholy”.

In these concluding remarks, we reflect upon and envision the possible future of the notion of race in Sweden. We foresee a continued emergence of the new multiracial and super-diverse Sweden. Following this, the maintenance and defence of the colourblind hegemony of contemporary public life in Sweden must inevitably become more and more challenging as inequalities continue to grow and segregation structured by race eventually becomes impossible to ignore. Thus, while the colourblind fantasy of post-1968 Sweden lives on, and provides cover for the emergence of an increasingly emboldened far right, we suggest that things must change. We, therefore, express our hope that coming generations of Swedes will break with the current white melancholy period. Instead, we hope that tomorrow’s Swedish antiracists, white and non-white alike, will be both more willing and more capable to engage with the concept of race, the language of race and the lived reality of race in a more substantial and critical way.

Sweden has a paradoxical history when it comes to race, as a term, as a concept and as a lived reality. In this introduction, we provide a short background on the life of the concept of race in Swedish culture and language within the last century. In addition, we introduce some key concepts and outline the aim and central arguments of the book. From its role as a pioneering nation in race science in the earlier parts of the 20th century, Sweden was equally as pioneering in the latter parts in deracialising public life and discourse, embracing a hegemonic, normative colourblindness. In today’s Sweden, neither conservatives nor progressives, and neither xenophobes nor antiracists can talk about race and hope to be taken seriously. However, things may be in the process of changing, in a situation of escalating tensions between an increasingly superdiversified Swedish population and the emergence of a revitalised far right. In the introduction, we outline six empirically focused chapters which constitute analyses and case studies of both historical and contemporary materials aiming to shed light on some of the most important and pernicious articulations of Swedish colourblindness in a time when this doctrine is becoming increasingly untenable.

Race in Sweden is an introduction to, and a critical investigation of, the Swedish relationship to race in the post-war and contemporary eras. This relationship is fundamentally shaped by an ideiology of colourblindness, with any kind of race talk is being taboo in public discourse and everyday language, and in practice forbidden in official and instituional language. 

A study of a country which was until recently strikingly white but has become extremely diverse, yet where the legacy of Swedish whiteness co-exist with a radical, colourblind, antiracist, ideology. Race in Sweden will appeal to scholars across the social science and humanities with interests in race and ethnicity, whiteness and Nordic studies.

This paper discusses methodological dilemmas in a research project focusing on first-generation Swedish women living in the United States. From a white Swedish researcher perspective, the paper seeks to disentangle aspects of shared privileges and cross-cutting differences between researcher and participants in a non-Swedish context. What does it mean to pass as a (white) Swede and how are white privileges being upheld in such acting? How are class differences, in contrast, equalized when ethnography is conducted outside the national social class system, in this case in a non-Swedish setting where internal hierarchies may be re-negotiated? The paper argues that the use of privilege and passing as 'strategic assets' on the one hand often are necessary to reach specific groups of examination, but may on the other hand reproduce structural privileges by not intervening into normative assumptions of race, class and sexuality. In these circumstances, the paper further in  quires into the questions of what we can learn from studying privileged groups and, thereby, what we fail to see.

Studentrörelsen kräver att samarbeten med israeliska universitet ska upphöra. Flera professorer och lektorer har hakat på. Men är det inte i själva verket ett sätt att flytta fram de egna positionerna och skaffa sig kulturellt kapital? frågar sig Catrin Lundström och läser bojkottrörelsen utifrån Bourdieu.

Kapitlet undersöker hur 46 svenska kvinnor, vilka under kortare eller längre tid har bott utomlands men återvänt till Sverige, försöker sätta ord på sina ras- och vithetsrelaterade migranterfarenheter trots avsaknaden av ett etablerat språk för dessa erfarenheter. Genom att analysera återvändande svenska kvinnors associationer och dissociationer mellan ras, språk och nation, blottläggs ett system av idéer och tankestrukturer som samtidigt reflekterar specifika uppfattningar om världen, såsom av olika nationers utseenden, implicita rashierarkier och västvärldens befolkningssammansättning. En analys av färgblindhetens språk visar vidare hur specifika kategorier kan få diametralt motsatta innebörder i skilda kontexter. Begrepp som invandrare och utlänning kan exempelvis ges olika betydelser och innehåll beroende på om de relateras till vita eller icke-vita. För denna grupp av svenska kvinnor filtreras vitheten genom markörer, som det blonda håret, liksom av svenskheten i sig, och uttrycks genom både direkta och indirekta val av sociala relationer. Den synliga vitheten som kvinnorna bär med sig förknippas med en oönskad känsla av skillnad, liksom med en uppsättning outtalade privilegier.

David Bowie framställs ofta som normbrytande. Samtidigt var han en vit, manlig rockartist från västvärldens koloniala epicentrum. Catrin Lundström tar sig an David Bowies unika förmåga att röra sig över genrer samt geografiska och kulturella gränser.

This article examines young Latina women’s interactions in the urban landscape of Stockholm, with a particular focus on white, middle-class areas, and how social difference and racial positioning are produced in and through the processes of urban segregation. Although Stockholm consists of different multiethnic and middle-class white suburbs, a discourse of sharp division between ‘the suburb’ and the inner-city is prevalent in the daily press. Here ‘the suburb’ is either portrayed as dangerous or exotic. This article is based on qualitative research with 29 young Latina women living and attending schools in both the suburban and inner-city areas. This approach facilitates an understanding of how gendered, racialized and classed aspects of segregation are embodied in multiple directions and how mechanisms of spatial exclusion prevail in predominantly white areas - often seen as ‘neutral’ or non-racialized areas. In conclusion, in order to capture the realities of young people’s lives within materialized discourses of race and space, I argue that it is crucial to include white settings in the analysis, and experiences of exclusion.

This article examines intra-European relations in narratives of Swedish lifestyle migrants living permanently or part-time on the Spanish Sun Coast. It pays particular attention to the complexities of Swedish migrants’ cultural identities and patterns of self-segregation in the Spanish society by investigating the following questions: How do boundaries of social networks that Swedish lifestyle migrants participate in, or interrelate, with a sense of ‘likeness’? In what ways are the formation of these ‘international’ networks mediated through ideas of cultural similarity and parallel difference, and how do such notions both override and uphold boundaries tied to social, cultural and racial divisions? It is argued that the formation of so-called ‘international communities’ on the Spanish Sun Coast tend to cluster mainly north-western European lifestyle migrants, which calls for an analysis of ‘orientations’ towards a certain ‘likeness’, and the function of these spaces and communities as spaces of ‘institutional whiteness’ that work as a ‘meeting point’ where some bodies tend to feel comfortable as they already belong here. The social and cultural boundaries that surround these communities destabilises the idea of a common, culturally homogeneous European identity and display intra-European racial divisions mediated through discourses of cultural differences. What appears is a south–north divide built upon a deep Swedish postcolonial identification with Anglo Saxon and north-western European countries and cultures, and a parallel dis-identification with (the former colonial powers in) southern Europe.

Southern Spain is the most attractive region in Europe for so called lifestyle migrants from a number of European countries, preferably from the Nordic countries and Great Britain. This paper examines intra-European relations as they are narrated by Swedish lifestyle migrants living permanently or part-time at the Spanish Suncoast. The aim is to discuss classed and racial aspects of self-segregation and constructions of cultural similarity and parallel difference that both override and uphold boundaries tied to national, cultural and social divisions. By looking at how formations of ‘international communities’ are shaped among north Western European lifestyle migrants, theories on ‘orientations’ towards whiteness and likeness, and institutions as ‘meeting points’ where some bodies tend to feel comfortable in certain spaces as they already belong here, are developed. These ‘international communities’ recruit particular subjects, yet resulting in a division between migrants from northern Europe, non-European migrants and locals from Spain. The results destabilize the idea of a common, culturally homogeneous European identity, displaying divisions mediated through discourses of cultural differences. What appears is a south-north divide built upon a deep Swedish postcolonial identification with Anglo-Saxon countries and cultures and parallel dis-identification with (the former colonial powers in) Southern Europe.

Den tidigare artisten, fotomodellen och socialdemokraten Camilla Henemark har förmodligen mer livserfarenhet än de flesta av oss. När vänstern ägnar sig åt ”gör-om-mig-reportage” om medelålders kvinnor är det något som skaver, skriver Catrin Lundström.

This paper examines how the Latin American political and historical context and consciousness constitutes an important arena for the construction of diasporic identities among young women of Latin American origin in Sweden. Most of the young women are born and/or raised in Sweden with parents who were forced into exile during Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship in Chile in the 1970 and 1980s. From interviews and focus group discussions with 16-20 years-old young women in Stockholm 2003-2004, the paper explores how the younger generation in diaspora negotiates their parent’s experiences of military dictatorships and shows how Latin American politics still matter for young women’s interactions and identity-work. In contemporary Sweden, however, the Latin American diaspora, historically characterized by left politics and activism, is mixed with more recent migration from other counties such as Cuba bearing different political histories and ideas. The study shows that political consciousness impacts interrelations between different Latin American national diasporas living in Sweden, often along the lines of previous histories and conflicts. Yet, in a broader landscape of Latin American diasporas across the globe these histories are conflated with new diasporic dialogues.

This paper examines Swedish women's gender- and nation-specific experiences of displacement, focusing constructions of national affinity among a group of expatriate women in a community network for Swedish-speaking women in the altered social and political landscape of the US. Moving from a Swedish Social Democratic society to a US laissez-faire neoliberal political model, migration is used as a departure to analyze how whiteness, class and gender are reinvented across different political contexts. The study is based on in-depth interviews, focus group discussions and participant observation in five local community chapters in the US Western region 2006-2008. Using an intersectional analysis, it is suggested that white Swedish middle-class migrant women in the United States encounter upward as well as downward mobility along the axes of race, gender, class and nationality. These contradictory outcomes are discussed in relation to heterosexual marriage, Swedish gender mythologies, and racialized labor that disentangles the gendered dimensions of white normativity, arguing that racial formations of privilege are shaped, transformed and reproduced in relation to local gender regimes and in interrelation to subordinated groups, thus including global relations between migrant women as a diverse group constituted by class and race cross cutting structures.

Efter femtio år av inomfeministisk kritik har svarta feminister i USA tröttnat på att hänga ut den vita kvinnan som feminismens ”bad object”. Fokuset på vita kvinnors rasism har nått en återvändsgränd, menar de, och frågar sig varför det svarta patriarkatet så ofta saknas i intersektionella maktanalyser. För att komma till rätta med våldet mot svarta kvinnor hjälper det ju inte att peka på vita kvinnors potentiella rasism. Catrin Lundström ser en cirkel slutas.  

Vem är hon och vad står hon för? Fröken Snusk har blivit en symbol för endera fascination eller det ultimata beviset på en kultur i förfall. Är det den vita arbetarklassfemininiteten som ställer till det, undrar Catrin Lundström.

This paper examines migrating women’s gender- and nation-specific forms of capital, focusing on first-generation Swedish women moving to the altered social and political landscape of the United States. A majority of the women migrated from middle-class environments in Sweden, and their diasporic experiences are used as a departure to analyze how former class positions are being re-enacted (or not) in the US neo-liberal State. The study is based on in-depth interviews and focus groups discussions with 31 women and three of their spouses, and participant observation in a support group for Swedish-speaking women in the US Western region 2006-2008. Using an intersectional analysis, it is suggested that Swedish women are located in contradictory class positions in the US, related to gendered hierarchies and to the loss of nation-bound social and cultural capital as well as of the Social Democratic welfare State, however with a possibility to hire racialized labor in a different social geography. Class privileges were thus shaped, transformed and reproduced through the women’s capacities to re-invest cultural and embodied forms of capital and in relation to subordinated groups, often other women migrants, thus mirroring the unequal relations between (migrating) women on a global arena.

Många blev förvånade när Gunilla Persson fick oväntat besök av Kronofogden på hotellrummet morgonen efter hennes uppträdande i Melodifestivalens sista deltävling. Fast faktum är att verkligheten för många Hollywoodfruar är ganska bister under den glättiga ytan, skriver Catrin Lundström, biträdande professor i etnicitet och migration.

A housewife “at home”. Returning migrant women’s encounters of Swedish gender equality in policy and in practice

This article discusses the experiences of Swedish migrant women who are returning to Sweden after having lived abroad for a period of their lives. Most of them have been situated outside the formal labour market during their time abroad and been occupied with family related work. The aim of this article is to analyse how political ideals formulated around work, gender equality and income redistribution, encounter the constructions of Swedishness, gender and heterosexuality in these women’s stories. When living abroad, the women were provided for by their husbands. Yet, their positions as “trailing spouses” had had severe impact on their opportunities for reintegration into the labour market as well as for their future – or current – pensions. The article discusses the political and sociological consequences of women’s economic dependence, primarily in terms of welfare state distribution and pensions by asking: In what ways are returning migrant women situated in-between a global labour market and the Swedish welfare system in relation to migration, gender and gender equality?

Rasismen har fått ett kvinnligt ansikte. Hon kan heta Karen, Becky, den tysta vita kvinnan, den sköra vita kvinnan, den gråtande vita kvinnan, den vita patriarkala kvinnan, den vita feministen. Inom akademin anses den vita kvinnan numera vara huvudproblemet. Det här har gjort att den vite mannen kunnat segla upp som den brune mannens räddare. Det här är långt ifrån vad Spivak menade, skriver Catrin Lundström.

On the basis of 13 in-depth interviews with Swedish women and one month of ethnographic work in the Swedish community in Singapore in 2009, this article examines how Swedish women, travelling from Sweden to Singapore as "expatriate wives" in the wake of their Swedish husbands, navigate gendered and racialised transnational spaces of domestic work and negotiating their changed identities as both housewives and employers of live-in maids in the household. How do the women justify their current division of labour in the light of Swedish national ideologies of work and Swedish ideals of gender and class equality?

Southern Spain is the most attractive region in Europe for so called ‘lifestyle migrants’ from a number of European countries, preferably from the Nordic countries and Great Britain. This paper discusses the institutionalization of national identities, from in-depth interviews and ethnographic work with Swedish migrant women in Fuengirola, Marbella and Málaga conducted in the spring of 2010. Through an analysis of intra-European migrations and their race and class relations, the idea of a common, culturally homogeneous European identity is deconstructed. What appears is a south-north divide built upon a deep Swedish postcolonial identification with Anglo-Saxon countries and cultures and parallel dis-identification with (the former colonial powers in) Southern Europe. The Swedish women interviewed were mainly socializing with other north(west) European migrants from similar social segments who shared the embodiment of white ‘structured invisibility’, thus separating them from non-European migrants, but as well from Spaniards.

By looking at how nationally-specific formations of white identity are played out in southern Spain, I develop Sara Ahmed’s (2007) theories on ‘orientations’ towards whiteness, likeness and institutions as ‘meeting points’ where some bodies tend to feel comfortable in certain spaces as they already belong here. Whiteness is here discussed in terms of “likeness”, “proximity” and “shared attributes” that bring some people together in a foreign context. Following Ahmed, I argue that the “institutionalization of whiteness” in southern Spain recruits subjects who feel they are part of an ‘international community’, but resulting in a division between migrants from northern Europe, non-European migrants and locals from Spain. The paper further develops class-related national identities. Migrants of upper-middle-class background retained their class positions more effectively than the lower-middle-classes whose migration to Spain was often characterized by a sense of downward class mobility in terms of economic capital, and a higher orientation towards primarily national organizations and institutions.

Janis Joplin kom att bli en av de musiklegender som efter sin död formade den omtalade gruppen ”27 Club”. ”Klubben” inkluderade några av dåtidens mest tongivande rockstjärnor, som alla hade det gemensamt att de dog när de var 27 år gamla under en period av exakt två år, mellan den 3 juli 1969 och den 3 juli 1971.

När det gäller att peka ut ansvariga för kolonialism och orientalism blir världen plötsligt helt jämställd. För dessa gärningar är män och kvinnor lika skyldiga. Men nej, när postkoloniala protester likställer kvinnor och män i kritiken mot samtida imperialism är det snarare en upprepning av historiens misogyni, menar Catrin Lundström.