IMER stands for International Migration and Ethnic Relations. This field of study is interdisciplinary, with ethnologists, sociologists, social work scientists and human geographers amongst the interested. Botkyrka, a Stockholm suburb, hosts a multicultural centre where the Swedish IMER Society has its seat. A congress was arranged by them on the last day of January and the first day of February 2008.
It was my first congress outside Örebro and I was curious to see what the multicultural centre looked like and what kind of people there would be. It was a nice old building amidst the concrete suburbian flats, where we - a group of about 25 people - discussed IMER for two days. The group was mixed in age, gender and ethnic backgrounds. Young "ethnic" PhD candidates like myself (Dutch, Polish and other nationalities) were sitting side by side with experienced researchers from England, India, Denmark, Iceland, Turkey and of course Sweden.
We talked about diaspora, bilingual children and what it's like to be a "suburb-kid". Very interesting and it resulted in a nice idea for taking part in an IMER Seminar series at Uppsala University, amongst other things.
Completely exhausted, but many experiences richer, I returned to Örebro.
Monday, 18 February 2008
Saturday, 2 February 2008
The second course
Cities and Processes of Social Change is the name of the second course we had as a group. This course, running from November 2007 to January 2008, was organised by lecturers from the disciplines sociology and social work. This was very interesting for me, as I had not followed any courses in social work before, and only one course in sociology (in Umeå). It was a good occasion to get to know some lecturers in these subjects and of course to get more insight in the disciplines themselves and some of their basic literature.
We read Giddens, and got interesting lectures about empowerment and international social work. It was very sad and chocking of course, that lecturer in sociology Fuat Deniz was murdered in December, just as we were in quite close contact with some of the lecturers in that discipline in the frame of our course. To see the sadness in the eyes of his closest friends and colleagues was really devastating. (see previous blog-post).
The course itself was organised the same way as the first course; lecturers, compulsory literature, elegible literature and seminars based on the papers we wrote. The completion of the course was celebrated with a diner at home at one of the lecturers in Brickeberg - a good way to end the course!
We read Giddens, and got interesting lectures about empowerment and international social work. It was very sad and chocking of course, that lecturer in sociology Fuat Deniz was murdered in December, just as we were in quite close contact with some of the lecturers in that discipline in the frame of our course. To see the sadness in the eyes of his closest friends and colleagues was really devastating. (see previous blog-post).
The course itself was organised the same way as the first course; lecturers, compulsory literature, elegible literature and seminars based on the papers we wrote. The completion of the course was celebrated with a diner at home at one of the lecturers in Brickeberg - a good way to end the course!
Friday, 11 January 2008
A tragedy
Today, it's exactly one month ago since Fuat Deniz, lecturer in Sociology, was brutally murdered in the gym at our campus. This really shook us all, especially the ones that knew him very well. He was a loved and respected friend and colleague to many. Moreover, nothing is known yet as to who could have done it or the motives. Many say political motives lay behind this brutal deed, but the police doesn't want to exclude any possiblity and works hard on the case, with the help of the National Police Service.
Only now, after some weeks of silence and time with friends and relatives at home, people have recovered somewhat. Of course, only now, after all commotion, the biggest shock arrives for Fuats closest friends and relatives. His funerial will be the 22nd of January, in Örebro.
Only now, after some weeks of silence and time with friends and relatives at home, people have recovered somewhat. Of course, only now, after all commotion, the biggest shock arrives for Fuats closest friends and relatives. His funerial will be the 22nd of January, in Örebro.
Thursday, 29 November 2007
Dissertation (part 1)
Monday 26 November 2007 was a day with an unexpected amount of snow. This resulted amongst other things in a beautiful white track and field stadium, white grass and white trees next to the small conference centre Östra Mark on university ground.This was also the first time we had to produce a text about our dissertation, describing our aim, method, questions, literature and earlier eresearch in the field. The whole steering group was present, as well as some interested PhD students from earlier "generations." We all got helpfull feedback and enough comments for working on our "sketch" the rest of the year.
A month earlier, we had been to Åkerby, close to Nora, to witness two days of networking with external lecturers and commenting on other PhD students' work. This was a good experience, since this laid the ground for our work and we learned how to receive criticism with dignity :)
The end of the first course
It's been a while, but I'll summarise the first course and the final two seminars we had in October and November 2007. The fourth seminar was interesting and exciting, as PhD student MJ presented his work on Experience Economy in Bergslagen (Avesta) and connected this to the work of the Swedish Knowledge Foundation. In the restructuring areas of Sweden, new efforts are made to focus on the value of experience industries. Film in Göteborg, Food in Hällefors and so on. Special meeting places are founded and funded with many millions of crowns! What it all comes down to is that life is all about experiences. We discussed the effects this has on planning and local creativity.
This was linked to theories and literature by Allen J. Scott (The cultural economy of cities) and Scott & Dominic Power (the production of culture).
The fifth and final seminar took place on 8 November and here we discussed each other's essays. Everyone had read one of the other texts in particular and was supposed to discuss them in general for about 20 minutes. I wrote my essay about the value of theories of urbanism in the context of Dutch migration to Swedish rural areas. Other topics were: New Urban Politics (ALF), the concept "Networks" (AT), The late-modern city (MH), Social polarisation and immigrants (ML), New urban forms (PS) and Consumption, choice and place (SL). We realise now that our little group is all about studying identity!
This was linked to theories and literature by Allen J. Scott (The cultural economy of cities) and Scott & Dominic Power (the production of culture).
The fifth and final seminar took place on 8 November and here we discussed each other's essays. Everyone had read one of the other texts in particular and was supposed to discuss them in general for about 20 minutes. I wrote my essay about the value of theories of urbanism in the context of Dutch migration to Swedish rural areas. Other topics were: New Urban Politics (ALF), the concept "Networks" (AT), The late-modern city (MH), Social polarisation and immigrants (ML), New urban forms (PS) and Consumption, choice and place (SL). We realise now that our little group is all about studying identity!
Monday, 12 November 2007
Excursion Bergslagen
On Tuesday 23 October, it was time for my first meeting with the possible research area. We (C & me) started by changing the car tyres to spike tyres. After that, and a free coffee at McDonalds to kill the time, we drove towards Nora. We passed Nora after about half an hour and arrived at Måltidens hus around 10.45 am. This was after 75 km. Only one km later, we arrived in Grythyttan “centre”, where we wanted to take a coffee. Gästgiveriet was really nice, but also expensive, so we went to Neerings.
It was really hard not to show my Dutch background there, as there were so many typically Dutch things: Haagse Hopjes, Calvé pindakaas, hagelslag, speculaas and so on. We took a coffee and a tea there and just sat wondering how this choclad and ice boutique worked. We saw both Mr and Mrs Neerings, and we were listening to the Swedish of the other employees. Two women, of which one spoke well Swedish and the other had an accent. She probably wasn’t from Sweden, but probably neither from Holland. Interesting! Two schoolgirls came to the boutique and wanted to make a film, which they would show at the “du behövs” day in week 46 in Hällefors Folkets hus.
Later on, we drove to Hällefors, only 10 km from there, and took a look at Folkets hus. We also walked around and saw kommunhuset, turistbyrån, and Polstjärnan, where placement is located. After an hour we set for Kopparberg. We passed Vildmarkskrogen on the way, and couldn’t not take a look. But they were closed, as the owners were on a holiday. To Holland? The view over the nature reserve was marvellous! We ate lunch at Bredsjö Gård, after about 105 km.
In Kopparberg, we spent an hour in the afternoon. We walked around Tingshuset and I met and spoke to an employee at Kommunhuset. Just casually, he mentioned that I had come to the right place if I wanted to talk about Dutch migrants. After a visit to gammal & antic and walking by the church , we returned to Örebro again. That was the end of the first excursion!
It was really hard not to show my Dutch background there, as there were so many typically Dutch things: Haagse Hopjes, Calvé pindakaas, hagelslag, speculaas and so on. We took a coffee and a tea there and just sat wondering how this choclad and ice boutique worked. We saw both Mr and Mrs Neerings, and we were listening to the Swedish of the other employees. Two women, of which one spoke well Swedish and the other had an accent. She probably wasn’t from Sweden, but probably neither from Holland. Interesting! Two schoolgirls came to the boutique and wanted to make a film, which they would show at the “du behövs” day in week 46 in Hällefors Folkets hus.
Later on, we drove to Hällefors, only 10 km from there, and took a look at Folkets hus. We also walked around and saw kommunhuset, turistbyrån, and Polstjärnan, where placement is located. After an hour we set for Kopparberg. We passed Vildmarkskrogen on the way, and couldn’t not take a look. But they were closed, as the owners were on a holiday. To Holland? The view over the nature reserve was marvellous! We ate lunch at Bredsjö Gård, after about 105 km.
In Kopparberg, we spent an hour in the afternoon. We walked around Tingshuset and I met and spoke to an employee at Kommunhuset. Just casually, he mentioned that I had come to the right place if I wanted to talk about Dutch migrants. After a visit to gammal & antic and walking by the church , we returned to Örebro again. That was the end of the first excursion!
Wednesday, 24 October 2007
Seminar in Eskilstuna
The first conference that I participated in as a PhD student was in Eskilstuna, at a campus of Mälardalen University. It is quite close to Örebro, about one hour by train in the direction of Stockholm. I combined the trip with a visit to Eric, whom I interviewed for my brother's website about wintersport: www.onlinewintersport.nl.
The next day, Thursday 18 October, it was time for the conference so I went o meet colleague Max at the venture: IdéLabben, at the Institute for Innovation, Design and Productdevelopment, close to the central station. The day started at 10 am, lasted until 4 pm and we heard a lot of speakers from different fields. One of the most interesting was Maths Isacsson, who has conducted research in Bergslagen for 35 years. He talked about the projects in teh region, what it meant for the regional cultural heritage and the restructuring plans. Being an industrial area in decline, the region profited from EU's Structural Funds, especially after Sweden joined this Union in 1995.
Now, as in many other deprived areas in Europe, buzz-words around which the discourse focuses are Cultural Industries and Experience Economy. He spoke about the changing image - or rather images - of Bergslagen in media, with the local inhabitants and in Sweden.
Other speakers were a journalist, businessmen, researchers from other regions such as Norrbotten and even a guest speaker from Newcastle, a city situated in an industrial restructuring area. There was even a short discussion about the arrival of Dutch families to Bergslagen and what it means for local politics when an entrepreneur from abroad wants to turn a forrestcottage into a restaurant for instance. The cottage in the forrest has been abandoned for years without anyone really taking an interest, but when some small sized enterprise wants to buy it in order to commercialise it, this can cause many protests!
There was a short movie about the history of Bergslagen and the local culture of male blue collar workers resisting education and creativity. This, together with the usual networking and a lecture by an art and image scientist about a painter that painted these stereotypical heavy industy images (Johan Ahlbäck) made that he conference was well worth visiting.
Now, off to Åkerby for the next conference!
The next day, Thursday 18 October, it was time for the conference so I went o meet colleague Max at the venture: IdéLabben, at the Institute for Innovation, Design and Productdevelopment, close to the central station. The day started at 10 am, lasted until 4 pm and we heard a lot of speakers from different fields. One of the most interesting was Maths Isacsson, who has conducted research in Bergslagen for 35 years. He talked about the projects in teh region, what it meant for the regional cultural heritage and the restructuring plans. Being an industrial area in decline, the region profited from EU's Structural Funds, especially after Sweden joined this Union in 1995.
Now, as in many other deprived areas in Europe, buzz-words around which the discourse focuses are Cultural Industries and Experience Economy. He spoke about the changing image - or rather images - of Bergslagen in media, with the local inhabitants and in Sweden.
Other speakers were a journalist, businessmen, researchers from other regions such as Norrbotten and even a guest speaker from Newcastle, a city situated in an industrial restructuring area. There was even a short discussion about the arrival of Dutch families to Bergslagen and what it means for local politics when an entrepreneur from abroad wants to turn a forrestcottage into a restaurant for instance. The cottage in the forrest has been abandoned for years without anyone really taking an interest, but when some small sized enterprise wants to buy it in order to commercialise it, this can cause many protests!
There was a short movie about the history of Bergslagen and the local culture of male blue collar workers resisting education and creativity. This, together with the usual networking and a lecture by an art and image scientist about a painter that painted these stereotypical heavy industy images (Johan Ahlbäck) made that he conference was well worth visiting.
Now, off to Åkerby for the next conference!
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