Mathias Ericson
About Mathias Ericson
About Mathias Ericson
Researcher with a background in the humanities (Cultural studies and Art history) and social sciences (Sociology). In 2011, I defended my thesis dissertation at the Department of Sociology, University of Gothenburg, with the dissertation Up Close. Masculinity, Intimacy and Community in Firefighters’ Work Teams. Since then I have worked with teaching and research at Gothenburg University, University of Borås, Luleå University of Technology and Karlstad University.
Research
In my research, I have worked with various studies of organizations and professions in risk and crisis management. The research approach is based in feminist theory, critical masculinity theory and ethnographic studies. My current research concerns how gender-based power asymmetries and norms affect society's ability to cope with a crisis, such as a major accident. The research project is about the norms and power relations that come into play in the work with achieving direction and coordination of society's resources. For example, it includes questions of how some agents acquire influence over the protection values that are prioritized, the networks that are mobilized and the leadership ideals that are awarded. Here, the research project contributes with knowledge about how gender-based power relations and norms will have an impact on how these networks and contacts are established and mobilized, for example, who is seen as reliable or powerful. It is an interdisciplinary research project in collaboration with Lund University of Technology at Lund University. The project is funded by the Swedish Civil Contingency Agency (MSB) 2017-2022.
In my previous research, I have explored how the concepts of risk and vulnerability are used by authorities' in their work with protection and preparedness. It started from the observations that the concepts of risk and vulnerability are gender-coded. Risk and risk taking are central to norms about masculinity, while vulnerability is central to norms about femininity. The concepts are also linked to issues of active and passive, where risk is associated with action, while vulnerability is associated with the need for help and protection of others. In other words, gender is integrated in the core concepts and thus also to how the field of protection and contingency is formed and understood. The study was based on interviews and observations, focusing on, among other things, the total defence and the responses to the refugee situation during the autumn of 2015.
Aside from these studies my research has also concerned the rescue service and the firefighter profession. After my dissertation, I have worked in several different research projects. During 2010-2014 I worked at Luleå University of Technology and Karlstad University with a research project on how educational reform within the firefighter profession changed institutionalized masculinity in the profession. In 2011, I also worked at the University of Borås with a study on collaborative processes between social services, police, rescue services, public health and the Public Prosecutor's Office. In 2014-2015 I worked with two research projects. The first focused resistance to gender equality work in organizations. The second focused how gender norms affects the rescue service work with interpreting statistics from fatal accidents, such as drowning and house fires.
Teaching
My main teaching has been in gender studies and cultural studies. I have taught on all levels, including supervising and course development. I have previously also taught in sociology, social psychology, work science and public health science. The link between knowledge / power is central to both my view of teaching and knowledge formation as well as my research and view of research processes. In response to the Covid-19 pandemic I have developed and also teach in the distance course called Critical perspectives on crisis, culture and democracy.
Collaboration, communication and network/research collaborations
In my research, I have been in constant contact with authorities and actors outside universities. It is, for example, the rescue service, the Swedish Agency for Social Protection and emergency preparedness, a network of firefighters, county administrative boards and municipalities. I have also been involved in debates around gender research, including as a member of the Swedish Gender Researchers Association. In my later research projects, I have embraced collaboration as part of the research process and worked with interactive models for material collection. This means that I gradually discuss and feedback preliminary results during the research process. To follow and participate in these forms of translations between different contexts, ie. between academic and practitioner- or activist-oriented contexts, I see as very valuable and important to work on.
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'Fight pandemics with protective masks or gender?' Emerging collective identities and anti gender movements on Twitter during the COVID-19 crisis in
Sweden
Lena Martinsson, Mathias Ericson
Feminist Media Studies - 2022 -
Total defense as a happy object: gendering mobilization of civil defense in
Sweden
Mathias Ericson, M. Svenbro, M. Wester
Critical Military Studies - 2022 -
If I tell you I will have to kill you: secrecy in public administration in a time of securitization and
militarization
Mathias Ericson, M. Wester
Critical Studies on Security - 2022 -
Vad var det vi sa? Affekt, krisberedskap och hopp om
krisen
Mathias Ericson
Kulturella perspektiv - Svensk etnologisk tidsskrift - 2021 -
‘It is men who die and all that, so what is new?’ Male vulnerability, institutionalised masculinity and the present absence of a problem in Swedish rescue service accident
prevention
Mathias Ericson
NORMA - 2021 -
Gendering risk and vulnerability: Tensions and conflicting views in crisis preparedness work in
Sweden
Mathias Ericson
Gender Work and Organization - 2020 -
Samverkan kring flyktingsituationen: en kris för
vem?
Mathias Ericson, Misse Wester
Genus, risk och kris / Jennifer Hobbins, Erna Danielsson, Angelika Sjöstedt (red.). - 2020 -
Maskulinitetsperspektiv på identifiering av
riskområden
Mathias Ericson
Genus, risk och kris / Jennifer Hobbins, Erna Danielsson, Angelika Sjöstedt (red.). - 2020 -
Dags att skära halsen av
genusforskning?
Mathias Ericson
Tidskrift för Genusvetenskap - 2019 -
Have we been too naive? Masculinity constructions in times of securitization and narratives of haunting
threats
Mathias Ericson
Paper presented at the Society for Risk Analyses conference SRA-E 2018: Risk & Uncertainty – From Critical Thinking to Practical Impact, Östersund, Sweden, 20 June 2018 - 2018 -
"Sweden Has Been Naive": Nationalism, Protectionism and Securitisation in Response to the Refugee Crisis of
2015
Mathias Ericson
Social Inclusion - 2018 -
Genus, risk och sårbarhet: en populärvetenskaplig sammanfattning av resultat från ett postdoktoralt
forskningsprojekt
Mathias Ericson
2018 -
Masculinity, protection and the racialised politics of public
spaces
Mathias Ericson
Paper presented at the conference Crime and fear in public places - a conference on the individual’s right to safe public places in Stockholm, Sweden, 18 October 2018 - 2018 -
Vi genusforskare hotas till tystnad. Debattörerna: Antidemokratiska rörelser attackerar oss
systematiskt
Paulina de los Reyes, Mathias Ericson, Charlotte Holgersson, Lena Martinsson, Diana Mulinari
Aftonbladet - 2017 -
Krisberedskapspusslet - Meningsskapande och strategier i arbetet med risk- och
sårbarhetsanalyser
Mathias Ericson
Arbetsmarknad & Arbetsliv - 2017 -
I och med motstånd. Förändringsaktörers handlingsutrymme och strategier i jämställdhets- och
mångfaldsarbete
Sophie Linghag, Mathias Ericson, Eva Amundsdotter, Ulrika Jansson
Tidskrift för Genusvetenskap - 2016 -
Firefighters, technology, masculinity in the micro-management of disasters in operational service - Examples from
Sweden
Mathias Ericson, Ulf Mellström
Men, Masculinities and Disaster / edited by Elaine Enarson and Bob Pease - 2016 -
Masculinity, sexualisation and the proactive turn in the firefighter
profession
Mathias Ericson
Masculinities, gender equality and crisis management / edited by Mathias Ericson and Ulf Mellström. - 2016 -
Introduction: masculinities, gender equality, crisis management and the rescue services: contested terrains and
challenges
Ulf Mellström, Mathias Ericson, Anne-Charlott Callerstig, Katherine Harrison, Kristina Lindholm, Jennie Olofsson
Masculinities, gender equality and crisis management / edited by Mathias Ericson and Ulf Mellström - 2016 -
Masculinities, gender equality and crisis
management
Mathias Ericson, Ulf Mellström
2016 -
Motstånd och strategier i
jämställdhetsarbete
Eva Amundsdotter, Mathias Ericson, Ulrika Jansson, Sophie Linghag
2015 -
Masculinity at
risk
Ulf Mellström, Mathias Ericson
NORMA: International Journal for Masculinity Studies - 2014 -
Firefighters as exceptional: heroism, nationalism and masculinity in times of suburban riots and anti-racist
protests
Mathias Ericson
NORMA - International Journal for Masculinity Studies - 2014 -
“Stuprör” och “öppna kanaler” - Metaforer i talet om och för
samverkan
Kristina Bartley, Mathias Ericson
Arbetsmarknad & Arbetsliv - 2014 -
Samverkan för hållbar stadsutveckling och tvärsektoriell
samsyn
Kristina Bartley, Mathias Ericson
2014 -
Nära inpå: Maskulinitet, intimitet och gemenskap i brandmäns
arbetslag
Mathias Ericson
2011 -
När moderna poliser bygger förtroende – att balansera mellan kontinuitet i verksamheten och förändring på
fältet
Bertil Rolandsson, Mathias Ericson
Vetenskap för Profession - 2010 -
Lightening desire while fighting fire: Reproduction and possible challenges of the inherent heterosexism of gender equality in the Swedish
fireservice
Mathias Ericson
Heterofactory Conference: Challenging normativity in school and working life. International Conference in Norrkoping, Sweden, 13-15 June 2006 - 2006 -
Inflaming Gender. Struggling for Respectable Heteronormativities in the Swedish Fire
service
Mathias Ericson
Heteronormativity – a Fruitful Concept? International Conference in Trondheim, Norway. 2-4 June 2005 - 2005 -
Brandman och man: Om aktualisering av kön i
brandmannayrket
Mathias Ericson
2004