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Mattias Wahlström
Senior Lecturer
Department of Sociology and Work ScienceAbout Mattias Wahlström
MATTIAS WAHLSTRÖM is, since January 2022, Assistant Head of Department with responsibility for research and research education at the Department of Sociology and Work Science.
He defended his doctoral thesis in 2011: "The making of protest and protest policing: Negotiation, Knowledge, Space, and Narrative," which concerns contemporary political protest and the policing of protest in Sweden and Denmark. Based on qualitative analysis of interviews, observations and documents, various aspects of this area are explored, such as negotiation, provocation, spatial interaction, and organisational police change.
Between 2009 and 2013 he was part of the international research programme “Caught in the act of protest: contextualizing contention (CCC)” (see http://www.protestsurvey.eu/). Together with Abby Peterson and Magnus Wennerhag, he was part of a follow-up research project focusing on Pride parades in Europe and Mexico, subsequently co-authoring the book Pride Parades and LGBT movements (Routledge).
Mattias has been the principal investigator of the following, now finished, research projects:
- Collaboration and conflict in prevention of violent extremism in Sweden (Forte 2016-00925), with Jan Jämte (Örebro University), Magnus Wennerhag (Södertörn University), and Rune Ellefsen (University of Oslo).
- Online social media as discursive opportunity structure for attacks against refugee housing facilities (VR 2016-03515), with Hans Ekbrand (GU), Anton Törnberg (GU) and Petter Törnberg (Chalmers).
Mattias is prior co-coordinator and current board member of Research Network 25 of the European Sociological Association, as well as the local research milieu CSM-RESIST.
Current research
Mattias Wahlström is currently principal investigator for the research project
- The necessary and the possible: How social movements articulate, convey and negotiate visions of a fossil free and just future (Formas 2019-01961), with Joost de Moor (Stockholm University), Katrin Uba (Uppsala University), Magnus Wennerhag (Södertörn University) and Lotte Schack (GU).
He also participates in the research project:
- Politically motivated crime in Sweden: When, where and how? (VR 2022-05487), with Anton Törnberg (GU, principal investigator).
During 2019, Mattias also had a central role in coordination of international protest surveys directed to participants in climate protests, which, inter alia, resulted in two research reports: Protest for a Future och Protest for a Future II.
Specialist Fields Social movements, political violence, police research, social media, philosophy of social science, LGBTQ-issues and narrative analysis.
Teaching and tutoring Criminology and general sociology, with a focus on social movements, crime prevention, political violence and sociology of knowledge.
-
Alternative Futures for the Anthropocene: Climate Movement Visions in Swedish
society
Mattias Wahlström, Joost de Moor, Lotte Schack
Paper presented at the 16th European Sociological Association Conference, Porto, Portugal, 27-30 August - 2024 -
Unpacking local mechanisms behind anti-immigrant violence: From political mobilization to far-right
attacks
Måns Lundstedt, Anton Törnberg, Mattias Wahlström
Paper presented at the ECPR General Conference 2024, University College Dublin, 12 – 15 August 2024 - 2024 -
Klimatvisioner: I vilken sorts klimatvänligt samhälle vill svenskarna
leva?
Mattias Wahlström, Magnus Wennerhag, Katrin Uba
Inferno - 2024 -
RN 25 - Research Network on Social Movements: A collective always in the
making
Elena Pavan, Mattias Wahlström, Lorenzo Bosi, Emanuela Bozzini, Nicole Doerr, Brian Doherty, Alice Mattoni, Margit Mayer, Eduardo Romanos, Kateřina Vráblíková, Katrin Uba
The European Sociologist - 2024 -
Political icon and role model: Dimensions of the perceived ‘Greta effect’ among climate activists as aspects of contemporary social movement
leadership
Mattias Wahlström, Katrin Uba
Acta Sociologica - 2024 -
Unpacking local mechanisms behind anti-immigrant violence: From political mobilization to far-right
attacks
Måns Lundstedt, Anton Törnberg, Mattias Wahlström
Sociologidagarna 2024 - 2024 -
Climate change or what? Prognostic framing by Fridays for Future
protesters
Anders Svensson, Mattias Wahlström
Social Movement Studies - 2023 -
The local and the trans-local in far-right mobilizing and
violence
Mattias Wahlström
Keynote lecture at the conference "Far-Right Localism", 9-10 November 2023, Humboldt University, Berlin. - 2023 -
Local Conditions for Anti-immigrant Violence: A Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) of Asylum Housing Attacks in
Sweden
Anton Törnberg, Mattias Wahlström, M. Lundstedt, Hans Ekbrand
Terrorism and Political Violence - 2023 -
Local predictors of anti-immigrant violence in Sweden: causal pathways and their variation over two waves of
migration
Måns Lundstedt, Anton Törnberg, Mattias Wahlström
ECPR - 2023 -
Wie kollektive Gewalt erzählt wird: Die Deutung von Eskalation
zwischen strategischer Planung und spontanem
Ausbruch
Mattias Wahlström
Eskalation: G20 in Hamburg, Protest und Gewalt - 2023 -
Environmental movements and their political
context
Joost de Moor, Mattias Wahlström
The Routledge Handbook of Environmental Movements, edited by Maria Grasso and Marco Giugni - 2022 -
Online Social Media Narratives as Process and Context in Explanations of Political
Violence
Mattias Wahlström
Presentation at the workshop: Gaining Momentum Processual Perspectives in Research on Political Violence and Collective Action, 26-28 October 2022, Scuola Normale Superiore, Florence - 2022 -
Thunberg,
Greta
Katrin Uba, Mattias Wahlström
The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Social and Political Movements, Second Edition - 2022 -
Prioritising claims for social change: Grassroots decision-making in the Swedish 'Climate
Parliament'
Katrin Uba, Magnus Wennerhag, Mattias Wahlström
Paper presented at the ESA/ECPR midterm conference Critical Margins: Politicizing the Crisis, 15-17 June, Trento - 2022 -
Defining the necessary and the possible: Future imaginations in the Swedish Climate
Parliament
Joost de Moor, Mattias Wahlström
Paper presented at the ESA/ECPR midterm conference Critical Margins: Politicizing the Crisis, 15-17 June, Trento - 2022 -
Social Media Mechanisms for Right-Wing Political Violence in the 21st Century: Discursive Opportunities, Group Dynamics, and
Co-Ordination
Mattias Wahlström, Anton Törnberg
Terrorism and Political Violence - 2021 -
New kids on the block: taking stock of the recent cycle of climate
activism
Joost de Moor, Katrin Uba, Michiel De Vydt, Mattias Wahlström
Social Movement Studies - 2021 -
Dynamics of violent and dehumanizing rhetoric in far-right social
media
Mattias Wahlström, Anton Törnberg, Hans Ekbrand
New Media & Society - 2021 -
Stonewallupproret
Mattias Wahlström
Nationalencyklopedin - 2021 -
Local constructions of violent extremism: Negotiating the meaning of a contested concept in Swedish municipal and regional
authorities
Mattias Wahlström
Paper presented at the Nordic Conference on Violent Extremism, 10-12 March 2021 - 2021 -
Impacts of the Corona crisis on climate activists in Finland and
Sweden
Mattias Wahlström, Joost de Moor, Magnus Wennerhag, Tuomas Ylä-Anttila
Presented at the ECPR Joint sessions, 25-28 May 2021. - 2021 -
Protest for a future II: Composition, mobilization and motives of the participants in Fridays For Future climate protests on 20-27 September, 2019, in 19 cities around the
world.
Joost de Moor, Katrin Uba, Mattias Wahlström, Magnus Wennerhag, Michiel de Vydt
2020 -
Chatten, hetzen, töten: Radikalisierung als
Lernprozess
Mattias Wahlström
Mittelweg 36 - 2020 -
Heteronormativa maktordningar på
arbetsplatsen
Sofia Björk, Mattias Wahlström
Att arbeta för lika villkor – Ett genus- och maktperspektiv på arbete och organisation. Britt-Inger Keisu (red.) - 2020 -
Conceptualizing and exploring the ‘Greta effect’ on micro-mobilization for climate
protest
Mattias Wahlström, Katrin Uba
Social Movements Midterm conference 2020 “Democratic struggles: contention, social movements and democracy”, 7-9 October 2020 - 2020 -
Promotion of racist and anti-immigrant violence on social
media
Mattias Wahlström, Anton Törnberg, Hans Ekbrand
Research on Racism and Discrimination: Where Are We and Where Are We Heading? A Digital Conference Organized by the Swedish Research Council 15 October 2020 - 2020 -
Local conditions and national context for anti-immigrant arson attacks: the case of Sweden in the
2000s
Anton Törnberg, Mattias Wahlström, Hans Ekbrand, Måns Lundstedt
ECPR - 2020 -
Minns du Bensinupproret? Det är lätt att klicka – svårt att bygga en
rörelse
Mattias Wahlström
Helsingborgs Dagblad - 2020 -
Using narratives for strategic adaptation: lessons learned from
COP21
Mattias Wahlström, Joost de Moor
openDemocracy - 2020 -
Narrating political opportunities: explaining strategic adaptation in the climate
movement
J. de Moor, Mattias Wahlström
Theory and Society - 2019 -
Fridays for
Future
Katrin Uba, Mattias Wahlström
Nationalencyklopedin - 2019 -
Genuin oro över passiv politik bakom ungas
klimatstrejker
Per Adman, Joost de Moor, Katrin Uba, Mattias Wahlström, Magnus Wennerhag
Dagens Nyheter - 2019 -
Protest for a future: Composition, mobilization and motives of the participants in Fridays For Future climate protests on 15 March, 2019 in 13 European
cities
Mattias Wahlström, Piotr Kocyba, Michiel De Vydt, Joost de Moor
2019 -
Dynamics of violent and dehumanizing rhetoric in radical right social
media
Mattias Wahlström, Anton Törnberg, Hans Ekbrand
14th Conference of the European Sociological Association, Manchester, United Kingdom, 20 – 23 August 2019 - 2019 -
Pride Parades and LGBT Movements: Political Participation in an International Comparative
Perspective
Abby Peterson, Mattias Wahlström, Magnus Wennerhag
2018 -
‘Normalized’ Pride? Pride parade participants in six European
countries
Abby Peterson, Mattias Wahlström, Magnus Wennerhag
Sexualities - 2018 -
Medskapande pedagogik på en
introduktionskurs
Christel Backman, Sara Uhnoo, Mattias Wahlström
Scherp H.Å & Uhnoo D. (red.) Medskapande högskolepedagogik - 2018 -
”Violence approving extremism” – Establishing a Swedish social
problem
Mattias Wahlström
Prepared for presentation at the Nordic conference on violent extremism: Theory and Practice, Oslo, 28-29 November 2018. - 2018 -
“A beating is the only language they understand”: Dynamics of violent rhetoric in radical right social
media
Mattias Wahlström, Anton Törnberg, Hans Ekbrand
C-REX Nordic Conference on Violent Extremism, 29-30 November, Oslo - 2018 -
Kursintroduktion som aktivt
lärtillfälle
Christel Backman, Sara Uhnoo, Mattias Wahlström
Symposium Rum för lärande, 8-9 oktober, Västerås - 2018 -
Hur värderar studenter lärarproducerade podcasts i relation till andra
läraktiviteter?
Christel Backman, Sara Uhnoo, Mattias Wahlström
NU2018 Det akademiska lärarskapet, 9-11 oktober, Västerås - 2018 -
Lärarpoddar i
kriminologi
Christel Backman, Mattias Wahlström, Sara Uhnoo
Digitalisering av högre utbildning - 2018 -
Normer som skaver. Hbtq-personers sociala arbetsmiljö i Göteborgs
Stad
-
Violent rhetoric on social media: situational, contextual and individual
dynamics
Mattias Wahlström, Anton Törnberg
ECPR Hamburg, 22-25 August 2018 - 2018 -
Unveiling the radical right online Exploring framing and identity in an online anti-immigrant discussion
group
Anton Törnberg, Mattias Wahlström
Sociologisk Forskning - 2018 -
‘Conscience adherents’ revisited: Non-LGBT Pride Parade
participants
Mattias Wahlström, Abby Peterson, Magnus Wennerhag
Mobilization - 2018 -
Sweden 1950–2015: Contentious Politics and Social Movements between Confrontation and Conditioned
Cooperation
Abby Peterson, Håkan Thörn, Mattias Wahlström
Mikkelsen F., Kjeldstadli K., Nyzell S. (eds) Popular Struggle and Democracy in Scandinavia: 1700-Present - 2017 -
Discursive opportunities for right-wing political violence in the 21th century: a research
agenda
Mattias Wahlström, Anton Törnberg
Paper presented at the ECPR General Conference. Oslo: 6-9 September - 2017 -
Narrating Political Opportunities: Explaining Strategic Adaptation in the Climate
Movement
Joost de Moor, Mattias Wahlström
Paper presented at the ECPR General Conference. Oslo: 6-10 September - 2017 -
Governing dissent in a state of emergency: Police and protester interactions in the global space of the
COP
Mattias Wahlström, Joost de Moor
Climate Action in a Globalizing World, edited by Håkan Thörn, Carl Cassegård, Linda Soneryd and Åsa Wettergren. - 2017 -
Methods for Studying May Day Demonstrators: Sampling, Estimating Non-Response Bias and Pooling Data with General Population
Surveys
Mattias Wahlström, Magnus Wennerhag
Peterson, A. & Herbert Reiter, H. (Eds.) The Ritual of May Day in Western Europe: Past, Present and Future. - 2016 -
Why do People Demonstrate on May
Day?
Mattias Wahlström
Peterson, A. & Reiter, H. (Eds.) The Ritual of May Day in Western Europe: Past, Present and Future. - 2016 -
Pride parade mobilizing in seven European countries and
Mexico
Mattias Wahlström
Paper presenterat på Sociologidagarna, Uppsala, 10-12 Mars 2016. - 2016 -
Friends of Pride: Mobilizing Individual and Organizational Allies in Different Political and Cultural
Contexts
Mattias Wahlström, Abby Peterson
Paper presented at the conference "Proud In Europe? LGBTI Emancipation in Comparative Perspective", 4-5 August, Amsterdam, the Netherlands - 2016 -
Watershed events and changes in public order management systems: Organizational adaptation as a social movement
outcome
Mattias Wahlström
The Consequences of Social Movements. Edited by Lorenzo Bosi, Marco Giugni & Katrin Uba - 2016 -
Proud protest and parading party: The meanings that Pride parades in seven European countries have to their
participants
Mattias Wahlström
Annual conference of the American Sociological Association, August 22-25 2015 - 2015 -
Repression: The governance of domestic
dissent
Abby Peterson, Mattias Wahlström
The Oxford Handbook of Social Movements - 2015 -
European Anti-Austerity Protests: Beyond “old” and “new” social
movements?
Abby Peterson, Mattias Wahlström, Magnus Wennerhag
Acta Sociologica - 2015 -
Book review: Britta Baumgarten, Priska Daphi, and Peter Ullrich (editors). Conceptualizing Culture in Social Movement
Research.
Mattias Wahlström
Mobilization: An International Quarterly - 2015 -
Variations and continuities of motives for Climate Protest: a comparison of COP15 protesters in Copenhagen with COP19 protesters in
Warsaw
Mattias Wahlström
Paper presented at the ISA world congress of sociology, Yokohama, Japan, 13-19 July 2014 - 2014 -
Contextual factors that lead to the normalization of Pride parade participation in six European
countries
Abby Peterson, Mattias Wahlström, Magnus Wennerhag
Paper presented at ECPR General Conference, Glasgow, UK, 3-6 September 2014 - 2014 -
Alone in the crowd: Lone protesters in Western European
demonstrations
Mattias Wahlström, Magnus Wennerhag
International Sociology - 2014 -
Kontroll över det offentliga
rummet
Mattias Wahlström
Tidskriften Kurage - 2014 -
The Meanings and Motives of May Day
Marchers
Mattias Wahlström
Paper presented at the general conference of the Swedish Sociological Association, Gothenburg, 13-15 March 2014. - 2014 -
Is there New Wine in the New Bottles? Participants in European Anti-Austerity Protests
2010-2012
Abby Peterson, Mattias Wahlström, Magnus Wennerhag
Paper presented at the ECPR General Conference in Bordeaux 2013 - 2013 -
Framing “The Climate Issue”: Patterns of Participation and Prognostic Frames among Climate Summit
Protesters
Mattias Wahlström, Magnus Wennerhag, Christopher Rootes
Global Environmental Politics - 2013 -
Swedish trade unionism: A renewed social
movement?
Abby Peterson, Mattias Wahlström, Magnus Wennerhag
Economic and industrial democracy - 2012 -
May Day Demonstrations in Five European
Countries
Abby Peterson, Mattias Wahlström, Magnus Wennerhag, Camilo Christancho, José-Manuel Sabucedo
Mobilization: the international quarterly review of social movement research - 2012 -
Changes in police organization and strategy: Organizational adaptation as an outcome of social movement
action
Mattias Wahlström
Paper presented at the conference Silence in the Study of Social Movement Outcomes, 6-8 September 2012, Uppsala - 2012 -
Vem demonstrerar mot rasism? En jämförelse mellan deltagare i antirasistiska demonstrationer i Amsterdam, London och
Stockholm
Mattias Wahlström, Magnus Wennerhag
Paper presenterat på Sociologidagarna, Stockholm, 15-17 March 2012. - 2012 -
The Making of Protest and Protest Policing: Negotiation, Knowledge, Space, and
Narrative
Mattias Wahlström
2011 -
Taking Control or Losing Control? Activist Narratives of Provocation and Collective
Violence
Mattias Wahlström
Social Movement Studies - 2011 -
Climate protest and social movements: Charting and explaining variation in patterns of participation and frames among Climate Summit protestors in three
countries
Mattias Wahlström, Magnus Wennerhag, Christopher Rootes
Paper presented at the 6th ECPR General Conference, Reykjavik, 25-27 August 2011 - 2011 -
Institutional trust and motives for
protest
Mattias Wahlström
Paper presented at the ESA 10th Conference in Geneva, Thursday 8th September, 2011 - 2011 -
(Re)searching Gothenburg: essays on a changing
city
-
Göteborg utforskat: studier av en stad i
förändring
-
Trettiosju studier av en stad i
förändring
Helena Holgersson, Catharina Thörn, Håkan Thörn, Mattias Wahlström
Göteborg utforskat: studier av en stad i förändring - 2010 -
Producing spaces for representation: racist marches, counterdemonstrations, and public-order
policing
Mattias Wahlström
Environment and Planning D: Society and Space - 2010 -
Swedish Trade Unionism – a Renewed Social
Movement?
Abby Peterson, Mattias Wahlström, Magnus Wennerhag
XVII World Congress of Sociology, Göteborg, 11-17 july 2010 - 2010 -
A critical view of
Gothenburg
Helena Holgersson, Catharina Thörn, Håkan Thörn, Mattias Wahlström
(Re)searching Gothenburg: essays on a changing city - 2010 -
“The Gothenburg Events” 2001: The City as
Counter-Space
Mattias Wahlström
(Re)searching Gothenburg: Essays on a changing city - 2010 -
Göteborgshändelserna: gatan som
motståndsrum
Mattias Wahlström
Göteborg utforskat: studier av en stad i förändring - 2010 -
Interrogating protest
surveys
Abby Peterson, Magnus Wennerhag, Mattias Wahlström
ECPR General Conference, Potsdam, 10-12 September 2009 - 2009 -
Urban political protest and protest policing in Sweden and Denmark 2002 –
2008
Mattias Wahlström
CEPOL Activity 85/2009 Research Symposium “Policing major public events”, 25 – 26 June 2009 Swedish National Police Academy, Solna, Sweden - 2009 -
Medierna överdriver
brottsutvecklingen
Christel Backman, Sara Uhnoo, Mattias Wahlström
Svenska Dagbladet - 2009 -
Se sig själv från andra sidan: En sammaställning och analys av polisers intervjuer med
"motparter"
Mattias Wahlström
2008 -
Virtual Mobilisation? Linking On-line and Off-line Political Participation among Swedish Facebook Users: Courtesy and
Irritation
Nils Gustafsson, Mattias Wahlström
The XV NOPSA conference, 2008-08-05/2008-08-09, Tromsö, Norway - 2008 -
Narratives of Provocation and Violence in Connection with Political
Protest
Mattias Wahlström
Paper presented at the IIS World Congress in Budapest 2008 - 2008 -
Forestalling violence: Police knowledge of interaction with political
activists
Mattias Wahlström
Mobilization: The International Quarterly Review of Research in Social Movements, Protest, and Contentious Politics - 2007 -
Space, Antiracist Protest and Public Order Policing in Contemporary
Sweden
Mattias Wahlström
Paper presented at the 8th Conference of the European Sociological Association, Glasgow, September 6 2007 - 2007 -
Unformulable Practices? Articulating Practical Understanding in Sociological
Theory
Mattias Wahlström
Distinktion: Scandinavian Journal of Social Theory - 2006 -
Between the State and the Market: Expanding the Concept of 'Political Opportunity
Structure'
Mattias Wahlström, Abby Peterson
Acta Sociologica - 2006 -
Negotiating Political Protest in Gothenburg and
Copenhagen
Mattias Wahlström, Mikael Oskarsson
The Policing of Transnational Protest - 2006 -
Trust and Peformance: Police Communication from an Activist
Perspective
Mattias Wahlström
Policing Contentious Politics in Sweden and Denmark - 2006 -
Organizing Control: A Comparison between Organization and Protest Control by the Police in Gothenburg and
Copenhagen
Mattias Wahlström
Policing Contentious Politics in Sweden and Denmark - 2006 -
Between the State and the Market: The Political Struggle between the Animal Rights Movement and the Fur
Industry
Mattias Wahlström, Abby Peterson
Political Consumerism: Its Motivations, Power, and Conditions in the Nordic Countries and Elsewhere. Proceedings from the 2nd International Seminar on Political Consumerism, Oslo August 26-29, 2004 - 2005 -
Worlds Apart: Social Constructions of Protest and Protest
Policing
Mattias Wahlström
Paper presented at the 7th Conference of the European Sociological Association in Torún, Poland, September 11 2005 - 2005 -
Theory and Tacit
Knowledge
Mattias Wahlström
Intermediate conference of the ESA Social Theory Research Network: What is Theory For? On the Relationship Between Social Theory and Empirical Research, Paris, Frankrike, 16 - 17 september 2004 - 2004 -
How to Talk Away Violence: Communication between Police and Protesters in
Copenhagen
Mattias Wahlström
Il Dubbio - rivista transnazionale di analisi politica e sociale - 2004 -
Trust and Performances: Communication between Police and Protesters, from an Activist
Perspective
Mattias Wahlström
Paper presented at the 6th Conference of the European Sociological Association, Murcia, Spain, September 26 2003 - 2003